Wayne Gretzky’s all-time points lead is about as safe of a record as you’ll find in any sport. He famously has more assists (1,963) than anyone else has points (although Jaromir Jagr came close with 1,921 career points) and only 4 current active players are in the top 50 in overall points with the highest (Joe Thornton) over 1,300 points away from matching the Great One. Put another way, Thornton would need to play an entire extra 20-year career at about 85% of his output to pass Gretzky’s points mark.

Gretzky’s 894 career goals also lead the record books, too. Although, it’s possible that Washington Capitals winger Alexander Ovechkin could make a run at the mark if he can stay healthy. The Russian is sitting at 730 career goals following the 2020-21 NHL season and would need to average just under 42 goals per year over the next 4 seasons to pass The Great One.

If Ovechkin can play through his 40 and 41 year-old seasons, for a total of an additional 6 more seasons, he’d need just under 28 goals per year to pass the all-time mark. He might be able to pull it off.

Anyway, back to Gretzky.

I don’t know what’s crazier, the fact that as a 10/11 year-old Gretzky played in 85 games (lol travel hockey) at the atom level or the fact that he produced 517 points in those games. 378 goals! 6 points per game! Imagine how much people A) marveled at his feats, especially no one who saw him play before but also B) hated playing against him, particularly jealous and vindictive hockey parents.

In 1994, my travel team played in the Quebec International Pee-Wee Tournament.* Upon arriving at the Coliseum where the Nordiques played we were besieged by autograph seekers (an awesome feeling!) and pin-traders while we met an older gentleman who spoke broken English and told us about watching Gretzky play in the tournament 20 years earlier. His Brantford squad didn’t win the tournament but Gretzky piled in 26 goals anyway.

Gretzky’s family had to challenge Ontario rules in order for him to play junior B hockey in Toronto as a 14/15 year-old where he ultimately played for 2 seasons. Competing against players as old as 20, Gretzky’s stats were far more human (132 points in 60 games) which combined with his slight physique may be why he only went 3rd overall in the 1977 OHL Draft. The No. 1 overall pick Tom McCarthy scored 238 points in his OHL career and had a decent but short NHL career mostly with the Minnesota North Stars. The 2nd overall pick Steve Peters was a solid junior player who never stuck in the NHL.

Gretzky played just 1 season in the OHL in a year that started when he was 16.5 years old. He would finish 2nd in league scoring (182 points in 64 games) and signed a pro contract with the World Hockey Association’s Indianapolis Racers (you couldn’t be drafted until you were 20 by the NHL, a rule they’d quickly fix and eventually reduce to 18) and later be traded to the Edmonton Oilers after the Racers folded while facing bankruptcy.

Gretzky scored 46 goals in 80 games in the WHA, but obviously these goals don’t count towards his NHL records. That clock didn’t start ticking until the WHA folded and the Oilers joined the NHL for the 1979-80 season when Gretzky was 18.5 years old. So, technically Gretzky was never drafted by a NHL team.

80’s/90’s hockey montage. 

He wasn’t officially a rookie because it was his 2nd professional season but if he was, Gretzky’s 137 points would be the most-ever by a first-time NHL player. Only Ovechkin (106) and Sidney Crosby (102) have broken 100 points as a rookie over the last quarter century.

Gretzky’s first 12 seasons until he turned 30 years old are just mind-boggling. At least 50 goals in his first 8 seasons (injuries prevented a 9th straight 50-goal campaign) while breaking the 60-goal mark 5 separate times. Even adjusted for the free-wheeling era it’s complete absurdity.

The 4-year stretch from 1981-82 through 1984-85 will never be touched at this level ever again. In this same age (21 to 24 years old) Ovechkin seemed to be scoring a million goals. His stats were 217 goals in 316 games, good enough to cement him as the greatest scorer in a quarter century. Gretzky scored 323 goals in 314 games at this age. Effectively 2 more full seasons worth of goals than Ovechkin over the same time period.

Of course, goaltending, defenseman speed, and team defensive approach were all woeful in the NHL until the mid-90’s. This is why eventually, should he pass Gretzky’s mark, Ovechkin could lay claim to the best scorer ever.

Many think Mario Lemieux would’ve broken Gretzky’s mark if he was able to stay healthy, too. He missed nearly 250 games during his prime and would’ve added conservatively about 175 more goals through age 31 if he played in about 90% of his total games.

That would have meant going into the 1997-98 season (the start of 3 missed seasons due to cancer) Lemieux would’ve trailed Gretzky by just a little over 100 career goals. It’s a shame we never got to witness him trying to gut out 40 or 50-goal seasons when the Dead Puck era and improved goaltending were transforming the league while sending scoring in the game plummeting. That Lemieux scored 283 points in 146 games for 1995-96/1996-97 (maybe the most impressive statistical back-to-back NHL seasons all thing considered) at the beginning of this era prior to leaving the league for so long probably means Lemieux would’ve easily broken the all-time record if he were healthy.

***

*Quick story about the Quebec Tournament. I broke my ulna and radius 8 weeks prior to leaving for the tournament, literally got the cast off the day before leaving. Obviously, I didn’t play. We’d billet with a family for nearly 2 weeks and it was an amazing time, fortunately for me. We played a tune-up game against a team from Florida inside a mall seen HERE that was a completely surreal experience. 

Every team from the ~135 clubs in the tournament got at least one game in the Coliseum in the single-elimination knockout layout.** We knew we were one of the strongest American teams involved but had the misfortune of facing the Toronto Red Wings, then the best organization in the Toronto Metro League (and thus the world) and defending champions*** in our first game. We ended up getting bounced 7-2 after a strong start.

**Once you were defeated in the main tournament they organized the losing teams into their own smaller tournaments. So we spent the next 8 or 9 days playing in a few different rinks throughout Quebec City in a smaller (but still huge field compared to normal tournaments) field of which we ended up winning. 

***When I was a squirt I played up a year with the Syracuse Stars ’81 summer team. The year before I went to the Quebec Tournament this same team lost the international Pee-Wee tournament to the Toronto Red Wings. I still have vivid memories of watching the Red Wings win the 1994 tournament on ESPN2 in overtime after our long trip back home. I’m still bitter we had to face that team in the first game and didn’t get more opportunities to play in (then) a NHL rink.Â