Quote:
Originally Posted by Locke
No. This is a common misconception, it isnt that its lacking in upper tier talent its that the gap in talent is much, much smaller.
Current AHLers are miles better than most of the bottom 6 players in the NHL from 1970-1990.
In Gretzky's day the bottom 6 players would be asking why there are knives on the bottom of their shoes.
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Gretzky, Lemieux and Jagr were the only Art Ross winners for two decades. Regardless of era the gap between them and their elite peers (Sakic, yzerman) was greater than the gap now between Crosby and whoever the fourth best player in the league is.
So is this due to a compression of the talent gap or just a lack of talent gap.
If like you are saying that the bottom pairing / 3/4 liners were terrible than why weren't other players able to take advantage. Same as defensive systems why weren't the other stars as dominant as Gretzky, Lemieux and Jagr?
So to be it isn't just the quality of player and training that differentiates the elite Talent today from history.
One reason is that we could be worse at identifying and maximizing talent. The cash required to become a midget hockey player limits the pool of elite athletes who have a chance in the NHL. So rather than pulling from all kids on the frozen pond we only pull from upper middle class families.
If you want to see dominance in a modern era sport just look at Lebron James who still has a huge gap between him and the next best player.