Greatest Goal Scoring Season Ever

[Richer]

This one is a head scratcher. I have compiled some data and I have to lean slightly to Hull's 90-91 season. With Rocket 44-45 and Gretz's 83-84 close behind. Bobby Hull 65-66 was the most dominate relative to the rest of the league.

Here are some stats

Name Year % Abv.2nd Goals 2nd G 2nd G name GPG
Bobby Hull 65-66 40.80% 54 32 Frank Mahovlich 0.83
Brett Hull 90-91 40.70% 86 51 Steve Yzerman/Cam Neely/Theoren Fleury 1.1
Rocket Richard 44-45 36% 50 32 Herbert Cain 1
Wayne Gretzky 83-84 35.70% 87 56 Michel Goulet 1.175
Gordie Howe 52-53 34.70% 49 32 Ted Lindsay 0.7
Gordie Howe 51-52 34.10% 47 31 Bill Mosienko 0.67
Bobby Hull 61-62 34% 50 33 Frank Mahovlich 0.714
Rocket Richard 46-47 33.33% 45 30 Roy Conacher 0.75
Phil Esposito 70-71 32.90% 76 51 Johnny Bucyk 0.974
Bobby Hull 66-67 32.70% 52 35 Stan Mikita 0.788
Charlie Conacher 34-35 30.60%36 25 Cecil Dillon 0.766
Wayne Gretzky 81-82 30.50% 92 64 Mike Bossy 1.15

Click to read more...

 

[barfy2000]

What about 88-89 when Lemieux scored 85 goals in 76 games? or is this solely % above 2nd place?

 

[Richer]

What about 88-89 when Lemieux scored 85 goals in 76 games? or is this solely % above 2nd place?

That is the biggest factor. It is very difficult to compare different era's so a performance substancially above the best in the league that year is a good indication of an excellent season. Lemieux only scored 17.8% more goals than number two, Bernie Nicholls. Although although he did score 1.1 GPG, which was amazing, the 17.8% goal differental is not that exceptional.

 

[pappyline]

This one is a head scratcher. I have compiled some data and I have to lean slightly to Hull's 90-91 season. With Rocket 44-45 and Gretz's 83-84 close behind. Bobby Hull 65-66 was the most dominate relative to the rest of the league.

Here are some stats

Name Year % Abv.2nd Goals 2nd G 2nd G name GPG
Bobby Hull 65-66 40.80% 54 32 Frank Mahovlich 0.83
Brett Hull 90-91 40.70% 86 51 Steve Yzerman/Cam Neely/Theoren Fleury 1.1
Rocket Richard 44-45 36% 50 32 Herbert Cain 1
Wayne Gretzky 83-84 35.70% 87 56 Michel Goulet 1.175
Gordie Howe 52-53 34.70% 49 32 Ted Lindsay 0.7
Gordie Howe 51-52 34.10% 47 31 Bill Mosienko 0.67
Bobby Hull 61-62 34% 50 33 Frank Mahovlich 0.714
Rocket Richard 46-47 33.33% 45 30 Roy Conacher 0.75
Phil Esposito 70-71 32.90% 76 51 Johnny Bucyk 0.974
Bobby Hull 66-67 32.70% 52 35 Stan Mikita 0.788
Charlie Conacher 34-35 30.60%36 25 Cecil Dillon 0.766
Wayne Gretzky 81-82 30.50% 92 64 Mike Bossy 1.15

Interesting stats which help to comfirm my opinion that Bobby Hull was the most dominate goal scorer in NHL history. On Ogopogo's list (which uses a similiar dominance calculation) he comes up second to Gordie Howe but this is due to Howe's much longer NHL career.

Also interesting that he has 3 of the top 10 years and all were pre 67 expansion. 65-66 was a watershed year. Hull scored over 50 for an NHL first & also set the ponts record. Maybe the best & most dominant year by anyone.

 

[VanIslander]

You must put an asterix next to that season of Brett Hull's.

Those of us who actually watched know it was the ADAM OATES SHOW with 90 assists.

Hull&Oates together were dominant that season. NOT just Hull. VERY misleading.

Oates went on to get 97 assists, 142 points two seasons later in Boston, thriving as much or apparently more than his ol' linemate, Hull, who stayed in St. Louis and got only 54 goals and 101 points without Oates. Anyways, the point is, that dominant season of Hull's was largely due to Oates.

 

[raleh]

I know that this is going to cause an uproar, but what about Joe Malone 1917-18? 44 goals in 20 games I believe...might have been in 22 games, not quite sure...0 assists too!

 

[kruezer]

That is the biggest factor. It is very difficult to compare different era's so a performance substancially above the best in the league that year is a good indication of an excellent season. Lemieux only scored 17.8% more goals than number two, Bernie Nicholls. Although although he did score 1.1 GPG, which was amazing, the 17.8% goal differental is not that exceptional.

Would it be better to do it relative to the league average as opposed to second place? It seems to me there would be a smaller margin for error that way, but my stats background is not good.

 

[Richer]

I know that this is going to cause an uproar, but what about Joe Malone 1917-18? 44 goals in 20 games I believe...might have been in 22 games, not quite sure...0 assists too!

I noticed that too, they didn't count assists for anyone that year. He didn't make the list because the second place guy had 36 goals. 44 goals is impressive but I don't know how to rate it because I don't know much about that era.

 

[Richer]

Would it be better to do it relative to the league average as opposed to second place? It seems to me there would be a smaller margin for error that way, but my stats background is not good.

There is definiately more rigourious work to be done but don't really have the time to do it. I think actually if someone did a breakdown of scoring averages for different era's and compared individual proformances to the degree they are above the era averages you would get a better picture of great goal scorers.

Although I will say in my methods defense it does give a better picture of what were the great goal scoring performances were then saying I think it Gordie Howe because my dad watched him all the time and said he was awesome. Still you can come at this from alot of differnet angles.

 

[bun]

GRETZKY

 

[tom_servo]

The Hull family has got this goal-scoring thing locked down, son.

 

[Russian_fanatic]

I know that this is going to cause an uproar, but what about Joe Malone 1917-18? 44 goals in 20 games I believe...might have been in 22 games, not quite sure...0 assists too!

Man look at how many people scored at over a goal per game clips at those times.

 

[LePoche69]

If only for a "feeling" appreciation of a scoring season (without stats in mind), I would say that Gretzky's 92 goals season was the greatest for me.

That year, it was simply amazing. Everytime you looked at a paper, tv news or listen at radio shows, it was Gretzky all around. It looked like if he was scoring goals everyday, 3 or 4 times a day, in the morning, afternoon, evening and night. It was unreal.

I remember myself, while loving the guy, being sick of it by the end of the year. That was simply too much.

 

[Ted Hoffman]

I know that this is going to cause an uproar, but what about Joe Malone 1917-18? 44 goals in 20 games I believe...might have been in 22 games, not quite sure...0 assists too!

IIRC assists weren't given at that time.

VanIslander ... yes, Hull did benefit from having Oates feeding him - but he still put up 50-goal seasons after that, and finished '91-92 (the year Oates got traded to Boston) with 70. The thing that maybe diminishes Hull's achievement the most is that when you look at the rest of the goal-scorers on the Blues in '90-91, the next closest guy was Geoff Courtnall with 27, and he was shipped to Vancouver at the trade deadline. After that, it was Oates with 25, Dave Lowry with 19, Rod Brind'Amour with 17, and Bob Bassen and Rich Sutter with 16. Hull had almost as many goals as the next 4 guys on his team - so it stands to reason that others weren't scoring as much because he was doing it all.

On the other hand, of Hull's 86 goals, none were empty-net goals. His mark also came in a year where the average GPG was 6.91 - the first time GPG was under 7 in the NHL since '77-78.

Also in '90-91 ...
-- The leaguewide PP% was 19.4, the first time it was under 20% since '76-77
-- Leaguewide, 11.4% of all shots resulted in goals, the lowest percentage since '77-78
-- Goal-scoring at even strength dropped 6.4% compared to the previous season

Just a few things to think about when putting Hull's 86 goals in perspective.

 

[Psycho Papa Joe]

I'm going with Bobby Hull's 54 goals in just 65 games in 65-66. Extrapolated to 82 games, that's 68 goals, with the 2nd place guy, The Big M, getting just 39. That is dominance.

 

[Snap Wilson]

Under my system, it's Brett Hull, 1991. An equivalent 87 goals (or rather, 86.7024213579497 goals, but who's counting).

The rest of the top ten (equivalent goals):

2. Phil Esposito, 1971 - 81 goals
3. Wayne Gretzky, 1984 - 78 goals
4. Wayne Gretzky, 1982 - 78 goals
5. Mario Lemieux, 1989 - 76 goals
6. Phil Esposito, 1974 - 71 goals
7. Pavel Bure, 2000 - 71 goals
8. Phil Esposito, 1972 - 69 goals
9. Mario Lemieux, 1996 - 69 goals
10. Brett Hull, 1992 - 69 goals

 

[pappyline]

Under my system, it's Brett Hull, 1991. An equivalent 87 goals (or rather, 86.7024213579497 goals, but who's counting).

The rest of the top ten (equivalent goals):

2. Phil Esposito, 1971 - 81 goals
3. Wayne Gretzky, 1984 - 78 goals
4. Wayne Gretzky, 1982 - 78 goals
5. Mario Lemieux, 1989 - 76 goals
6. Phil Esposito, 1974 - 71 goals
7. Pavel Bure, 2000 - 71 goals
8. Phil Esposito, 1972 - 69 goals
9. Mario Lemieux, 1996 - 69 goals
10. Brett Hull, 1992 - 69 goals

Do not know how your system works but notice all your top 10 are post 67 expansion. Hull's 54 in 65 games in 65-66, Rocket's 50 in 50 (44-45) and Howe's 49 in 70 in 52-53 should be top 10 seasons in any well constructed system. A goal was a lot tougher to come by in those days.

 

[Snap Wilson]

Do not know how your system works but notice all your top 10 are post 67 expansion. Hull's 54 in 65 games in 65-66, Rocket's 50 in 50 (44-45) and Howe's 49 in 70 in 52-53 should be top 10 seasons in any well constructed system. A goal was a lot tougher to come by in those days.

It's constructed using weighted standard deviations of goals per game against every other player in the league. Basically it says how difficult it is to get X number of goals per game in any given year and then averages it out against a schedule of 82 games. It also serves as a useful barometer of league strength (the war years have higher standard deviations for example, which cuts into the Rocket's numbers. Here are the top ten pre-expansion:

1. Gordie Howe, 1953 (66 goals)
2. Bobby Hull, 1967 (65 goals)
3. Charlie Conacher, 1935 (65 goals)
4. Bill Cook, 1927 (62 goals)
5. Maurice Richard, 1945 (61 goals)
6. Bobby Hull, 1966 (61 goals)
7. Jean Beliveau, 1956 (61 goals)
8. Bobby Hull, 1962 (60 goals)
9. Charlie Conacher, 1934 (59 goals)
10. Howie Morenz, 1928 (59 goals)