How high were Mario Lemieux's rookie expectations?

[Nathaniel Skywalker]

This.

People who don’t do the math (or can’t) always use this argument against players and it’s a really bad one. If one doubled Lemieux’s 1990’s games played of 318 to 636 and also gave him just 1 PPG (which is absolutely ludicrous to consider lol) in those extra 318 games, he would still sit comfortably on top of the list in that decade with a 1.53 PPG.

I frequently argue against giving players extra credit if they didn’t play the games, but for anyone to pretend that someone like Lemieux wasn’t far ahead of every forward who ever played other than Gretzky is a joke. There’s nothing misleading about his numbers. He’s one of the few players ever where I don’t doubt that given an extra 500 games, his per game stats would barely decline.

Especially considering majority of those missed games were during his peak 24-29 years old. Lemieux went 141>168-199 then was never healthy again in his prime and right when he got his problems is when the penguins put a great team around him, it’s a shame.

 

[Star Ocean]

Yes Lindros wasn't expected to match Gretzky or Lemieux offensively. He was expected to be sort of a Messier on steroids.

I'm curious if anyone can recall Lemieux getting Beliveau comparisons? It seems very obvious at the superficial level, with Lemieux obviously being more offensively oriented and less well rounded.

Lindros was called the next one.

 

[JackSlater]

Lindros was called the next one.

Yes, I know.