Canadiens1958
Registered User
Seriously
Lets try Bobby Orr +124 and Larry Robinson +120. So Gretzky was basically trading goals. Orr and Robinson were dominating.
As an outside perspective, I really don't think you're giving Gretzky enough credit saying something like this. Gretzky didn't need to be a lock-down defensive player, because he and his team outscored the opposition by absurd amounts when he was on the ice. In 84-85 he had a +/- of +28 (which I think is the highest since it's been tracked?); I'm pretty sure the Oilers weren't worried about his so-called "one-dimensional" play then. I see a problem with thinking about hockey as purely offensive+defensive, black and white, 50/50. A player's overall impact is what matters most. I don't know how people feel about advanced stats in this section of the forums, but I'm sure if they were tracked in Gretzky's time that he would have had incredible possession numbers, corsi, you name it. Any sort of defensive shortcomings Gretzky might have had didn't matter because he had the puck all the time and his team was better with him on the ice than with any other player there was.
Lets try Bobby Orr +124 and Larry Robinson +120. So Gretzky was basically trading goals. Orr and Robinson were dominating.