One of the great sport debates is what "unbreakable records" will be broken. Many thought Babe Ruth's 714 home runs were out of reach. And then we saw Hank Aaron and Barry Bonds blast past it. Dan Marino set the standard for what a quarterback can do with 420 touchdowns in 1999. Since then, he has passed six times. Just recently, we saw Alex Ovechkin break Wayne Gretzky's record of 894 goals. However, his point total is still safe by 1,200 points from his nearest competitors.
Records are made to be broken, and we applaud when it happens. Some records will never be broken due to the way the game is played now and how differently players are treated now. The high-scoring days of the 1980s are not happening anymore. The days of Gretzky and Mario Lemieux scoring 200+ in a season ain't happening.
Those aren't the only NHL records that won't be topped. You may be surprised to learn that the Flyers hold some records of their own.
If you go to Hockey Reference's website, you can search for a lot of player and team stats. Everything from the most minute detail of a player who appeared in five total games to team records. It's fun to look at career stats and see how modern players stack up against the legends.
Click on the "Single Season Record Holders for Penalty Minutes". At the very top of the list is Philly's own Dave Schultz with 472 minutes in 1974-75. To put that in comparison, that is more than the NY Islanders (459) and Golden Knights (463) this past season. This year's penalty minutes leader was Boston's Nikita Zadorov with 145 minutes. That is a far cry from Schultz's record. Schultz also holds the number five spot on the list with 405 minutes in 1977-78
Schultz would lead the NHL in penalty minutes four times. Overall, he amassed 2,292 penalty minutes, good for 36th. However, when you consider that he had a nine-year career with just 535 total games, those numbers become greatly amplified. Yes, he is 1,700 minutes away from all-time leader Tiger Williams and 700 away from current Flyer head coach Rick Tocchet for 10th all-time; those are still impressive numbers.
And Schultz wasn't the only one in the 1970s to be on the list. Andre Dupont joined the top 10 for five years running. Gary Dornhoeffer made it twice. Don Saleski and Paul Holmgren each made the list twice. As a whole, the 1974-75 Flyers team had 1,967 penalty minutes, with Schultz taking 24% of those.
Interestingly enough, it was the Flyers of the early 1980s that had the most penalty minutes as a team. The Bully Era teams come in 8th and 9th all-time. Rules changed that added more penalties to the game. Fighting rules became more strictly enforced and penalized.
The game has changed. The brazen physicality of the 1970s when the Bullies played and the Enforcer Era of the mid-80s to early 2000s is also over. Still, Schultz's record of 472 minutes will never be challenged. The last player to top 200 minutes was Michael Haley in 2017-18 (212), and the last to top 300 minutes was Zenon Konopka with 307 minutes in 2010-11. It's safe to say, Schultz's record is safe.