Gretzky is better than Crosby/Ovechkin combined. So I went back and looked to see if there was any truth to the theory that Gretzky's numbers are inflated due to more goals being scored during that era in the NHL compared to now. Basically between 1981-1986 (Gretzky's most prolific years) the average number of goals per game in the NHL was 7.467. Between 2005-2010 the average goals per game is 5.736. So there are about 24% less goals being scored now compared to then, but over those years in the 80's Gretzky averaged 207.6 points per season. Over his most prolific 4 years to date (counting out the injury year) Crosby has averaged 106.8. Even if you correct for the number of goals scored between years, Crosby still only gets a 24% bump to 139 points in a season. Ovechkin is even lower in terms of overall points. Now granted Crosby is just entering into the prime of his career, (Gretzky's most prolific seasons were his 4/5/6/7/8th years in the league), but still Crosby doesn't stand a chance of coming anywhere close to Gretzky's numbers.
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