Is Wayne Gretzky Getting Underrated on This Board?

[EdmFlyersfan]

Yup, that's the one. You know, where Mario was MVP and Gretzky was quoted as saying Mario is the best player he's ever seen.

You really don't know Gretzky at all do you, hahaha

Read his comments on Kariya, Forsberg, Lindros, Robitaille, etc, etc...if you went by his comments Gretzky would put himself out of the top 100 players to ever play the game...the man was humble, not trashy like Mario who disrespected the NHL on numerous occasions.

 

[Paxon]

Chain smoker gets cancer,film at 11.

He didn't have lung cancer, genius

 

[Coastal Kev]

I saw Kris Kontos score 9 goals in a 11 playoff games once also...longevity vs excuses; also Mario was a big loser he attacked a referee cause he couldn't handle the game anymore.

So Jelly... it's oozing

 

[authentic]

You really don't know Gretzky at all do you, hahaha

Read his comments on Kariya, Forsberg, Lindros, Robitaille, etc, etc...if you went by his comments Gretzky would put himself out of the top 100 players to ever play the game...the man was humble, not trashy like Mario who disrespected the NHL on numerous occasions.

It's not really crazy to think that Lemieux was the best player then though, especially considering he actually proved it for the rest of their careers beyond that tournament. I have the Canada Cup DVD and watched it more than a few times, Lemieux was the best player IMO.

 

[leaffaninvancouver]

So Jelly... it's oozing

The quality of posts have really gone downhill, is this a forum to discuss hockey or an after school daycare.

 

[Mbraunm]

The quality of posts have really gone downhill, is this a forum to discuss hockey or an after school daycare.

True. Based on the comments on this thread I think it is safe to say that those old enough to have watched Gretzky do not underrate him. Those who were not able to watch him, feel he could not dominate the league nowadays above players such as Crosby, Kucherov, Ovechkin, Gaudreau, etc.

 

[Amazinmets73]

He is GREATLY underrated because what people want to do out of pride is talk about what he would be able to do in the NHL today when what they should be doing is look at how much better he was than his competition in his time than the better players are by their competition today.

Let's take a look at the 1985-86 season

Wayne Gretzky 215 points
Mario Lemieux 141 points (scored 65.5% the number of points as Wayne.)
Paul Coffey 138 points
Jari Kurri 131 points
Mike Bossy 123 points
Peter Stastny 122 points
Denis Savard 116 points
Mats Näslund points
Dale Hawerchuk 105 points
Neal Broten 105 points (scored 48.8% the number of points as Wayne.)

Now let's take Crosby. 2006-07 has been his best season so far.

Sidney Crosby 120 points
Joe Thornton 114 points (95% of the points Crosby scored that year)
Vincent Lecavalier 108 points
Dany Heatley 105 points
Martin St. Louis 102 points
Marian Hossa 100 points
Joe Sakic 100 points
JaromÃr Jágr 96 points
Marc Savard 96 points
Daniel Briere 95 points (79.1% of the points Crosby scored that year)

Heatley, Savard and Briere don't make the HHOF. Lecavier might have to wait a while but he'll probably get in.

So in that awesome season Wayne was playing in he was FAR MORE DOMINANT.

This is what people don't want to look at.

If you put 1986 Wayne into the NHL today he would be playing in the AHL. He wasn't fast or strong enough. On the other hand if Wayne was born in 1990 and had gone through the same training as all of the kids born in 1990 I think it's pretty safe to assume that he would be the point leader today as he would only be 27 years old.

But people don't want to look at things that way, either.

This has to be the most absurd post ITT. To say a consistent 200+ scorer would be an AHL caliber player....

 

[BraveCanadian]

Never won the cup though, did he?

So? He beat the "HOF-loaded Oilers" which, you know, ruins your team argument.

Only when on the HOF-loaded Oilers did he win the cup.

Well, it does kind of take a team effort to win a team award, I suppose.

And lets not even get to the league blatantly protecting him on the ice.

Utter nonsense that has been disproven 100000000000000 times.

Yup, that's the one. You know, where Mario was MVP and Gretzky was quoted as saying Mario is the best player he's ever seen.

The list of players who aren't the best Wayne Gretzky has ever seen is probably shorter than the ones who are...

 

[jw2]

This thread should be 4 or 5 posts, max.

To go 35 pages shows he's underrated.

 

[jw2]

This has to be the most absurd post ITT. To say a consistent 200+ scorer would be an AHL caliber player....

I dont think you read his post.

 

[Mbraunm]

He is vastly underrated here!
Imagine a player who wins the Hart in his rookie season? Imagine a player who is also so talented that he ties for the league lead in points in his rookie season? Imagine a player who, in his second season, smashes the all time record for points in a season (164) while the second best player on his team only gets 75 points (Kurri)? Of course, I could go on and on but don’t have time.

The obvious fact is that a player with such mind bending talent possesses skills that no one ever possessed before or since:the ability to know where all 10 players are simultaneously while anticipating farther ahead in time than anyone before or since while processing plays and systems faster than any mind has before or since.

I think we can all agree that these skills would allow such a player to dominate an era! Why? Because the power of the human mind, when fully harnessed, will consistently prove superior to physical tools such as speed, size and strength.

 

[thadd]

This has to be the most absurd post ITT. To say a consistent 200+ scorer would be an AHL caliber player....

I've seen the game change a lot. I can still barely remember watching our 2nd cup, but I have seen this game change a few times over. I doubt the great one's athleticism would be compatible in this age.

If you disagree that's fine, but you don't need act like we're on 4chan just because I've got a different opinion than you.

 

[overg]

I think we can all agree that these skills would allow such a player to dominate an era! Why? Because the power of the human mind, when fully harnessed, will consistently prove superior to physical tools such as speed, size and strength.

The only thing I'd add is that Gretzky was in fact, insanely physically skilled. He wasn't the fastest, biggest, or strongest, but the physical skills it took for him to thread the passes he made, and score the goals he scored, was as good as anyone in the history of the game.

Only pointing this out because some (not you) seem to think Gretzky was 100% the result of his brain. His brain was indeed miles beyond anyone else we've ever seen, but he still needed the physical tools to actually convert the plays his brain was telling him to make. And when you look at how small the margin for error was on a lot of his passes and shots, you realize just how great, physically, he was.

 

[Maurice of Orange]

It’s hard to believe this April (2019) will be 20 years since Wayne’s last game.

As more time goes by the further his greatness gets away from us in a sense, I’m glad to got to see the great one play.

 

[Lomez]

But, what about all of 99's secondary assists?

 

[authentic]

I've seen the game change a lot. I can still barely remember watching our 2nd cup, but I have seen this game change a few times over. I doubt the great one's athleticism would be compatible in this age.

If you disagree that's fine, but you don't need act like we're on 4chan just because I've got a different opinion than you.

Your opinion is most likely correct the main thing to consider is that people would just rather not believe it.

 

[Fallschirmyager]

I think the bigger problem here isn't that people don't accept Gretzky as the Great One and his legacy as the greatest ever. It's not really difficult to find his name in the NHL record books. I see the bigger problem as being the people from the older era accepting the game as a whole is different and the competition level is far superior than it's ever been. Those two are not exclusive of each other. You can believe both.

 

[ALLCAPSALLTHETIME]

But, what about all of 99's secondary assists?

Probably has around 1,000 of them. Even without them he is still the top point scorer of all time or very, very close.

 

[DR P00P]

Kucherov is modern Gretzky

 

[authentic]

Probably has around 1,000 of them. Even without them he is still the top point scorer of all time or very, very close.

Over 70 percent of his assists were primary.

 

[ALLCAPSALLTHETIME]

Over 70 percent of his assists were primary.

Wow! I figured he was roughly 50/50.

So, he has more primary assists than anyone else has overall assists.

Gretzky was truly amazing.

 

[Mario le Magnifique]

The goalies during that era were so bad, it's hard to take all of these records seriously anymore, the game has changed so much.

 

[Hockeypete49]

Are people just too young to understand how great he was? He scored over 700 more points than any other player in the 1980's. So the argument about it being so easy to score in the 80's does not quite work for me.

More assists than any player ever has total points. How can that not impress you?

No player ever has statistically dominated a sport like Gretzky has,

For me he is in the top four to play the game. Howe, Orr, Super Mario and the Great One. And that is no knock on him at all.

 

[FDBluth]

I was watching a Gretzky highlight video on youtube and someone commented that Gretzky plays hockey how Messi plays soccer. I totally hadn't thought of that before but it's actually so right.

 

[Samzilla]

I was watching a Gretzky highlight video on youtube and someone commented that Gretzky plays hockey how Messi plays soccer. I totally hadn't thought of that before but it's actually so right.

You mean Messi plays soccer the way Gretzky plays hockey. ;-)