Who Was Better Gretzky Or Lemieux?

When you think of Wayne Gretzky and Mario Lemieux, you think of two of the greatest players in NHL history. Some people have their opinions on who was the better player so, we will break it down here. This one should be a fun read, so grab whatever snacks you have, grab a drink and enjoy. 

Let’s start with Wayne Gretzky, everyone knows that he holds the most NHL records and is considered the greatest player of all time, but how good was Wayno truly? Well, the best way to tell, is by using the most cliche the saying “If you take away all his goals, he would still have the most points in NHL history.” Now hearing that saying, one would assume that he is the greatest to ever play the game of hockey, and by all means, they are not wrong. To go further though, Gretzky had 2857 career NHL points and 894 goals while playing 1487 games, which is an average of 1.92 points per game, and 0.60 goals per game; this is a ridiculous stat. Something interesting to point out though is that the Oilers would purposely try to get a 4 on 4 penalties so that The Great One would have more space on the ice to score, this ultimately led to a rule change that would make coincidental minors 5-on-5. Everyone knows how good Wayne Gretzky was, and we can go on and on about him, but what about Mario Lemieux? Can he even compete with Gretzky? Let’s find out. 

Mario Lemieux or Super Mario's career was nothing short of spectacular, but with all his setbacks (cancer, back injuries, etc.) it is tough to say how well he could have been, but is it really... Lemieux has many accolades to his name, holds many records, and is one of the greatest of all time, so how good was he? Well, he only played 915 games in his NHL career, but played 17 seasons, and in some of those seasons, he only played 30 or so games. He never played a full season (82 games) and still managed to get 1723 points in his career and 690 goals, this is a point per game of 1.88, just .04 less than Wayne and a goal per game of 0.75 which is 0.15 more the Gretzky. Let’s have some fun and say Lemieux played the same amount of games as Gretzky, he would then have 2,796 points (if you use his ppg) in his NHL career which is only 61 points off of the great one, he would also have 1,115 goals which is 221 more goals then Gretzky which means he would smash Gretzky's goals record. This is something people don’t take into account when talking about these two, they weren’t too far off of each other, but Super Mario WOULD hold the NHL goals record by a lot. Now how about we take into consideration who their linemates were?

When Wayne Gretzky was in Edmonton, he was on a line with Jari Kurri and Mark Messier, and his first-line defenceman was Paul Coffey, all these players are in the Hall Of Fame, no wonder this guy put up so many points. Now what about when he got traded to the L.A. Kings in 1988? He played with Luc Robitaille and Bernie Nicholls who put up 150 points in 88’. Fast forward to the 91-92 season, they signed his former teammate Jari Kurri and traded for yet again another former teammate Paul Coffey. He would then play with Kurri and Robitaille from 93-94, then on a line with Rick Tocchet. In his final season with the Kings in 95-96, this was his first time with an average line, with Dmitri Khristich and Vitali Yachmenev. He was then traded that season to the St. Louis Blues. When he signed with the New York Rangers in 96’, he played his first year on a line with Adam Graves and again played Mark Messier, but they also had Luc Robitaille, Alexei Kovalev, and Brian Leetch; it seems like bringing back former teammates of Gretzkys’ is his thing. In 97’, he played again with Adam Graves but they brought in Pat LaFontaine (in what would be the final season of his career) still a Hall Of Fame player. And in Wayne Gretzky’s final season of his career, he played again with Adam Graves, but on the other side, it was also moving. Now to summarize this all, Wayne Gretzky has mostly played with Hall Of Famers, and that can be overlooked due to HIS success in the NHL; but maybe the reason the players were so good was because they played with him? That question you are going to have to ask Wayno or his former teammates. Now what about Mario’s linemates, let’s take a look at his.

Mario Lemieux entered the NHL in the 1984-85 season, he did not play with anyone notable until 1987, but in his rookie season, he played with 1984-85 Warren Young and George Ferguson. In 85-86, he played with Warren Young again and Brian McLellan, and in 1986-87 he was named captain and played with the “legendary” Bob Errey and Rob Brown. Not much help in his first three seasons in the NHL. The following year, he finally got some help, but on defence, as they traded for Paul Coffey. In 1988-89, his line consisted of Dan Quinn (94 points) and Rob Brown (115 points) that year Mario had his greatest season ever putting up 199 points, and he ultimately lost the Hart trophy to Gretzky even though he put up 31 more points than him, which is absurd because he played two fewer games then Gretzky. In Lemieux's first 5 seasons, do any of his linemates stick out to you? I don't think so. Now in 89-90, he had Kevin Stevens and Mark Recchi and did not make the playoffs, so they then drafted Jaromír Jágr in that year's draft. For the next seven years (1990-97) he played with Jágr and Ron Francis, two Hall Of Famers who helped the Penguins finally win a couple of cups; this also helped Pittsburgh establish itself as a hockey city. A few years later, Lemieux would then retire in his prime (he was 31 years old) for three years due to cancer; this would then lead to the Penguins only having Jágr on the team and leaving Pittsburgh in despair. Lemieux would then unretire in 2000 (at the age of 35), and make his long-awaited debut, playing alongside his buddy Jágr for one more half-season. His last four seasons were derailed by many injuries, notably his back, and Pittsburgh Penguins hockey wasn’t the same with him off the ice. This led him to purchase the team to keep the Penguins in Pittsburgh. This ultimately paid off as the future of Pittsburgh was in good hands after drafting, Marc Andre-Fleury, Evengi Malkin, and most importantly, Sidney Crosby-who was Mario’s linemate in his final season. Super Mario’s linemates weren’t the best to start off his career, but slowly got better as time went on, compared to the great one, who had everyone he could have got. The question I ask now is what if Lemieux had what Gretzky had? Would NHL records have changed? Would Lemieux be considered the greatest player of all time? 

Gretzky and Lemieux are two of the greatest players to ever touch the ice, and if we consider what we just discussed, Mario Lemieux would 100% be a better player if he had a supporting cast like Gretzky, he would most definitely hold way more records than he does now bearing any injuries of course, and he would go down as the greatest hockey player of all time. But... we don't live in a world full of what-ifs, even though it makes the argument a lot more interesting. Again, Lemieux’s career was nothing short of spectacular, and we could only imagine if he didn’t have health problems, what the NHL would look like. So, this ultimately leaves us with Wayne Gretzky as the best player of all time, but it is closer than what people might say, especially if you take into account what we just discussed.

*For Gretzky's lines 

McLellan, Q. (2023, September 19). Revisiting Wayne Gretzky’s time with the La Kings. The HockeyWriters.https://thehockeywriters.com/wayne-gretzky-la-kings-tenure/#:~:text=Gretzky%20spent%20the%20season%20on

*For stats and data

NHL stats, history, scores, standings, playoffs, Schedule & Records. Hockey. (n.d.). https://www.hockey-reference.com/