[SpartanBrizz]

Originally Posted by wingfanjim

I absolutely agree. However, you can't deny that statistically speaking, the case could be made that if Yzerman had stayed healthy, he would have had a shot at being in the same realm as Gretzky when it came to goal scoring. I'm not saying he would have done it, but I'm saying that based on his performance, he could have.

Also, Gretzky played over 74 games a season on average. If you redo my calculations based upon Yzerman playing the same amount of games a season he would have ended up with 804 goals. That would be 3 goals ahead of Gordie Howe in 2nd place behind Gretzky's 893.

I think people forget what a huge offensive threat Stevie was early in his career as well. If it wasn't for a certain guy in Pittsburgh, he would have a very different reputation now (the year Stevie scored 65 goals, an incredible number, Lemieux finished with 85 goals and 199 points)

Season GP G A PTS
1987-88 64 50 52 102
1988-89 80 65 90 155
1989-90 79 62 65 127
1990-91 80 51 57 108
1991-92 79 45 58 103
1992-93 84 58 79 137


look at the kudos Ovechkin gets today, and then look at those stats again over a SIX year period (and the fact that even w/ 65 goals, ovechkin only had 47 assists to go with them). Once Bowman arrived in '93 though, his role changed and he became more of a leader than a scorer. As it is he is Sixth all time in scoring....he could very easily have been 2nd or 3rd for his career had he not voluntarily changed with the new system.