To try and put this to rest I personally think not bieng biased because I love each and everyone of these players and respect them very much, I'd still have to say Gretzky is the best of all time.
First off take Lemieux. I hate the argument that the "Penguins never had the teams the Oilers did." Okay but then how do you explain this: After their two Cup wins they had 119 points in the NHL by far the best. They had four guys with 100 or more points and I believe Jagr had 99 or so as well. Larry Murphy and Tom Barasso were both 2nd team all-stars. 4 of the 12 players on the post season all-star teams were Penguins. The two Cup wins the Pens had Mario was injured in the regular season both times so it was hard to judge how many points they could have had. But that '93 Pens team was pretty much as good as any Oilers teams in the 80s, almost. They scored 367 goals that year with Mario missing 24 games.The Oilers of those days got 446 maximum, so its pretty close. So this crap of Mario never playing on a good team should go to rest.
And somehting people forget for reasons that I can never remember are the fact that Gretzky had more assists in a season than anyone had points three times in his career. And one other time it was tied. Okay cue up your "well it was the 80s excuse". Fine then, so why didnt Dionne, Statsny, Trottier and Bossy ever put up near 100 points? I mean if it was so easy? In fact even in '91 Gretzky had 122 assists to Hull's 131 points. Even then he was dominating the next player who wasnt Mario. Four Cups, ten Art Ross Trophies, two Conn Smythe trophies, 8 Hart trophies and 15 post season all-stars. if that isnt the best than what is?
I'll give Gretzky the edge over Mario. Mario was dominant too, especially in times like '93, '89, '96 and even in the playoffs in '91 that was quite a show. But he's a slight notch below Wayne. but hey let just thank God we saw both of these stellar talents do what they do best/