He was until he played nearly double the career Lemieux did.
Gretzky’s 1,773 points in 745 games (number of games Lemieux played upon first retirement): 2.38 PPG or 195 points per 82 games played versus 1,494 points for Lemieux: 2.01 PPG or 164 points per 82 games played.
Or 2,128 points in 915 games for Gretzky versus the 1,723 points in 915 games Lemieux retired with: 2.33 PPG vs. 1.88.
But sure, let’s pretend it was close.
*Cue excuses related Mario’s poor eating habits, smoking, not stretching to avoid injuries and help when he did, cancer etc while ignoring Gretzky’s own injuries and his career almost ending in 1993*
Gretzlys first 745 and first 915 games both dont include past prime tail/end years for Lemieux in DPE 1.0 era while Gretzky played his first 745 and 915 in incredibly high scoring 80s injury free.
Lemieux career is weird b/c he missed so much time and when he did get some games it was DPE 1.0 with him being injured for portions of that as well.
You look at peak vs peak Gretzky has 215 in 80 vs 199 in 76. Here Gretzky is about 5-6 pts better if both play 80 games
Prime wise Lemiex has 6 rosses in 11 healthyish years (1985 to 1990, 1992, 1993, 1996, 1997, 2003) or ~54%
Gretzky has 9 rosses in 14 years (1981 to 1993) or 64%
Career wise their dominance like I mentioned comes out to roughly equal on per game basis with Lemieux benefiting ppg wise but being hurt ross/hart/lindsay wise as he would have 3-4 more of each had he been healthy to the extent of Gretzky
My guesstimate of 145 pts per 82 vs say 160 pts per 82 for their career I'd say is pretty fair
~10% difference expected, with Lemieux being ahead in goals and Gretzky in pts
This is much closer a comparison (Crosby vs OV type with Crosby better by a clear margin but same tier)
Gretzky getting compared to a Crosby/Jagr/OV etc is just dumb.
Only Lemieix compares career to career. Mcdavid is half-way there and very well could be another comparison when his career ends but not yet.