What is Plus/Minus?
The number of goals your team scores minus the goals they allow while you're on the ice.
What this tells us
When this player is on the ice, does his team outscore the opponent or get outscored? A +5 means his team scored 5 more goals than they gave up during his ice time; a -3 means they were outscored by 3. It's the simplest way to see if a player's presence correlates with his team winning the possession battle on the scoreboard.
Limitations
Plus/minus is heavily influenced by score effects — teams that are already winning play a different style than teams that are losing, and star players spend more time on the ice when their team is ahead. It also doesn't separate quality of linemates or strength of competition. A player could have a great +/− simply because he plays alongside two other stars, or a poor one because he draws tough matchups. That's why we also show metrics like Corsi and xG, which measure shot quality independent of the scoreboard.
Formula[show]
Goals For (while player on ice) − Goals Against (while player on ice)Example
A star forward on a winning team might finish the season at +25; a depth player on a struggling team might be −18. The difference reflects both individual performance and team success — which is why plus/minus works best as one data point among many, not as a standalone judgment.