murray said:
Would Gretzy have made it as big in the 50's early 60's
In the 50's & early 60's, you had to be tough and you had no goons to protect you. Howe, richard, Hull, Orr all fought their own battles. Small guys like mikita and henri Richard fought their own battles & were effective players. Wayne certainly had the ability but did he have the toughness to compete in that ere?
If anything he would have dominated even more. The whole notion that nobody was allowed to hit Gretzky is the biggest load of crap. Guys wanted to kill Gretzky, but he was too good a skater and too smart to put himself in a situation to get drilled.
Do people honestly think that while the Keenan coached Flyers were playing Gretzky in the finals that Tocchet, Sutter, Dave Brown, Hospadar, etc. etc. weren't trying to hit him ?
Gretzky would dominate any era that you put him in. If anything his skills transfer more readily to other eras than Orr and Howe. While both Orr and Howe would also have been great in any era, Howe's size and stremgth advantage would be so great if he played right now .... smae could be said for Orr's skating ability. He'd still be an incredible skater, but the gap would be much smaller.
Gretzky dominated with his intelligence and vision, and not pure physical ability.