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Without enforcers protecting him Gretzky would be nothing.

You compare players by how dominant they were in their time. That's the best way to compare players! For example Babe Ruth and Ty Cobb are ranked as the 3 or 4 greatest players ever. Would Ruth and Cobb still be superstars now? They still would be stars, but not as great as before . Or Don Hutson, the greatest Packers player ever. Would Hutson be as great as Jerry Rice? No he wouldn't. But has any receiver dominated his era as Don Hutson, NO

A more apt question: how does he compare to Lemieux? I think if you drop Wayne and Mario into Hockey today the scoring race is Mario, Conor, Wayne....many would disagree...because you mention isolated skills, Wayne never had the best shot, best speed or best anything except vision, IQ and drive. If he and Conor were born on the same day and grew up under the same systems, Wayne wins...he did it without all those super skills then, and he would again, Conor is like Sakic or Bure on steroids, the vision stays with Wayne and Mario. By far he is the best player since Lemieux though.

you have to compare the competition today to that which existed in the 80s. There were not many Europeans, no Czechoslovaks, Russians in the NHL in the 80s. More goals were scored in the 80s. There was no salary cap and some teams had an all-star team, like Edmonton. Gretzky had 42% ice time, McDavid has 30% in ice time.

Scary how good this guy was in his prime....only player I would consider taking over Crosby at that time. He was just not as popular with the casual fans who only see a players value with the fantasy mindset.

Exactly you twit. Skill has improved since the 80’s. Put Wayne Gretzky in this era and he would not be human.

Only one of those highlights was from the 2009 playoffs

The Canucks fans are very forgetful, Pettersson is very talented!!!! Sooooooo happy he stays with the Canucks team.

The problem is that you put Gretzky into today's game as he was. He would be a different player than he was. He would be faster, stronger, have all the tricks of today that didn't exist at his time all while having the greatest on ice mind the game has ever known. Doing it your way is just as ridiculous as saying McDavid would blow everyone away if he played in the 80's because people think 1980 McDavid would be the exact same as 2024 McDavid. He wouldn't. The game would be much easier today for players like Wayne or Mario with all the rules that favour scoring instead of detracting from scoring like they had. How many points they would get is another story but the game would definitely be easier for them to navigate. We know what Wayne and Mario did with all that heavy crappy equipment, one can only imagine how they would do with today's technology. McDavid plays in an era that is the safest for a superstar to freewheel and do whatever they do without having to worry too much about any serious rough stuff because the NHL turned a great league into the pussy league it is today. That's why there are no great rivalries anymore like there used to be. The Battle of Alberta was a true war in Gretzky's day. Now it's just the Stern Disagreement of Alberta.

yes

Gretzky was the greatest and it's not even close. Sheesh

bro is huffing cope

wonderful video. I think you are spot on!

totally agree. He is head and shoulders better than Gretzky ever was. Better than any other player that ever played. Even better than Orr. The only thing missing is the cup. If he wins a cup, that will seal the deal.

The question is who was the better talented athlete able to use the current time's available tech and resources to the best ability. McDavid is easily the most dominant player of his generation, an obvious hall of famer even if he stopped today, and one of the best hockey players to ever live. Gretzky on the other hand isn't compared to other hockey players, he's compared to the most dominant athletes in the history of ANY sport. This is obviously hypothetical but it just seems to me you're comparing a king to a God. Watching what 99 did with wood sticks and the skates in the 80s makes it difficult to accept that he wouldn't be even better given the tech available now. McDavid is such a powerhouse skater I think he'd break his ankles going from modern skates to those old boots because his skill outpowers the footwear but Gretzky was used to those and built his skating around it. It's impossible to compare but I tend to look at how dominant the players were and while Connor has a jump on everyone else, Gretzky wasn't even on the same planet as the other guys out there even aside from points. As pure athletic performance without any generational factor being accunted for yes McDavid is better. That being said so are most AHL or college guys and that point

I always thought that Toews was overshadowed by his teammate Kane who was flashier with his cellys. And also by Sidney Crosby who he was compared to often. Toews wasn’t flashy just workmanlike and got the job done. It’s unfortunate that he got sick because he lost a lot of playing time and probably would have had 1000 points by now. Definitely one of the greats.

Matthews is barely a top ten player in the league.

Funny how predictions go. Bob played WELL above his career averages over the past five years in just a couple series. After sitting and the ability of Vegas to grind in the opponents defensive zone just plain wore out Florida.

I personally think it's bad, now that Matthews did not take a pay cut, Nylander is now forced to take a pay cut himself if he wants to stay a Leaf. Nylander is asking around 10 million a season, and that's not un reasonable, not only has Nylander been a consistent player throughout his carrier with the Leaf's, but also puts up far better playoff numbers than Mattews, who goes invisible when he's actually needed, you know being our franchise star player, but now Nylander might have to sign for around 8 million and take a cut, luckily Nylander wants to be a Leaf and so he might just do that, but he easily could also get what he's asking with another team with cap space, it all seems to me like Mattews is not focused on winning a cup, and more focused on the money, any great franchise player who wants to win a cup would have taken a pay cut to keep the team together, and it has been seen throughout the league all the time, I just hope for the next 5 years we don't have an invisible Mathews in the playoffs and that the signing was actually worth it, but the way he's played when it counts in the last 7 years has not been worth the 13.25 million a year.

It's a lot for a player who can never bring his a-game in playoffs...

WHAT ARE YOUR THOUGHTS ON THIS DEAL? IS IT GOOD OR BAD FOR THE LEAFS?

Sidney Crosby

I saw Gretzky play, I was old enough to remember this wonderful player at his prime but to be honest there is no comparison to do if we look about pure ability, McDavid is at another level. Using statistic by taking in comparison how Gretzky was superior to other players in same year is a mistake cause as any sports there is an evolution in training and tactics and this tends to create more parity between players, getting a way to be superior is harder. At the time of Gretzky many players were smokers, they were not fallowing training plan during summer, some were simple goons barely skating. Gretzky was probably having the best hockey IQ at his time and certainly took better advantage of that situation than any other players and because the game was much slower he was able to play way more minutes than any actual players.

Because the team around him is mehh other than Hughes and Demko. They have decent depth players but not in positions they should be in. JT Miller is the most overrated player in the league, can score a bunch but is one of the worst defensive players in the league. Too bad honestly, cuz EP40 and Hughes are hella fun to watch. Also hope podzy and Hoglander can shake things up and be solid top 6 options!

I will cry when he retires

😅 P R O M O S M

200 foot game he’s the goat

Crosby is a top player of all time easily. Keep in mind how many more awards and points he'd have if he didn't get those concussions during his PRIME years. Something that has benefitted McDavid is that the NHL phased out goon hockey, shrunk goalie equipment, and cracked down on calling more penalties (particularly slashing and hooking). These rule changes have boosted scoring in the NHL to the highest it's been since the early 90s. A young Sidney Crosby would be putting up crazy numbers like McDavid. Not to mention that most of Crosby's career consisted him playing with, at best, 3rd line talent for wingers. Crosby didn't get a permanent, first line talent on his line until Jake Guentzel all the way in 2017....

more proof that the Oilers dont draft well unless it’s spoonfed to them

The Brady Tkachuk draft was worse, well for me as a Habs fan when the Habs chose Jesperi Kotkaniemi instead of Brady Tkachuk, i KNEW it was a HUGE mistake, it's funny, i felt exactly the same was this year, when we missed out on Ryan Leonard, or even Matvei Michkov, and instead chose a defenseman, Habs dont need more D, they need goals. I can go on to prove this , if anyone wants to argue that fact... On TSN they just did a show to see what Canadians teams had the best off-season, guess where the Habs landed?? If u said 7th, u got it!! We were last in scoring last year, of all the Canadian teams, how do they address that? By drafting a defenseman with 3 goals last year, and Alex Newhook. NOT ENOUGH, NOT EVEN CLOSE. I realize they're in a rebuild, but they wasted this draft pick, and it's going to bite them in the ass for the next 2 decades.

I'm a Canuck fan and to me, Bergeron was the best two-way since Bob Gainey. Probably even better as Bergie was a consistent point-getter. All the best to him in retirement. Oh as to the riot, it was started by hooligans that weren't even from Vancouver.

Because the teams that drafted them thought that they were the best player to fit their needs at the time? Like what kind of question is this? Did I miss where Matthew Tkachuk became the best player in the league at all positions?

He is really god

The NHL loves to hate the Canucks

Canucks fumble olli juolevi so bad

Tidbit: 3 of the 5 players selected before Tkachuk were from Finland. (They're the ones whose names end in vowels)

The fact the ducks chose Carlson makes me think if they won first OA they would’ve chose Fantilli over Bedard ☠️☠️☠️☠️😂😂

Mark Stone...What other captain got a hat trick in a Stanley Cup clinching game?

Patrice Bergeron is loved by fans of almost every team I think. But imo nowhere near the best captain in history. Messier, and Yzerman are tough to beat. Messier with 6 cups I think? One of my current favorites is Langeskog, dude will stand up for his teammates every time. I'm a chicago fan, but I think Toews is a good comparison for Bergergon. Patrice played longer, and has slightly more numbers, but the number of awards are about equal. Both all around players, Tazer has more cups, other awards, all star appearances.

Patrice

Sid the kid.. ALL day! Best leader in sports history.

WHO IS THE BEST CAPTAIN IN NHL HISTORY?

FULL VIDEO: czcams.com/video/h6KN9KPEjrM/video.html

PLD is now a King. We'll see if it was a good choice.

This video isn’t bad, but on an honest note, you need a bit more intensity in your delivery, a bit more, personality maybe, tweak some of your editing and I bet you’ll do great one day! Also, try to be as creative as you can with your video ideas! I give this a 6/10 but you have a ton of potential ! You have a good voice for CZcams videos also!

Michkov said he was never going to play for Arizona

are you fucking stupid bro how is Simashev the most puzzling pick of all time he was a lock to go top 20 stop acting like he was going in the 5th or smtg

So many things change in the cup playoffs. Anyone who predicts a winner is an idiot!

Another great video, you're the man! Maybe consider doing a video on 1st overall selection Doug Wickenheiser. Although he didn't reach his potential on the ice, his story is amazing. A banner with his number and a candle wick hangs in the St. Louis arena for him. There are also a couple ice arenas named after him. Just a suggestion, I try to comment for the algorithm.

Suck deez nuts