Greatest Goal Scorers Of All-Time: #5

[DitchMarner]

Who is the fifth-greatest goal scorer of all-time?


Apply your own criteria.


#1. Alex Ovechkin
#2. Wayne Gretzky
#3. Mario Lemieux
#4. Bobby Hull

Click to read more...

 

[Marotte Marauder]

Before injuries, Rick Martin was in the team photo.

 

[Plural]

Howe for me.

I have the top-4 in a tier of their own and Howe is in his own tier.

Tier 1 OV, 99/66, Hull

Tier 2 Howe

Tier 3 the rest

 

[Albatros]

Brett Hull had arguably the best goal-scoring year in history, a great peak as a whole, and 741 career goals (despite his distaste for empty-netters). Should not be any lower than fifth.

 

[Regal]

Brett Hull had arguably the best goal-scoring year in history, a great peak as a whole, and 741 career goals (despite his distaste for empty-netters). Should not be any lower than fifth.

Nah. His goalscoring prime after his top 3 years is significantly behind someone like Howe or Richard. You’d have to put a ton of weight on peak and even then, the difference isn’t that large

 

[SillyRabbit]

Nah. His goalscoring prime after his top 3 years is significantly behind someone like Howe or Richard. You’d have to put a ton of weight on peak and even then, the difference isn’t that large

Hull is 6th all time in era adjusted goals and has the highest era edjusted single season goal scoring total.

I voted for Brett Hull.

I think Selanne should be added to the list next. His goal scoring is criminally underrated.

 

[weaponomega]

Went with Howe. Led the league 5 times, runner up another 5 times. 19 times in the top 10

 

[KoozNetsOff 92]

Howe or Richard. Went with Howe.

 

[wetcoast]

Nah. His goalscoring prime after his top 3 years is significantly behind someone like Howe or Richard. You’d have to put a ton of weight on peak and even then, the difference isn’t that large

Pretty much this although any of the 3 are good picks at this point but I still took Bure.

I would maybe add Nels Stewart or Newsy Lalonde before Lafleur, maybe even Selanne too.

 

[Regal]

Hull is 6th all time in era adjusted goals and has the highest era edjusted single season goal scoring total.

I voted for Brett Hull.

I think Selanne should be added to the list next. His goal scoring is criminally underrated.

Adjusted goals are problematic for pre-expansion players. Hull has a single top 5 goal finish outside of those three years, which was 2nd place. Howe has 10 top 2 goal finishes.

 

[amnesiac]

Howe
Rocket
Conacher
Bossy
Espo
Hull

add Dionne, or Babe Dye if youre going back that far

 

[Hockey Outsider]

The next three players to be added should probably be Nels Stewart (if we're really trying to cover all of NHL history), Jagr, and Selanne.

 

[Xspyrit]

The Russian Rocket then the French Rocket

 

[amnesiac]

The Russian Rocket then the French Rocket

please, some respect for the original ROCKET

 

[Xspyrit]

please, some respect for the original ROCKET

??? No idea where it's disrespectful

 

[amnesiac]

??? No idea where it's disrespectful

well for one hes not "French"

 

[Yackiberg8]

Babe Dye should get some love at some point. He scored 187 goals in 189 games over the 7 season prime of his career before he was injured.

200 goals in 213 games total over his first 9 seasons until he broke his leg.

 

[blundluntman]

I'm really split between Hull and Bossy but I think I'm gonna go with Bossy. My age might be showing here but I do think Hull should have more votes than Howe here

 

[Midnight Judges]

Greatest Goal Scorers of all time
*As of 3/26/20	Ovi*	Brett	Mario	Gretz	Bossy	Espo	Bobby	Howe	Richard
Career Total Goals	706	741	690	894	573	717	610	801	544
Career Tot. Goals Rank	8	4	11	1	22	6	18	2	31
Career Tot. Adjusted (adj.) Goals	798	738	616	758	461	671	644	925	653
Career Tot. Adj goals Rank	3	6	17	4	63	9	12	1	10
Goal Scoring Titles	9	3	3	5	2	6	7	5	5
Peak Season goals	65	86	85	92	69	76	54	49	50
Peak adjusted Season	72	78	71	69	58	65	57	65	54
Peak Adjusted Season Rank (All time)	2	1	3	6	45	4	54	13	84
Peak Season relative to next best of the era^^	8.30%	-6.5%	-8%	7%	-25%	10%	8%	4%	2%
Same as above, adjusted^^	5.9%	10.0%	-9.0%	-12%	-26%	12.0%	6.6%	9.0%	-17%
Lead over next best, 1st 5 yrs	17.0%	-15%	6.8%	21.0%	19.0%	-53%	-3.3%	-36%	24.0%
Lead over next best, 1st 10 yrs	40.0%	2.8%	11.0%	41.0%	6.0%	-6.0%	25.0%	-11%	53.0%
Lead over next best, 1st 15 yrs	53.0%	10.0%	4.6%	30.0%	-23%	45.0%	30.0%	9.0%	40.0%
Lead over 10, first 5 seasons	59.0%	17.0%	53.0%	80.0%	56.0%	-6.0%	22.7%	15.0%	77.0%
Lead over 10, first 10 seasons	60.0%	41.0%	32.0%	79.0%	79.0%	59.0%	72.0%	107%	108%
Lead over 10, first 15 seasons	86.0%	44.0%	35.0%	70.0%	31.0%	85.0%	105%	149%	166%
*As of 3/26/20	Ovi*	Brett	Mario	Gretz	Bossy	Espo	Bobby	Howe	Richard
Career GPG	0.61	0.58	0.75	0.6	0.76	0.56	0.57	0.45	0.56
Career Adj GPG	0.692	0.582	0.673	0.510	0.613	0.523	0.606	0.523	0.668
All time rank Adjusted GPG***	1	6	2	9	4	7	5	7	3
**GPG lead over next best, 1st 5 yrs	17%	-16%	11%	18%	-5%	-50%	-19%	-34%	22%
**GPG lead over next best, 1st 10 yrs	13%	-19%	8%	0%	-12%	-15%	17%	-13%	41%
**GPG lead over next best, 1st 15 years	15%	-27%	21%	16%	-4%	-13%	4%	-9%	16%
**GPG lead over 10, first 5 yrs	45%	36%	44%	60%	44%	0%	19%	9%	50%
**GPG lead over 10, 1st 10 yrs	50%	45%	49%	52%	38%	41%	47%	55%	68%
**GPG lead over 10, 1st 15 yrs	52%	28%	64%	34%	41%	44%	61%	60%	87%
**Times Led NHL in GPG	9	3	6	3	1	5	8	3	5
50 goal seasons	8	5	6	9	9	5	5	0	1
Quanity of NHL 50 goal seasons in their 1st 15 yrs	22	78	90	110	68^	30	10	1	1
*As of 3/26/20	Ovi*	Brett	Mario	Gretz	Bossy	Espo	Bobby	Howe	Richard
% of 50 goal seasons / 1st 15	36%	6.40%	6.70%	8%	13%	16.7%	50%	0%	100%
Adjusted 50 goal seasons	11	5	5	5	2	5	5	5	7
Playoff Goals	65	103	76	122	85	61	62	68	82
Playoff GPG	0.51	0.51	0.71	0.59	0.66	0.47	0.52	0.43	0.62
Playoff Adj. Goals	68.5	98.8	68	98.71	64.75	53.8	55.8	65.2	71.4
Playoff Adjusted GPG	0.535	0.489	0.636	0.475	0.502	0.414	0.469	0.415	0.541
Playoff Adj. GPG Rank***	3	5	1	6	4	9	7	8	2
**Minimum ~ half the games played
***Among the players on this list
^ 10 seasons only
^^ERA definition for each player (this varies depending on when scoring changed significantly)
^^Ovechkin: 2005-present
^^Bobby Hull: Just included pre-1967 expansion. Expansion would include Esposito's 76 goal season, but I don't think that was humanly possible pre-expansion
^^Esposito: I counted '67 to 79-80. Includes expansion but not the 1980s GPG explosion
^^Howe: For raw totals, didn't include Richard's '44-45 because NHL scoring differed too much
^^Richard: For adjusted and league wide, the sample includes Howe's '52.

[TBODY] [/TBODY]

 

[Midnight Judges]

I've said this before but Bossy just doesn't belong in this group.

His longevity is relatively putrid (not even 500 career adjusted goals).

His peak is unspectacular - career high of 69 goals in an era where 3 other guys had 85+

His adjusted peak is 7th of this group, and far lower than that really. There are several players from his own era who outscored him in terms of peak season: Gretzky, Lemieux, Hull, Selanne, Mogilny, Kurri, and Nichols. I mean, that is waaaaay too many for a placement this high.

His leads at the 5 and 10 year marks are nice, but not nearly enough to overcome the glaring weaknesses on his resume.

Taken all together, it's just not a good case.

At a minimum, I'd put him behind Ovie, Gretzky, Bobby Hull, Jagr, Howe, Brett Hull, Esposito, and Richard.

There is simply no way the guy is even in this conversation had he played in any other era.

 

[Xspyrit]

All time rank Adjusted GPG

Alexander Ovechkin
Mario Lemieux
Maurice Richard
Mike Bossy
Bobby Hull
Brett Hull
Phil Esposito
Gordie Howe
Wayne Gretzky

This list looks good. Only Bossy had to retire "young" IIRC

 

[SouthWest]

I've said this before but Bossy just doesn't belong in this group.

I would agree, I don't have him ahead of Brett, Gordie, Maurice, or Phil.

 

[SillyRabbit]

All time rank Adjusted GPG

Alexander Ovechkin
Mario Lemieux
Maurice Richard
Mike Bossy
Bobby Hull
Brett Hull
Phil Esposito
Gordie Howe
Wayne Gretzky

This list looks good. Only Bossy had to retire "young" IIRC

Agreed. If we drop Bossy a few spots due to a lack of total career games played, I feel like this list is great.

Ovechkin
Lemieux
Richard
Bobby
Brett

As the top 5 goalscorers of all time.

With Esposito, Bossy, Howe and Gretzky rounding out the top 10.

 

[Xspyrit]

Agreed. If we drop Bossy a few spots due to a lack of total career games played, I feel like this list is great.

Ovechkin
Lemieux
Richard
Bobby
Brett

As the top 5 goalscorers of all time.

With Esposito, Bossy, Howe and Gretzky rounding out the top 10.

Bossy just after Gretzky as he didn't lower his averages playing in his late 30's

Gretzky is the best playmaker in history AINEC (well, always except Lemieux), he doesn't have to be the best at everything

Is Pavel Bure 10th best? Because we only named 9 guys

 

[Regal]

I've said this before but Bossy just doesn't belong in this group.

His longevity is relatively putrid (not even 500 career adjusted goals).

His peak is unspectacular - career high of 69 goals in an era where 3 other guys had 85+

His adjusted peak is 7th of this group, and far lower than that really. There are several players from his own era who outscored him in terms of peak season: Gretzky, Lemieux, Hull, Selanne, Mogilny, Kurri, and Nichols. I mean, that is waaaaay too many for a placement this high.

His leads at the 5 and 10 year marks are nice, but not nearly enough to overcome the glaring weaknesses on his resume.

Taken all together, it's just not a good case.

At a minimum, I'd put him behind Ovie, Gretzky, Bobby Hull, Jagr, Howe, Brett Hull, Esposito, and Richard.

There is simply no way the guy is even in this conversation had he played in any other era.

My big question marks with Bossy are how much he might have been held back by Arbour playing more defensive than most teams in the day and their deep lineup potentially limiting his ice time in comparison to most others.