Ogopogo said:
I disagree tom.
He had to outscore the whole world. Just because only 4-7 teams were in the league during his career that does not mean that he was not the best in the world.
I don't see it that way. The NHL didn't import players; they were almost all Canadian and local to the team they were playing for.
He was the best player in the league at the time, but to say that he was the best player "in the world" suggests a worldwide talent pool and comprehensive scouting/drafting system like there is today, which there wasn't.
Compared to today, NHLers in the 20s saw much less competition for jobs.
With a 30 team NHL, we have the top 10 goal scorers then we have everybody else. And after them we have all the guys that didn't make it.
With a 4 team NHL, we have the top 10 goal scorers then we have everybody else. And after them we have all the guys that didn't make it.
How would it affect anything if the 25th best goal scorer was in the league when Denneny played? The guy would still be 25th and Denneny would still be 1st.
This argument doesn't work, because the talent pool was much smaller back then (...heck, hockey wasn't even introduced to Russia until the '30s.).
Like I said in my previous post, this doesn't necessarily mean that Denneny couldn't have been one of the greats had be played today, but conditions have changed so much that you cannot say with any certainty that he had a greater career than any of today's top players, even if he did win all the awards.
Apples and oranges.
If this was a random draw, your argument would make sense. You cannot bring down the best in the world by adding a bunch of mediocre players into the mix.
Is being the president worth less in 1920 because the population of the US was a lot lower than it is today? No, being the president is being the president. You still hold the highest position in the land.
Well, it goes without saying that, statistically, it does grow slightly more difficult to become President as the nation's population rises. But to illustrate the real difference in the 20s NHL to the '00s NHL, think of being elected state representative (Denneny) to being elected President (Gretzky).
That's not to say that the state representative couldn't have gone on to be President if given the chance, but as it stands, they are most certainly
not the same.