TSN says McDavid is potentially better than Gretzky

[Tuggy]

Your point while right is presented to make Gretzky look better than he was

Jagr is a fringe top 10 player all time. Comparison with him of course looks bad to the GOAT

Gretzky has 1 rival and that was Lemieux

Lemieux is maybe <5% worse as a player than Gretzky was. Just had horrible injury luck.

Mcdavid is probably going to end #3 all time and be <10% worse than Gretzky. He has a chance to be in same tier as Lemieux if he keeps this up.

Mcdavid right now is more dominant at his sport than Lebron James was before 2012 when he got his first ring

6 rosses, 5 lindsay, 4 harts he will have after 9 years (assuming he wns this season all 3 which hes on track for)

Lebron got ring #1 in year 9 and then added 3 more along the way. He is in a 1A/1B situation with Jordan for GOAT of NBA with opinions being close

Mcdavid if he adds 3-4 more of these type years and gets 2-3 cups has a legitmate GOAT argument over Gretzky

The name Jagr doesn't matter. It's just he is #2 on the list to compare the sheer statistical dominance Gretzky has over everyone who has ever played the game.

I still don't think people truly grasp the numbers.

Nothing in professional sports compares.

 

[MikeyMike01]

Its the moments that do it for me. Those bring the memories that transcend statistics. One of the below images feels a bit different!

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This was pretty special

 

[jaywills1020]

a) Why is this in the polls section?

b) He's not.

Yes, in a vacuum McDavid is likely the most talented hockey player to ever live, but there needs to be some context and relativism when comparing athletes across eras.

Gretzky is one of the most statistically dominate athletes ever, in any sport. He might be a top 10 athlete ever, in the convo with Ali, Woods, Messi, Jordan, and so on. He's on that level.

He “might” be a top 10 athlete??? His dominance in hockey blows any other athlete in any other sport out of the water.

 

[HFpapi]

He “might” be a top 10 athlete??? His dominance in hockey blows any other athlete in any other sport out of the water.

There's nothing controversial about that phrasing. There's a lot of amazing athletes across a lot of sports. Having Wayne top 10 is no disrespect.

 

[umma gumma]

At the end of the day, if we could teleport McDavid back to when Gretzky was playing, for one season, he would probably put up like 15-20 points per game and thats not being sarcastic. Its simply that much better now. People just have to accept this

Hold on, if he's teleporting he's not taking his skates, composite sticks and the rest of his equipment with him. He has to use what everyone else does. Not the slam dunk you think it is. Even Lance Stroll would kick ass in his Aston Martin against the likes of Fangio and, Clark, and Stewart in their machinery. Time travel isn't a thing, it prooves nothing, and is like the most useless fictional argument to make.

 

[Frankie Blueberries]

Bro, you don’t know what you’re talking about

Carl Lewis ran a 9.92 in 1988 the current 100m record is over a decade old and is only 9.58 now

Huge strides have been made in human achievement from the 80’s until today? Ya I call bullshit on that

They’ve been shaving the 100m record by literally thousands of a second for 40 years

Shaving 0.34 seconds in the 100m is a relatively huge amount. The fact that the record was broken in the last decade proved my point. You do not know what you are talking about.

 

[Overrated]

The name Jagr doesn't matter. It's just he is #2 on the list to compare the sheer statistical dominance Gretzky has over everyone who has ever played the game.

I still don't think people truly grasp the numbers.

Nothing in professional sports compares.

Gretzky was not only a super prodigy but also played in a very high scoring era his entire career. Jagr's career includes several lockouts and some of the most low scoring eras in history not to mention 3 years in Russia. Those 5 seasons could amount to extra 350 points. If Jagr were born in 1961 and played until 45 in the NHL he would likely outscore Gretzky.

Out of the 50 players who scored the most points in history 24 of them were born in the 1960s and 18 in the first half of the 1960s.

NHL All-Time Points Leaders

NHL players who hold the all-time record for the most points in NHL. All-time point leaders for NHL players.

www.quanthockey.com

These are very important facts to note.

 

[EdJovanovski]

 

[the valiant effort]

“Paul Byron sweeps the ‘80s with 10th consecutive Art Ross”

 

[Strangle]

At the end of the day, if we could teleport McDavid back to when Gretzky was playing, for one season, he would probably put up like 15-20 points per game and thats not being sarcastic. Its simply that much better now. People just have to accept this

Or his speed would be neutralized by two players water skiing behind him as he tried to cross the blue line while a player like John Kordic took his f***ing head off

He might be out of the league in less than a year

 

[Overrated]

Shaving 0.34 seconds in the 100m is a relatively huge amount. The fact that the record was broken in the last decade proved my point. You do not know what you are talking about.

Already proven it was shoe technology. Why repeating the same points?

 

[SillyRabbit]

a) Why is this in the polls section?

b) He's not.

Yes, in a vacuum McDavid is likely the most talented hockey player to ever live, but there needs to be some context and relativism when comparing athletes across eras.

Gretzky is one of the most statistically dominate athletes ever, in any sport. He might be a top 10 athlete ever, in the convo with Ali, Woods, Messi, Jordan, and so on. He's on that level.

To further elaborate on this, if we declare McDavid "better than Gretzky" just because he's more talented (ALL players today are more talented than players in the past, that's how evolution/progression works in society), then we would also have to state that "Sam Reinhart is better than Mike Bossy."

 

[the valiant effort]

“Vanecek gets nod over Hasek for Czechs in Olympic opener in Milan”

 

[SillyRabbit]

Idk I remember laughing at people saying this about LeBron and Jordan but now I think it's pretty clear LeBron is better than Jordan. McDavid would have have a ridiculous 2nd half of his career though like LeBron if he wanted to close the gap, don't see it happening.

What a weird place to try to push an inaccurate and untrue narrative.

 

[Strangle]

Shaving 0.34 seconds in the 100m is a relatively huge amount. The fact that the record was broken in the last decade proved my point. You do not know what you are talking about.

It’s relatively a ‘huge’ number because human beings have not actually improved as much as you’re claiming they have

You have to say ‘relatively’ because we are talking about minute differences, almost unnoticeable margins of improvement over 40 years

What Gretzky did was turn the entire sport on its head and everyone has been playing catchup for the last 40 years and no one at all can get anywhere close, except lemieux

 

[Overrated]

To further elaborate on this, if we declare McDavid "better than Gretzky" just because he's more talented (ALL players today are more talented than players in the past, that's how evolution/progression works in society), then we would also have to state that "Sam Reinhart is better than Mike Bossy."

And that Filip Forsberg is better than Peter Forsberg.

 

[Strangle]

Jordan would embarass lebron

Idk I remember laughing at people saying this about LeBron and Jordan but now I think it's pretty clear LeBron is better than Jordan. McDavid would have have a ridiculous 2nd half of his career though like LeBron if he wanted to close the gap, don't see it happen

Jordan would embarass Lebron

 

[CrazyDuck4u]

Is this even up for debate? Lmaoo Of course he is.. There are 50 plus players today in the NHL thats better than Gretzky was. Gretzky was great in his time... In a time when goalies were not that great.. When scoring was off the charts.. Yes there was hooking and grabing and all.. But Mcdavid is truly a one in a million player...

 

[The Gr8 Dane]

Or his speed would be neutralized by two players water skiing behind him as he tried to cross the blue line while a player like John Kordic took his f***ing head off

He might be out of the league in less than a year

No need for words , just watch this , ridiculous


Guys like McDavid and Crosby would have overcame it of course like all historically great players , but it can't be stated enough just how egregious things were

 

[Strangle]

Already proven it was shoe technology. Why repeating the same points?

Probably more than just shoes, I bet, but lighter weight everything, aerodynamic clothing and lighter materials all around

 

[Overrated]

Probably more than just shoes, I bet, but lighter weight everything, aerodynamic clothing and lighter materials all around

I am not even denying Bolt being the GOAT of sprinting but the difference is way more subtle and yes you're right it's the technology of everything the guy in the video specifically mentioned the surface the sprinters run on.

 

[Strangle]

No need for words , just watch this , ridiculous

Exactly, McDavid wouldn’t be able to use his biggest weapon in the 80’s NHL

He would have to adapt his entire game

However, Wayne would absolutely shred this no hit, no hook, no red line league

Wayne would use everyone else’s skill on the ice to his advantage and be scoring 200 points in this league as well

 

[Overrated]

No need for words , just watch this , ridiculous


Guys like McDavid and Crosby would have overcame it of course like all historically great players , but it can't be stated enough just how egregious things were

Lemieux would do better in today's era.

 

[Knave]

Gretzky came into a league that was rapidly expanding in his childhood, continued to expand in his adulthood.

The last 20 years the NHL has added Vegas and Seattle. Going from 30 teams to 32 teams.
From 1967-1979 the league added 16 teams going from 6 to 21 (lost a team to a merger).

Lets just keep that in mind.

That rapid expansion would lead to a greater variance in points among players in most seasons. And the opposite is true now - there has barely been any expansion in recent decades so there is less variance between players making achievements more impressive.

 

[Frankie Blueberries]

It’s relatively a ‘huge’ number because human beings have not actually improved as much as you’re claiming they have

You have to say ‘relatively’ because we are talking about minute differences, almost unnoticeable margins of improvement over 40 years

What Gretzky did was turn the entire sport on its head and everyone has been playing catchup for the last 40 years and no one at all can get anywhere close, except lemieux

I just said we continue to improve. I don’t understand your response saying we haven’t improved as much as I say we have? I haven’t quantified the improvement, just the principle that we continue to improve. Which we do.

Yes, I used the word “relatively” on purpose. The 100m is a short and tight race, of course improvements are incremental and small.

Your last paragraph is irrelevant to my point. I’m not arguing to diminish Gretzky’s talent. The quality of the average NHL player and goalie was much worse during his era than currently, so his numbers reflect that to a certain degree.