Lafleur at peak was a tier above Yzerman/Malkin/Matthews.
Ovechkins claim isn't so much his 2013-2020 Rocket run, but his 2007-2010 run.
3x leading the league in PPG
3x Pearson
2x Hart
Point finishes of 1, 2, 2
That 3 season peak is a clear step above Matthews. And is by far the biggest part of Ovechkins resume.
Yeah, this revisionist history of when Ovechkin was considered generational is so strange to me. I keep seeing people parrot that his run of Rockets and flirting with Gretzky’s record is when it happened, but no, it was clearly over the course of his first 5 seasons when Ovechkin came storming out of the gates and won the Calder over Crosby while outscoring and outpointing him in their rookie campaign to make anyone without an agenda pause for a moment.
Then Crosby hit 120 and swept the major awards while Ovechkin took a slight step back before going on one of the greatest 3 year runs over the past 40 years when he (I’m going to slightly expand on your info):
Won 2 Harts and finished a close second to Sedin in 2009-2010.
Won 1 Art Ross and finished second twice: to Malkin by 3 points in 3 less games and to Sedin with 3 less points in 10 less games.
Won 3 Pearsons.
Won 2 Rockets and was runner up to Crosby and Stamkos by 1 goal in 9 and 10 games less played respectively.
Led the league in each year in a host of stats like EV goals, Point Shares, etc
Mere goals and points away from an outright sweep of the Hart, Pearson, Ross, and Rocket for three straight years. I wish we saw it happen and I hope to see it happen by someone again.