Back to my point, above, about Gretzky: Let's break down a few of the early clips in that video-package (I'm doing this not for 'mature' fans who understand the nature of sports, but for younger fans who might not).
The first two clips in that video-package are from 1987 and 1977 respectively (one when Gretzky is 16, which is remote from today). The second one, from 1987, is a great clip of PP-stick-handling against Chicago, but they were just an average team (he didn't score on that clip, incidentally).
Let's look at the next 6 video-clips:
3) Beautiful goal vs. Vancouver during 1997-98, early dead-puck era and the era of giant defensive bruisers. (Players on the Canucks included Bure, Bertuzzi, Naslund, Ohlund.)
4) Nice slapper vs. Boston in 1986-87 -- the defenceman whom Gretzky makes his b**** in this clip is Hall of Famer, Ray Bourque, a teammate of Alex Tanguay, who retired this (last?) year.
5) This goal I can't place, but it's c.1982 against St.Louis. The goaltender is All Star Mike Liut, probably, but that won't impress anyone under 25.
6) Nice goal vs. the Flames (I was at this game, 15th row, center). The defenceman whom Gretzky dekes out of his underwear is Hall of Famer, Al MacInnis, who played until 2003, and was a teammate of current players like Jarome Iginla.
7) Nice goal vs. Panthers in playoffs 1997. The goalie Gretzky beats (3 times, that night) is Vezina winner John Vanbiesbrouck, who by the way had a .929 save percentage in that series -- better than most playoff goalies today -- and lost.
What is my point? The point is that all-time talented players nearly all cross generations and time-periods, Gretzky being no exception. Gretzky won scoring titles in 1981 and in 1994. He was the top North American per-game point producer in 1980 and in 1998.
One of the main reason the NHL circa 1980 (see: the very early clips vs. Toronto in that highlight package) looks so "old", and the NHL circa 1995 look so different is because of Gretzky. His level of play was so much higher than any other player during the period 1980 to 1988 or so that the entire League had to improve. The Oilers' style of game (following the Islanders), along with a few other elite teams, improved the level of play up to the early/mid-90s' level and beyond.
It's absurd to imagine that a talent at Gretzky's level would simply stagnate at 1982-level of play if he were alive today. The fact that an old, beat-up Gretzky on a terrible team was still the top-scoring N.A. player in 1998 -- twenty years after turning pro and in a very different League from 1979 -- proves beyond any doubt that a young Gretzky today would be just as dominant, relative to era.
