Most Dominant Scorers

[Hockey Outsider]

It's nice for a player to get a lot of points over the course of his career, or to have a high point-per-game ratio. However, the sign of a truly dominant player is how well he performs in his prime.

I've made a list of the most dominant scorers in history. This is based on the average of their 5 best seasons in the terms of adjusted points. ie Yzerman's five best seasons in adjusted points are 132, 114, 110, 99 and 94. So, in his prime, Yzerman averaged 109.8 points per season (15th best in history).

Player, Peak Points
Wayne Gretzky -- 165.8
Mario Lemieux -- 147.1
Jaromir Jagr -- 134.6
Phil Esposito -- 132.1
Bobby Orr -- 121.3
Howie Morenz -- 117.8
Frank Boucher -- 115.4
Joe Sakic -- 114.8
Guy Lafleur -- 113.8
Gordie Howe -- 112.5
Teemu Selanne -- 112.1
Cy Denneny -- 111.4
Marcel Dionne -- 110.0
Peter Forsberg -- 110.0
Steve Yzerman -- 109.6
Bill Cook -- 108.6
Bobby Hull -- 106.4
Aurel Joliat -- 105.2
Eric Lindros -- 104.5
Paul Kariya -- 103.7
Mike Bossy -- 102.1
Pavel Bure -- 101.9
Jean Beliveau -- 101.7
Adam Oates -- 101.5
Paul Coffey -- 101.2
Ron Francis -- 101.2
John LeClair -- 100.9
Brett Hull -- 100.4
Bryan Trottier -- 100.3
Duke Keats -- 99.5
Stan Mikita -- 99.4
Andre Lacroix -- 98.8
Mark Recchi -- 98.8
Peter Stastny -- 98.8
Theo Fleury -- 98.7
Mark Messier -- 98.6
Jari Kurri -- 97.6
Markus Naslund -- 97.4
Nels Stewart -- 97.1
Real Cloutier -- 97.0
Luc Robitaille -- 96.3
Zigmund Palffy -- 96.3
Sergei Fedorov -- 96.1
Alexander Mogilny -- 95.7
Marc Tardif -- 95.5
Denis Savard -- 95.4
Pierre Turgeon -- 95.0
Mats Sundin -- 94.9
Bernie Nicholls -- 94.6
Dale Hawerchuk -- 93.7
Ted Lindsay -- 93.5
Pat LaFontaine -- 93.3

Lots of interesting things on this list:
- Comparing their top 5 seasons, Gretzky was definitely better than Lemieux. Though it would have been closer (obviously) if it weren't for injuries.
- Orr and Coffey are the only defensemen to make the list.
- Lindros is 19th. People seem to have forgotten how dominant he was when healthy.
- With exactly 100 adjusted points last year, Naslund climbed into the top 40.

I can also divide this up into Peak Goal-scorers and Peak playmakers if anyone is interested.

Click to read more...

 

[monkey_00*]

(((I can also divide this up into Peak Goal-scorers and Peak playmakers if anyone is interested.)))

Sure........go for it.

 

[Hockey Outsider]

Most dominant goal-scorers:

Mario Lemieux -- 64.7
Wayne Gretzky -- 64.6
Brett Hull -- 64.4
Phil Esposito -- 63.1
Pavel Bure -- 61.8
Bobby Hull -- 59.7
Jaromir Jagr -- 57.8
Teemu Selanne -- 56.8
Peter Bondra -- 56.5
Gordie Howe -- 56.1
Charlie Conacher -- 54.5
John LeClair -- 54.0
Bill Cook -- 53.7
Mike Bossy -- 53.4
Maurice Richard -- 51.8
Nels Stewart -- 51.5
Howie Morenz -- 51.5
Steve Yzerman -- 51.3
Joe Sakic -- 50.6
Guy Lafleur -- 50.1
Real Cloutier -- 49.9
Alexander Mogilny -- 49.8
Keith Tkachuk -- 49.6
Jari Kurri -- 49.4
Markus Naslund -- 48.6
Marcel Dionne -- 48.5
Jean Beliveau -- 48.4
Zigmund Palffy -- 48.2
Brendan Shanahan -- 48.1
Luc Robitaille -- 47.8
Eric Lindros -- 47.7
Theo Fleury -- 47.3
Paul Kariya -- 47.2
Cam Neely -- 46.6
Cecil "Babe" Dye -- 46.6
Tim Kerr -- 46.6
Joe Malone -- 46.3
Michel Goulet -- 45.9
Marc Tardif -- 45.8
Jarome Iginla -- 45.6
Tony Amonte -- 45.6
Frank Mahovlich -- 45.6
Rick Martin -- 44.7
Mats Sundin -- 44.7
Anders Hedberg -- 44.6
Joe Nieuwendyk -- 44.2
Pat LaFontaine -- 44.1
Milan Hejduk -- 44.0
Bernie Geoffrion -- 43.9
Cy Denneny -- 43.8

Most dominant playmakers:

Wayne Gretzky -- 110.0
Frank Boucher -- 87.5
Bobby Orr -- 85.1
Mario Lemieux -- 83.1
Jaromir Jagr -- 78.6
Peter Forsberg -- 77.1
Adam Oates -- 75.5
Joe Primeau -- 73.9
Ron Francis -- 73.8
Cy Denneny -- 71.2
Paul Coffey -- 69.9
Howie Morenz -- 69.8
Phil Esposito -- 69.8
Aurel Joliat -- 68.7
Bill Cook -- 68.3
Andre Lacroix -- 67.1
Duke Keats -- 66.5
Joe Sakic -- 66.5
Bobby Clarke -- 65.4
Doug Gilmour -- 65.1
Doug Weight -- 64.9
Brian Leetch -- 64.8
Mark Messier -- 64.5
Guy Lafleur -- 64.2
Marcel Dionne -- 63.5
Steve Yzerman -- 62.7
Denis Savard -- 62.5
Bryan Trottier -- 62.3
Stan Mikita -- 61.8
Dale Hawerchuk -- 61.4
Ulf Nilsson -- 61.3
Craig Janney -- 61.3
Mark Recchi -- 61.2
Ray Bourque -- 61.1
Peter Stastny -- 61.0
Gordie Howe -- 60.3
Cyclone Taylor -- 60.2
Reg "Hooley" Smith -- 60.0
Andy Bathgate -- 59.3
Teemu Selanne -- 58.7
Eric Lindros -- 58.4
Paul Kariya -- 58.3
Ted Lindsay -- 57.7
George Hay -- 57.7
Frank Nighbor -- 57.7
Elmer Lach -- 57.6
Bill Cowley -- 57.4
Pierre Turgeon -- 57.3
King Clancy -- 56.9
Jean Beliveau -- 56.7

A few more observations:
- Cam Neely does a good job on the goal-scoring list. Then again, Tim Kerr averaged exactly the same number of goals, and Rick Martin is slightly behind. Everyone says Neely belongs in the HOF, but Kerr and Martin don't. The three players are so similar I find it hard to see why one would advocate Neely but not the other two.
- Even if he never played another game in the NHL, Forsberg would still be the 6th most dominant playmaker ever.

 

[monkey_00*]

Esposito does very well on both lists......better than some would expect.

 

[RangerBoy]

Mike Bossy is the best natural goal scorer.50 goals in 50 games.Brett Hull is a close second

 

[Paxon]

Nice work, very interesting stuff.

 

[VanIslander]

Nice to see Petr Bondra in the Top 10 of all time. He was underappreciated.

Mike Bossy is the best natural goal scorer.50 goals in 50 games.Brett Hull is a close second

50 goals in 39 not good enough for more dominant scorer?

Anyways... this thread is about FIVE (5) years of dominating scoring. Hence, Bossy is 14th statistically.

 

[Took a pill in Sbisa]

Nice to see Petr Bondra in the Top 10 of all time. He was underappreciated.


39 goals in 50 not good enough for more dominant scorer?

Anyways... this thread is about FIVE (5) years of dominating scoring. Hence, Bossy is 14th statistically.

 

[Ric Flair]

50 goals in 50 games.

Gretz did 50 in 39.

 

[VanIslander]

Gretz did 50 in 39.

We all know that. I just made a dyslexic typo.

 

[Habsfan 32]

Nice work and nice lists.

 

[SoundwaveIsCharisma]

What's really amazing is Bobby Orr's numbers, if he had been healthy, and had been able to play for longer I can only imagine how scary his legend would be...

 

[Hockey Outsider]

Thanks everyone, I appreciate the comments and kind words.

In response to Monkey: it seems like a lot of people are unwilling to give Esposito the credit he deserves. Obviously playing with Orr helped him, but he was among the league's top 10 scorers twice before he was traded to Boston, before he was in his prime. Espo would have excelled whether he played with Orr or not.

Number 19: Good point about Orr. What's even more impressive is that he probably played better defense than anybody on these lists (except maybe Clarke).

 

[VanIslander]

Orr. What's even more impressive is that he probably played better defense than anybody on these lists (except maybe Clarke).

With respectful mention of Yzerman, Fedorov and Kurri.