Quote:
Originally Posted by Robbob
I think it is super close between the players. I also think Gretzky had a bit of a benefit of a perfect storm that IMO inflated his point total a bit. You had recent expansion/absorbing the WHA. The talent pool was rather shallow and spread thin where the difference between high end talent was rather significant coupled with an absolute jackpot in talent on a single team. Did they have five or six hall of famers from those teams? Mario didn't play with any future hall of famers until the 90's.
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I don't know if those five or six Hall of Fame guys would be in the Hall if not for Gretzky. They certainly wouldn't have won all those Cups without him and that's what made their careers, IMO. Hell, without Gretzky, the Flames would have won a few more cups in the '80s.
Kurri turned into a great player obviously, but if the Leafs had drafted him instead, and he was on Bill Derlago's line through the 80's, things would have turned out very different for him.
Wayne would have done it no matter where he played, and brought a different bunch of guys along for the ride.