Quote:
Originally Posted by pylon
I think it would be more interesting, to see what Gretzky could do now. Would he even crack the first line?
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Probably low end first line player. Might get 60 points on the right team. Of course he's also 53.
I think there's often this imaginary barrier in people's minds who didn't watch Gretzky that he was somehow isolated in the 1980's and we never got to compare him with real players.
The 1998 season is all you need to know about Gretzky to deduce that players aren't amazingly better. I would say the talent pool is undeniably higher and no doubt goalies are better but not to the extent some people believe. David Moss wouldn't be an All-Star if he teleported back to the 1985 season.
If players are so much better today how could a 37 year old Gretzky lead the league in assists? He finished 3rd in points with Forsberg having a single point more with Jagr leading the league. In the 1998 season we had Jagr, Forsberg, Sakic, Yzerman, Selanne, Lindros, Modano, Hull, Nieuwendyk, Sundin, Fleury etc. Yet this 37 year old was able to put up 90 points against goaltenders that included Brodeur, Roy and Hasek when most of that list couldn't.
Sure it was a farcry from 200 points but we saw an out of his prime Gretzky capable of competing with players that were stars themselves in the 2000's. The leading scorer of that year is now 42 and leading his team by 15 points while being in the top 25 for points. So if a 42 year old Jagr is still a top player in 2014, we can probably assume he was pretty good when he 25. Especially considering he had already won an Art Ross and was about to win 4 more. But this 37 year old Gretzky was right there with him when it came to points.
If players are so much better today than they were 10 years ago, Selanne and Jagr shouldn't be playing. If 10 years ago they were so much better than they were 20 years ago, Sakic and Yzerman wouldn't have been stars. Lemieux already having retired twice shouldn't have been able to put up 91 points in 67 games as a 37 year old during the 2003 season.