Still with demonstratably stronger teams Gretzky won 4SCs, Lemieux and Orr won 2SCs each while Roy won 4 SCs.
How are Gretzky's and Lemieux's teams "demonstrably stronger"?
Gretzky came in on a first-year expansion team. Do you really think if Roy had entered the League with, say, Hartford (which is similar to Mario's situation), he would have won 2 Cups by 1993?
Roy was actually one of the more fortunate players in League history in terms of being situated for success at his position and in his time. He was brought up by the Habs just when they were getting over their mid-80s flatline and developing a very strong team in a defence-first style (uncommon at the time). Then, just as Quebec was peaking from doormat to most-talented-team, he was traded there, and then retired just before their peak players started to slow down.
In 17 NHL regular seasons,
Roy played for a winning team 16 times
(94%).
[The only non-winning team was a partial season.]
In 20 NHL regular seasons,
Gretzky played for a winning team 12 times
(60%).
[One of these 12 is his first season in L.A. -- a team that had 68 points the year before he arrived.]
In 12 NHL regular season (of 40+ games),
Lemieux played for a winning team 7 times
(58%).
[One of those 7 winning teams didn't even qualify for the playoffs.]
And it goes further than that. Roy very often back-stopped
very strong teams:
In 17 NHL regular seasons,
Roy played for a .600 or better team 8 times
(47%).
[Plus another season at .598, so really over 1/2 his career for .600 teams]
In 20 NHL regular seasons,
Gretzky played for a for a .600 or better team 8 times
(40%).
In 12 NHL regular season (of 40+ games),
Lemieux played for a for a .600 or better team 2 or 3 times
(I'm unclear about their record with him in 2000-01) (25%).
Team first-place finishes?
Roy 11 out of 17 (
65%)
Gretzky 7 out of 20 (
35%)
Lemieux 3 out of 12 (
25%)
Bobby Orr's situation is a little harder to compare because of earlier era, smaller League, shorter career, etc.
Anyway, Patrick Roy is a playoff legend and deservedly so but let's not pretend his teams were noticeably weaker than the cumulative teams of Gretzky or Lemieux. In fact, they were far stronger.