How many points would Wayne Gretzky and/or Mario Lemieux score in today's NHL?

SCampo98

Registered User
Dec 24, 2015
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Sherbrooke, QC
I haven't ready any of the posts in this thread yet so I'm not sure if any people agree, but I feel pretty confident that Lemieux would outscore Gretzky in today's NHL. I think the size and skill of Lemieux would translate better to today's NHL than Gretzky's skill and HIQ. I'm not saying Gretzky wouldn't;t get any points, I'm just saying that he will have a rougher time now because of his size while Lemieux will have no problem matching up with the larger players in the NHL.
 

666

Registered User
Jun 27, 2005
2,982
739
Wouldn't the distribution of scorers be similar for each season? Couldn't we just the calculate number of standard deviations from the mean for each player and compare seasons that way?

Anyway I used Gretzky's 212 point season and this season. I eliminated players that played less than 20 games, calculated points per game relative to the mean and number of standard deviations from the mean and got that Gretzky was 5.99 standard deviations from the mean and McDavid was 3.66 so it works out to 144 points for Gretzky last year or 148 points for McDavid in 1982.
 
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McGuillicuddy

Registered User
Sep 6, 2005
1,296
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I haven't ready any of the posts in this thread yet so I'm not sure if any people agree, but I feel pretty confident that Lemieux would outscore Gretzky in today's NHL. I think the size and skill of Lemieux would translate better to today's NHL than Gretzky's skill and HIQ. I'm not saying Gretzky wouldn't;t get any points, I'm just saying that he will have a rougher time now because of his size while Lemieux will have no problem matching up with the larger players in the NHL.

Gretzky is about a half inch shorter than Connor McDavid, and taller than Sidney Crosby and Patrick Kane. Those guys seem to be doing okay.

Size isn't buying much in today's NHL. Which is how it should be IMO.
 

MXD

Original #4
Oct 27, 2005
50,672
16,395
Gretzky is about a half inch shorter than Connor McDavid, and taller than Sidney Crosby and Patrick Kane. Those guys seem to be doing okay.

Size isn't buying much in today's NHL. Which is how it should be IMO.

Crosby is also signficantly thicker though.
However, one would think that, if Greztky started his pro career 25 years later, he'd hit the gym, just like everyone else.
 

threetimer*

Registered User
Aug 1, 2016
433
10
...one would think that, if Greztky started his pro career 25 years later, he'd hit the gym, just like everyone else.

Right. So it's totally unclear what sort of player he would have become and to what extent his eighties numbers indicate how he would fare today.

That's why the usual number acrobatics are completely useless, although funny to look at.
 

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