Which season had the most all-time-great / elite seasons by players?

The Panther

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The Patrick Roy thread got me thinking of this. The general consensus is that Roy was never considered the best player, which I agree with. It was tough for him because of the competition. In 1988-89, Patrick's record was 33-5-6. His GAA, save-percentage, and GSAA all led the NHL. He was a 1st-team All Star, and won the Jennings and Vezina... yet finished a distant 4th in Hart voting, because Lemieux, Gretzky, and Yzerman all had all-time great seasons. On top of that, Bernie Nicholls had one of the top-five scoring seasons ever by a non-Gretzky player. So, as I think this was probably Roy's greatest-ever regular season (though you can argue about '90 and '92), I'd say the 1988-89 season featured five all-time-great / elite player-seasons.

My question is: Which NHL regular season had the most of such all-time-great / elite player seasons?

I am asking in terms of regular season only, so please disregard playoffs for now.
 

Michael Farkas

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The artificially high scoring 1993 season comes to mind first...a lot of good candidates there with Lemieux, Mogilny, Selanne, Oates, Gilmour was unreal...five 60-goal scorers, 14 50-goal scorers, there were like six or seven full-season point-per-game d-men, Belfour had his best or second best season probably given the league conditions...
 

quoipourquoi

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Maybe 1995-96, when 12 of the top-13 players in Hart voting went on to become Hall of Famers. The Center position, in particular, was stacked with maybe not career years, but probably the 2nd or 3rd best years from a lot of different players (Fedorov, Forsberg, Francis, Lemieux, Lindros, Messier, Sakic).

I don’t think it has a top-4 like 1988-89, but you could build a whole roster of HOF players having great seasons in 1995-96.
 

BenchBrawl

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1975 had a lot of great players having solid seasons:

Orr, Lafleur, Esposito, Dionne, Clarke, Perreault, Potvin, Parent, so on.
 

wetcoast

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1975 had a lot of great players having solid seasons:

Orr, Lafleur, Esposito, Dionne, Clarke, Perreault, Potvin, Parent, so on.

I know these players don't qualify as all time great but 4 Canuck players had their best seasons in 74-75 including Andre Boudrias, Don Lever and John Gould.

Gary "suitcase" smith also had his best season and was 6th in Hart voting.

BTW I checked afterwards and I'm guessing you mean the 75-76 season where Reggie "the Rifle " Leach scored 61 goals and many other top players in the league had their 1,2 or 3rd best seasons??
 

GlitchMarner

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I think 1996 is the last season where a whole bunch of stars really shone. Can't really think of any dead puck era or post 2004 lockout seasons where that happened. Last season was probably the best season for high-end talent in a while, but not many players had all-time great seasons (probably just Kucherov, really).
 

BenchBrawl

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I know these players don't qualify as all time great but 4 Canuck players had their best seasons in 74-75 including Andre Boudrias, Don Lever and John Gould.

Gary "suitcase" smith also had his best season and was 6th in Hart voting.

BTW I checked afterwards and I'm guessing you mean the 75-76 season where Reggie "the Rifle " Leach scored 61 goals and many other top players in the league had their 1,2 or 3rd best seasons??

No I meant 74-75.

In 75-76 you lose both Orr and Esposito.

If you rewind to 73-74 you lose Lafleur.

Their primes only intersected in 1975. I feel like taking one season or another among Orr's, Esposito's and Lafleur's prime is borderline nitpicking, especially if we're looking for 2nd or 3rd best year.
 

BenchBrawl

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I might have misunderstood OP. If it's strictly about amount of great seasons in the same year, regardless of who had it, then I don't think 1975 would qualify (though it's not bad).
 

The Panther

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I might have misunderstood OP. If it's strictly about amount of great seasons in the same year, regardless of who had it, then I don't think 1975 would qualify (though it's not bad).
That's what I meant, yes.

How many players in 1992-93 had all-time great / elite seasons?:

1) Mario Lemieux (highest PPG of his career)
2) Alex Mogilny (76 goals)
3) Teemu Selanne (76 goals, highest-scoring rookie season ever)
4) Pat Lafontaine (148 points)



Would Oates quality with 142 points in 84 games? (He had 135 points in 80.) Robitaille had his career season of 63 goals and 125 points, but I don't think I'd call it "all-time great / elite". Pavel Bure, sort of similar. Not really any goalies who would quality that season, I think.
 

Big Phil

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Other than the aforementioned ones I'll throw in another season not mentioned yet.....................1979. Trottier, Bossy, Potvin, Dionne and Lafleur all had great years. Probably Trottier and Potvin's best years.
 

BenchBrawl

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That's what I meant, yes.

How many players in 1992-93 had all-time great / elite seasons?:

1) Mario Lemieux (highest PPG of his career)
2) Alex Mogilny (76 goals)
3) Teemu Selanne (76 goals, highest-scoring rookie season ever)
4) Pat Lafontaine (148 points)



Would Oates quality with 142 points in 84 games? (He had 135 points in 80.) Robitaille had his career season of 63 goals and 125 points, but I don't think I'd call it "all-time great / elite". Pavel Bure, sort of similar. Not really any goalies who would quality that season, I think.

Your argument focus way too much on raw totals when it's well-known that 1993 was an anomaly in that department. Those were all great seasons for sure, but not as great as the raw totals indicate (save Lemieux who was actually greater considering the cancer and only playing 60 games).

I don't feel Lafontaine is an "all-time great season". It's a solid Ross-level season like we have every other year.

The 76 goals would qualify in goalscoring department, but still not as great as they look. Five players scored 60 goals that year, and many more scored 50. Plus Lemieux would have scored 80+ without the injury, beating both (though maybe you want to put him as an outlier, which is certainly fair).

I understand there's some circularity involved here, where I discount them because many performed greatly in the same year, when it's exactly what this thread is trying to find out. To get out of this infernal loop, we have to go with our "in vaccuum" and "gut feeling" evaluation of the worth of any given season. For example, if Lemieux, Orr, Gretzky and Howe came into the league right now and had their peak season, would the presence of the others lower the value of their individual season? In a sense yes, since they face each other off and the goal is the cup, but in a more pragmatic sense the answer is no. Hence we have to inject some "gut feeling" level analysis and not just peer comparison. But then even the "gut feeling" analysis is biased by a player scoring high point totals, since the observer is gonna be emotionnally affected by someone reaching the arbitrary "milestones" human beings decided mattered based on a number system invented centuries ago.
 
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1992-93 immediately comes to mind because so many great players had career years. That season also featured Mario's amazing feat and two 76 goal scorers in Mogilny and Selanne.
 

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