Will Paul Coffey's Record Ever Be Broken?

Published on May 14th, 2024 4:13 pm EST
Written By: Dave Manuel


Two defensemen - Paul Coffey and Bobby Orr - have scored 40 or more goals in a single season.

Bobby Orr scored 46 goals in 1975.

Paul Coffey first broke the 40 goal mark in 1984, and then shattered the record for most goals by a defenseman in a single season when he scored 48 goals in 1986.

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The 1985-86 season was a strange one for the Edmonton Oilers.

The team was coming off of back-to-back Stanley Cup championships, and appeared to be steamrolling towards a third title in a row.

The team finished the regular season with a record of 56-17-7, and Wayne Gretzky had just set another scoring record with 215 points.

Four Oilers - Gretzky, Coffey, Kurri and Anderson - would finish the season with more than 100 points.

Despite all of that, the Oilers lost to the Calgary Flames in the second round of the playoffs.

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Paul Coffey's statistics were particularly eye-popping, as the 24 year-old defenseman finished the regular season with 48 goals and 90 assists.

The Oilers powerplay was an unstoppable force, led by Gretzky, Coffey, Kurri, Anderson and Mark Messier.

Coffey was more than willing to join the rush, as he was one of the fastest skaters in the league and could easily get back on defense.

Coffey was also a fixture on the Oilers powerplay, and managed to score 25 goals while the Oilers had the man advantage.

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In the 2023-24 season, the top scoring defenseman in the league scored 23 goals - less than half of Coffey's total from 1985-86.

All of this leads to the question - will anybody ever top Coffey's mark of 48 goals in a single season by a defenseman, or is this an unbreakable record?