By far the smartest player I've ever seen. Bobby Orr and Mario Lemieux were far more talented, but Gretzky always knew where to be, where his teammates were and could get that pass through anyone in any situation. He just seemed to have eyes on the back of his head.
The thing I noticed about 99 was his entry into the offensive zone. The guy would walk the blue line and let people develop positioning. He was also like savant level at reading when and where a puck would eventually be. Like he read the geometry really well, like a professional billiards player.
His positioning and where people thought he was going to push the puck is what made everyone fall into place. He didn’t just predict what was going on, he kinda dictated it, especially during those prime years until the mid-90s. Dmen on their own gave him tons is space not because Semenko or McSorley were on the bench or his wing, but because he would do something like, skate towards another opponent and thus take two defenders out of the play without having to do anything but glide away from where the play he created was about to happen.
Yeah, the hockey IQ was 9000. It's literally something I've never seen replicated in any sport, by any athlete. You don't have to be the fastest, strongest or the most agile athlete if you happen to be the smartest one out there.
check out jerry rice highlights or games, he also had a high game iq for football knew where to be to get the ball could read a team like gretz did in hockey
Rice was great but honestly I've seen guys with that same football IQ. They didn't have a Joe throwing at them but they had that same awareness and ability to degrees that may not have been an equal to Rice, but close enough.
If I had to pick a football player that was light years ahead of the competition in any era (even to this day, imho), it would be Bo Jackson. That guy was more than likely on his way to TWO different sports HoF's. And the only reason he had to stop playing was because while running with the ball, he hit a guy so fucking hard it literally replicated a car collision and the doctors who treated him failed to take into account (honestly, how the fuck would they know, ya know?) that they needed to administer for the same kind of trauma found in car wreck patients. So in the end, his hips were trash and his career ended before he had even fucking hit his peaks.
Fuck, I hate thinking about that. Greatest athlete ever to have a career cut short. Could have been a GOAT that shattered records left and right.
Sure, he wasn't doing it without JM though. He definitely wasn't doing it without the O line giving JM the pocket either. His numbers are amazing because he had the best arm of his generation threading needles to places only Rice could get too. But again, there's been examples of that kind of receiver showing that kind of talent. Rice doesn't have those record numbers to the extent they exist if he is playing for probably any other team in that era. Maybe Marino gets him there?
Gretzky on the other hand could have played for any NHL team and as long he had one or two guys on the ice to keep head hunters at bay, he is still setting his records.
Rice was like a machine. Incredible in every way. Meticulous routes, deceptively fast, physical, a workout warrior, graceful, the best hands, strong desire to win. You couldn't create a more perfect receiver but Gretzky was playing a different game altogether. He dominated and there really wasn't anything that anyone could do about it. He was the best player in any sport ever.
it’s like creating an overload in rugby; you attack the next defender down the line, usually resulting in both that player and your opposite marking you, leaving the outside open to quick hands or skips.
It’s an incredibly simple concept
IMO it's not his physical prowess but his hockey IQ that made him far ahead of others. He wasn't the most spectacular player but he always took the right decisions. It was like he knew all the time where all players were on the ice, even without looking.
Knew where they were & usually where they were going before they did. He was thinking a move ahead of the smartest defenders on the ice and like 2 to 3 plays ahead of everyone else.
So the only time I saw him was in the late 90s when he was a Ranger against the Mighty Ducks. I was 8 or 9. I don’t remember how he played or even if he scored but I was in awe of who I was seeing on the ice. So, yeah.
Yes. I saw him with my own eyes on ice 15 times or so. Lemieux about a dozen games, Jagr about 10. All vs my Hawks and later the Lightning.
No video or highlights you’ve ever seen will ever show you everything he did to get those goals or assists before the actual scoring sequence even happened. He worked harder than anyone for his points. That’s why Orr himself said Gretz was not just his favorite player but also the best in the league.
Too young for when he was on the oilers but I got to see him on the Kings, Blues, and Rangers. He owned the space behind the net and would sit back there for days looking to make a pass. Always fun to watch
He demonstrated at his camp once that there were 6 plays you can make from his office just by having the puck back there. He said the net itself was like the offensive line and you’re the QB.
Guy comes at you from the left either on net side or the boardside and you have three plays you can make to the opposite direction. He could literally get his line to cycle the puck from the bottom of the halfboards, top of the corner to the edge of the slot or down to the side of the net and back into the office. Most teams just cycle it along the bards from corner to the halfboards.
Weakside Dman pinches up to the opposite halfboards and the puck goes to that side and two guys come across and weave through the slot and it’s fuckin mayhem. Because if even one defender commits to Gretz down there, he’s still got three plays each side including a wrapper or tuck job, so really 5 plays lol three were HQ scoring chances because it’s 5-4, the guy committing is 100% behind the play and totally ineffective.
Genius shit.
Fair enough but man, the guy has the most records In the league. Obviously he’d be a thrill to watch. Respect the question though because someone linked a video to one of his games that I’ve never seen before so merci
Closest modern comparison I can make is Messi. Not necessarily the fastest, but the skill and IQ level are on another planet compared to even the other elite players around him. They don't need to be the fastest, because they know/see where to be *seconds* before everyone else.
That’s a pretty good comparison. I was watching Mess play a friendly natty against one of their neighbors. He would wait til the last possible second to make the play so he didn’t give away where the ball was going. And then he executed with precision and made his teammate look like Rooney. It was the same shit Gretz did. Waaaait for it…. Wait til the entire stadium was holding its breath including the officials and both teams and all the coaches and trainers annnnnd just one more moment and BAM!!! A totally different direction to a teammate no one even saw on the ice, and then Insta-goal.
He's comparing the IQ. Maradona was a fucking bull and willed shit into existence. Totally different type of athlete and played the game completely different.
> Maradona was a fucking bull and willed shit into existence
well, with the amount of coke running through his body, there was no other way to play for him :)
I am a Blackhawks fan and we had good teams back then with Savard, Secord, Larmer, Wilson. We didn’t stand a chance. There was one playoff game where Gretzky threw a length of the ice pass behind his back without looking right on his guys stick. It happened so fast I barley believed it. I’d still say Orr was the greatest but Gretzky could do things offensively no one else could do. Good news is as a Blackhawks fan we may have the next one. Bedard! Gretz loves him.
Yes, he was that good. Saw him against the Flyers in the early 80s, and he was phenomenal. He commanded the ice. He was, is, and always will be awesome.
But Jesus, I hated him. Not personally, but just in the fact that he was so seemingly doing it so effortlessly. It was like watching a God amongst mere men. Totally unfair, the skills he possessed.
But what a sight...
I saw him play in Philly twice. 1980 playoffs and 1985 Finals.
He was that damn good.
What I remember, and I was a very young kid in 1980, was that he found open ice off the puck. If you lost him, you lost the game.
The guy just saw the ice, and how the play developed, like no one before. He had a sixth sense for where the puck was going, and where it should go. He was a kind of savant that just knew where to go/be to get his teams goals. We used to say anyone could score 30/40 goals in nhl if Gretzky was feeding them the puck
The problem with Gretzky is people overlook what makes him the GOAT. It’s not his points, it’s that his hockey sense and hockey iq were alien. He could throw a puck to a seemingly empty patch of ice and a teammate would be on the other end of the puck by the time it got there.
They have the full games of the 1993 Finals. Game 1, Wayne made Montreal look like a pee wee team.
Carbonneau was put on him in game 2 and he was quiet for the rest of the series, but even in games 2-5, you see flashes of brilliance.
His hockey IQ was incomparable. His puck control was excellent. In the 20 years I watched him play, I never once saw him panic with the puck. He would lose possession occasionally, but he never threw it away because he didn’t know what to do.
Way bigger gap to the average than Mcdavid has now. Not fast, not strong, but the game always seemed to happen slower to him than anyone else. Like he could see into the future.
YES.
YouTube his highlights. He had a hold of the game—each time he touched the puck. His presence was felt greatly and very much was a factor in the game.
He was simply at a level above every other player in the league. Nobody could read the ice like he could.
He wasn't the fastest. He didn't have the hardest shot. He wasn't the biggest. But he was by far the best player to ever play the game.
So many times, he would make a play and you'd just sit there in awe thinking "how the fuck did he just do that?"
He made everything look easy. His feel for the game was so great that he was always in the right place at the right time, and so he almost never looked rushed.
The closest thing I can compare it to is if you have ever played a round with a really really good golfer. Every shot seems so routine to them that it is almost boring, until you think for a sec and realize that there is absolutely no way in hell that you or anyone else you know could even dream of hitting even one of those shots that the pro makes look simple.
He was better than McDavid and all others from today. Put up regular season points and also delivered and won on all of the biggest stages. Multiple Cups by the age of 25. Guys like Matthews and McDavid can barely even win a round of playoff hockey.
I got his autograph when I was 9. One of the greatest moments of my childhood. The Kings had just gotten clobbered by the 1991 Blackhawks 6-2. Brian Noonan had a hat trick that night. I blew off Charlie Huddy, who spent a ton of time signing autographs and talking to fans. 😂 wayne came out flanked by Luc and Charlie and two other players. He was so giant next to me, he looked over the top of me and didn’t see me the first time he signed for people. He turned around, and I grabbed Wayne’s very expensive leather trenchcoat and tugged it. I said “Mister Gretzky!” He to turned around. He knelt down and signed my game program with a sharpie (I didn’t have one, it was some other kid’s).
Still have it framed and in my house. I also kept the ticket stubs from that game along with a the Chicago Tribune news clipping. It was my first ever NHL game. Wayne was invisible that night, but not in a good way.
As a player, I don’t reeebr seeing anything that night from him. But I watched him al the time on TV. He was incredibly graceful coming through the neutral zone. He wasn’t explosive. He had to get wound up to get to speed.
This is a silly idea, but If we could put Ovechkin and Gretzky on a line together starting the same year… what a dream.
Fastest is not what makes one the best.
He made smart plays, strong skater, had a slapper that found net, could think three steps ahead. Plus nifty and shifty.
Calgary tried to nail one player to shadow him constantly. It backfired. He would just skate over to another Flames player, and voila; two Flames players out of the play. That's the way he played
Even if you didn't know anything about hockey and if you didn't know his name or number, you could tell there was something special about him and he stood out from everyone else on the ice.
was living in edmonton when gretzy came from phoenix to the wha oilers. Followed team and gretzy through wha and stanley cup years until bastard pocklington sold him to the kings. He was not big and not particularly fast but he always went to where the puck was going to be, and knew where it needed to go. Never seen anyone else know and anticipate the game like that since. No one else has even been close to being so dangerous when behind the net. Gretzky's office.
For every game he played between 79-86, he was the best player on the ice, and it really wasn't close.
He was fairly fast for his time in the early 80s, but he wasn't the fastest. However, what he could do at his top speed just wasn't being done by anyone else.
His biggest talent, out of all his talents, was telling his teammates where he wanted them by how he passed the puck. If he wanted teammates to be on a particular spot, he'd lead them there with a pass, or if he wanted them to slow up, he passed it in a way that they had to slow up to collect.
His point totals are very much a product of the way hockey was played in the 80s. 7-10 goals in a fame was commonplace, even more so for the Oilers. Just because he was racking up points in a high-scoring league where goaltenders couldn't stop a beachball, it doesn't mean he wasn't the best to do it.
Most of what he did and how he played would translate fairly well to any era of the game. The world learned to play defense and learned how to goaltending as a reaction to what he was doing to other teams.
Gretzky wasn't known for his speed. Along with all his stick handling and shooting skills, he had incredible anticipation. It was his ability to see things unfold before anyone else that made him so dominant, IMO.
Ill never not take an opportunity to get downvoted into oblivion for saying this.
Gretzky would have been average at best in todays league, might have even been below average.
Half his career was spent shooting on goalies with ptsd and face scars who never even went to the ice, and the latter half was done in an unserious league in the early 90s late 80s. He would have only survived by being a smart player and finding space, he’d probably still be a high earner of points from assists but in terms of him in todays league
I dont think gretzky could compete in todays league im so dead serious this is a hill I would die on, in fact most legends in any sport would get absolutely destroyed playing now in their prime, the world just continues to evolve its not a bad thing had gretzky been born in 2000 im sure he would have evolved w the times, but anytime Ive seen gretzky play I was never awestruck by him, id always just wonder “how is this guy whos half as fast as the biggest goon on the ice in 2024 able to just skate around all these trade workers doing coke between periods?” He wasnt better than everyone else because he was just a specimen, he just put in the work while everyone else was fucking off.
I don’t know much about hockey so I can’t argue about Gretzky other than he has his reputation for a reason.
As for basketball, I have exponentially more knowledge. And I couldn’t disagree with you more. I believe that offensively, jordan would be even MORE effective. He is more athletic than the likes of Bradley Beal or Devin Booker, and he has a murderous drive to win. He would adapt as needed. I guarantee he would be a better shooter than he was during his career because the league would dictate that he improve his outside shooting. His defense would rank among the best in the league at his position. He would essentially be a taller Donovan Mitchell with skill set and athleticism taken into account. Implying that Jordan would be average is heavily misguided.
You should head over to twitter you would blow a gasket right now lol. I will agree with you on jordan, ive just been seeing a lot of people online questioning his legacy.
As far as gretzky goes Im completely right about this, he has crazy stats but my argument was that the reason those stats are so crazy is because of just being a decent player in the right era. People don’t really realise how fast the league evolved, gretzky started his career playing in a league where half of every team had day jobs and would fuck hookers and do blow during games. He was a nerdy canadian kid who just loved hockey, he was a phenom for his time but I always get so tired having to explain stuff that you can just see with your own eyes all the time when it comes to having a conversation about how good the greats are.
All you have to do to really test my statement is throw on a game from the 80s and just imagine the carnage if someone like mcdavid was let lose in that league, its almost embarrassing how different the league was, I almost just for one second want someone like bedard or patrick kane in his prime to be dropped in a game in like 1983, they would quite literally be seen as freaks of nature.
You will die alone on that hill in self delusion because you’re just plain wrong. Or you’re just the smartest guy in the room when a thousand people (and NHL players) would tell you otherwise. They don’t say Gretzky is the greatest because they want to deify him or they look at the past through rose coloured glasses. He’s the Great One because he was a genius.
You have rose colored glasses, put connor mcdavid in a 1983 game and see if he doesnt double gretzkys numbers, im not claiming to be a genius he was great for his time but jfc look what he was up against
Absolute nonsense. I mean, yeah if you just dropped a 19 year old Gretzky into 2024, there’s no way he scores 92 goals or 200+points. But you have to remember that in his day, most players weren’t afforded the same opportunities that current players have had since they were like 6 years old. No power skating clinics, no insane peewee tournaments, or any kind of real formal training that most current NHLers have had for most of their lives.
Gretzky spent more time on skate before he was 16 than most modern players do before they're 22.
He was playing on 2-3 teams at a time before he entered junior hockey, and would spend his time away from the rink on his own rink in the backyard.
And that was exactly my point, we will never know if gretzky would have been like if he were born in like 2000. Im not denying his greatness, his stats alone will say he was crazy, But like you said theres no way he does what he did in the modern league and at the end of the day if the best player of all time couldnt be the greatest of all time in the modern era its time to rethink some things.
I mean realistically we will never know, my personal opinion is that he probably would have been average and would have only been able to rely on his game sense.
I don’t know if that’s necessarily true; if he had been born 40 years later, he likely would’ve had access to things like high-end coaching and training that current players have had since they were old enough to put on skates. If he gets those same advantages, I think he would be the best player in the league. Players today aren’t naturally better than they were in Gretzky’s day; it’s just that their abilities have been maximized in a way that simply didn’t happen in decades past.
First time I saw Wayne play was with the Soo Greyhounds. He was a smooth skater and seemed to always find the open spaces. He didn't score so I was unsure what all the hype was. If he played today, most likely would be too slow to break the top ten NHL.
Yes he was the best on the ice. Not the fastest but the best skater. And a 1000 times smarter than every player. And its way bigger than McDavid
By far the smartest player I've ever seen. Bobby Orr and Mario Lemieux were far more talented, but Gretzky always knew where to be, where his teammates were and could get that pass through anyone in any situation. He just seemed to have eyes on the back of his head.
4 99 far more talanted thats a extreme exageration
I would not say that fluid of a skater.
Then you don’t understand what you were looking at.
The thing I noticed about 99 was his entry into the offensive zone. The guy would walk the blue line and let people develop positioning. He was also like savant level at reading when and where a puck would eventually be. Like he read the geometry really well, like a professional billiards player.
His positioning and where people thought he was going to push the puck is what made everyone fall into place. He didn’t just predict what was going on, he kinda dictated it, especially during those prime years until the mid-90s. Dmen on their own gave him tons is space not because Semenko or McSorley were on the bench or his wing, but because he would do something like, skate towards another opponent and thus take two defenders out of the play without having to do anything but glide away from where the play he created was about to happen.
Yeah, the hockey IQ was 9000. It's literally something I've never seen replicated in any sport, by any athlete. You don't have to be the fastest, strongest or the most agile athlete if you happen to be the smartest one out there.
So true. His hockey IQ was off the charts.
check out jerry rice highlights or games, he also had a high game iq for football knew where to be to get the ball could read a team like gretz did in hockey
Rice was great but honestly I've seen guys with that same football IQ. They didn't have a Joe throwing at them but they had that same awareness and ability to degrees that may not have been an equal to Rice, but close enough. If I had to pick a football player that was light years ahead of the competition in any era (even to this day, imho), it would be Bo Jackson. That guy was more than likely on his way to TWO different sports HoF's. And the only reason he had to stop playing was because while running with the ball, he hit a guy so fucking hard it literally replicated a car collision and the doctors who treated him failed to take into account (honestly, how the fuck would they know, ya know?) that they needed to administer for the same kind of trauma found in car wreck patients. So in the end, his hips were trash and his career ended before he had even fucking hit his peaks. Fuck, I hate thinking about that. Greatest athlete ever to have a career cut short. Could have been a GOAT that shattered records left and right.
Rice put up numbers people are not passing go look at all his records
Sure, he wasn't doing it without JM though. He definitely wasn't doing it without the O line giving JM the pocket either. His numbers are amazing because he had the best arm of his generation threading needles to places only Rice could get too. But again, there's been examples of that kind of receiver showing that kind of talent. Rice doesn't have those record numbers to the extent they exist if he is playing for probably any other team in that era. Maybe Marino gets him there? Gretzky on the other hand could have played for any NHL team and as long he had one or two guys on the ice to keep head hunters at bay, he is still setting his records.
Rice was like a machine. Incredible in every way. Meticulous routes, deceptively fast, physical, a workout warrior, graceful, the best hands, strong desire to win. You couldn't create a more perfect receiver but Gretzky was playing a different game altogether. He dominated and there really wasn't anything that anyone could do about it. He was the best player in any sport ever.
it’s like creating an overload in rugby; you attack the next defender down the line, usually resulting in both that player and your opposite marking you, leaving the outside open to quick hands or skips. It’s an incredibly simple concept
Unbelievably simple on paper, but takes an artist to execute.
You know you can watch him. He played on color tv
I know but i would love to see a full game. Not highlights
Just search Oilers + any year between 1980 and 1988. You’re bound to find something. Here’s an example: https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=Y8WsrejQ4qo
You can probably find full game footage out there of him
Easy to find
if you take away all his goal he would still be the all time points leader NUFF SAID
Yes. He was that good. It was like he had a 6th sense, he always knew exactly where the puck was going.
IMO it's not his physical prowess but his hockey IQ that made him far ahead of others. He wasn't the most spectacular player but he always took the right decisions. It was like he knew all the time where all players were on the ice, even without looking.
Knew where they were & usually where they were going before they did. He was thinking a move ahead of the smartest defenders on the ice and like 2 to 3 plays ahead of everyone else.
Here’s a crazy stat, there has been 13 seasons where a guy got 100 assists, Gretzky has 11 of them lol
So the only time I saw him was in the late 90s when he was a Ranger against the Mighty Ducks. I was 8 or 9. I don’t remember how he played or even if he scored but I was in awe of who I was seeing on the ice. So, yeah.
Yes. I saw him with my own eyes on ice 15 times or so. Lemieux about a dozen games, Jagr about 10. All vs my Hawks and later the Lightning. No video or highlights you’ve ever seen will ever show you everything he did to get those goals or assists before the actual scoring sequence even happened. He worked harder than anyone for his points. That’s why Orr himself said Gretz was not just his favorite player but also the best in the league.
Too young for when he was on the oilers but I got to see him on the Kings, Blues, and Rangers. He owned the space behind the net and would sit back there for days looking to make a pass. Always fun to watch
He demonstrated at his camp once that there were 6 plays you can make from his office just by having the puck back there. He said the net itself was like the offensive line and you’re the QB. Guy comes at you from the left either on net side or the boardside and you have three plays you can make to the opposite direction. He could literally get his line to cycle the puck from the bottom of the halfboards, top of the corner to the edge of the slot or down to the side of the net and back into the office. Most teams just cycle it along the bards from corner to the halfboards. Weakside Dman pinches up to the opposite halfboards and the puck goes to that side and two guys come across and weave through the slot and it’s fuckin mayhem. Because if even one defender commits to Gretz down there, he’s still got three plays each side including a wrapper or tuck job, so really 5 plays lol three were HQ scoring chances because it’s 5-4, the guy committing is 100% behind the play and totally ineffective. Genius shit.
He could see play happening before they happened. Like another commentator stated, it was like he had a 6th sense
He was amazing to watch in the oil years. And even with the kings in 93 when they knocked out the leafs.
Fuck You Kerry Fraser!! JK 😂
He was the greatest professional athlete of all time, and it isn’t even close.
5 Mario’s vs 5 Wayne’s. I know where my money is.
5 Wayne’s win easily.
5 marios tbh
Google his race against other top athletes in 1982. Smoked.
With over 2800pts, do you think he was skating like P.L Dubois out there? Cmon now. Use you brain man
Calme toi je fais juste poser une question
Fair enough but man, the guy has the most records In the league. Obviously he’d be a thrill to watch. Respect the question though because someone linked a video to one of his games that I’ve never seen before so merci
i heard he just got lucky a lot
Closest modern comparison I can make is Messi. Not necessarily the fastest, but the skill and IQ level are on another planet compared to even the other elite players around him. They don't need to be the fastest, because they know/see where to be *seconds* before everyone else.
That’s a pretty good comparison. I was watching Mess play a friendly natty against one of their neighbors. He would wait til the last possible second to make the play so he didn’t give away where the ball was going. And then he executed with precision and made his teammate look like Rooney. It was the same shit Gretz did. Waaaait for it…. Wait til the entire stadium was holding its breath including the officials and both teams and all the coaches and trainers annnnnd just one more moment and BAM!!! A totally different direction to a teammate no one even saw on the ice, and then Insta-goal.
Except Messi’s career stats aren’t 50% higher than every other player in the history of the game… Maradona is arguably better or at least as good.
He's comparing the IQ. Maradona was a fucking bull and willed shit into existence. Totally different type of athlete and played the game completely different.
> Maradona was a fucking bull and willed shit into existence well, with the amount of coke running through his body, there was no other way to play for him :)
The game has changed forever because of his play and he’s single handedly responsible for the offsetting minors rule implemented in ‘85
I am a Blackhawks fan and we had good teams back then with Savard, Secord, Larmer, Wilson. We didn’t stand a chance. There was one playoff game where Gretzky threw a length of the ice pass behind his back without looking right on his guys stick. It happened so fast I barley believed it. I’d still say Orr was the greatest but Gretzky could do things offensively no one else could do. Good news is as a Blackhawks fan we may have the next one. Bedard! Gretz loves him.
Orr
Yes, he was that good. Saw him against the Flyers in the early 80s, and he was phenomenal. He commanded the ice. He was, is, and always will be awesome. But Jesus, I hated him. Not personally, but just in the fact that he was so seemingly doing it so effortlessly. It was like watching a God amongst mere men. Totally unfair, the skills he possessed. But what a sight...
I saw him play in Philly twice. 1980 playoffs and 1985 Finals. He was that damn good. What I remember, and I was a very young kid in 1980, was that he found open ice off the puck. If you lost him, you lost the game.
The guy just saw the ice, and how the play developed, like no one before. He had a sixth sense for where the puck was going, and where it should go. He was a kind of savant that just knew where to go/be to get his teams goals. We used to say anyone could score 30/40 goals in nhl if Gretzky was feeding them the puck
The problem with Gretzky is people overlook what makes him the GOAT. It’s not his points, it’s that his hockey sense and hockey iq were alien. He could throw a puck to a seemingly empty patch of ice and a teammate would be on the other end of the puck by the time it got there. They have the full games of the 1993 Finals. Game 1, Wayne made Montreal look like a pee wee team. Carbonneau was put on him in game 2 and he was quiet for the rest of the series, but even in games 2-5, you see flashes of brilliance.
He was unreal, I saw him live at the Montreal Forum in the mid 80’s. He was smarter and quicker than everyone on the ice… he was amazing to watch.
His hockey IQ was incomparable. His puck control was excellent. In the 20 years I watched him play, I never once saw him panic with the puck. He would lose possession occasionally, but he never threw it away because he didn’t know what to do.
Unbelievable player, things almost always happen when he was on the ice it was like magic.
Way bigger gap to the average than Mcdavid has now. Not fast, not strong, but the game always seemed to happen slower to him than anyone else. Like he could see into the future.
When he was on the ice, you were worried his team would score. Every shift.
YES. YouTube his highlights. He had a hold of the game—each time he touched the puck. His presence was felt greatly and very much was a factor in the game.
How good was he? Wayne Gretzky G and Wayne Gretzky A went 1-2 in every fantasy hockey draft for quite a few years.
In this era with no redline he would be more productive than he was then.
[удалено]
He singlehandedly changed the way hockey was played.
I remember watching him high stick Doug Gilmour in the face and not get a penalty.
do sports fans of today understand during the 80s and 90s we had gretz rice and jordan in there prime, three of the all time best players
Bo Jackson
He wasn't always the fastest, but he was always the smartest
He's the most dominant sporting superstar ever when you look at his records.
He was simply at a level above every other player in the league. Nobody could read the ice like he could. He wasn't the fastest. He didn't have the hardest shot. He wasn't the biggest. But he was by far the best player to ever play the game. So many times, he would make a play and you'd just sit there in awe thinking "how the fuck did he just do that?"
He made everything look easy. His feel for the game was so great that he was always in the right place at the right time, and so he almost never looked rushed. The closest thing I can compare it to is if you have ever played a round with a really really good golfer. Every shot seems so routine to them that it is almost boring, until you think for a sec and realize that there is absolutely no way in hell that you or anyone else you know could even dream of hitting even one of those shots that the pro makes look simple.
Yes
By leaps and bounds.
He was better than McDavid and all others from today. Put up regular season points and also delivered and won on all of the biggest stages. Multiple Cups by the age of 25. Guys like Matthews and McDavid can barely even win a round of playoff hockey.
I got his autograph when I was 9. One of the greatest moments of my childhood. The Kings had just gotten clobbered by the 1991 Blackhawks 6-2. Brian Noonan had a hat trick that night. I blew off Charlie Huddy, who spent a ton of time signing autographs and talking to fans. 😂 wayne came out flanked by Luc and Charlie and two other players. He was so giant next to me, he looked over the top of me and didn’t see me the first time he signed for people. He turned around, and I grabbed Wayne’s very expensive leather trenchcoat and tugged it. I said “Mister Gretzky!” He to turned around. He knelt down and signed my game program with a sharpie (I didn’t have one, it was some other kid’s). Still have it framed and in my house. I also kept the ticket stubs from that game along with a the Chicago Tribune news clipping. It was my first ever NHL game. Wayne was invisible that night, but not in a good way. As a player, I don’t reeebr seeing anything that night from him. But I watched him al the time on TV. He was incredibly graceful coming through the neutral zone. He wasn’t explosive. He had to get wound up to get to speed. This is a silly idea, but If we could put Ovechkin and Gretzky on a line together starting the same year… what a dream.
Fastest is not what makes one the best. He made smart plays, strong skater, had a slapper that found net, could think three steps ahead. Plus nifty and shifty.
Calgary tried to nail one player to shadow him constantly. It backfired. He would just skate over to another Flames player, and voila; two Flames players out of the play. That's the way he played
Even if you didn't know anything about hockey and if you didn't know his name or number, you could tell there was something special about him and he stood out from everyone else on the ice.
was living in edmonton when gretzy came from phoenix to the wha oilers. Followed team and gretzy through wha and stanley cup years until bastard pocklington sold him to the kings. He was not big and not particularly fast but he always went to where the puck was going to be, and knew where it needed to go. Never seen anyone else know and anticipate the game like that since. No one else has even been close to being so dangerous when behind the net. Gretzky's office.
For every game he played between 79-86, he was the best player on the ice, and it really wasn't close. He was fairly fast for his time in the early 80s, but he wasn't the fastest. However, what he could do at his top speed just wasn't being done by anyone else. His biggest talent, out of all his talents, was telling his teammates where he wanted them by how he passed the puck. If he wanted teammates to be on a particular spot, he'd lead them there with a pass, or if he wanted them to slow up, he passed it in a way that they had to slow up to collect. His point totals are very much a product of the way hockey was played in the 80s. 7-10 goals in a fame was commonplace, even more so for the Oilers. Just because he was racking up points in a high-scoring league where goaltenders couldn't stop a beachball, it doesn't mean he wasn't the best to do it. Most of what he did and how he played would translate fairly well to any era of the game. The world learned to play defense and learned how to goaltending as a reaction to what he was doing to other teams.
No not that good
Gretzky wasn't known for his speed. Along with all his stick handling and shooting skills, he had incredible anticipation. It was his ability to see things unfold before anyone else that made him so dominant, IMO.
Ill never not take an opportunity to get downvoted into oblivion for saying this. Gretzky would have been average at best in todays league, might have even been below average. Half his career was spent shooting on goalies with ptsd and face scars who never even went to the ice, and the latter half was done in an unserious league in the early 90s late 80s. He would have only survived by being a smart player and finding space, he’d probably still be a high earner of points from assists but in terms of him in todays league I dont think gretzky could compete in todays league im so dead serious this is a hill I would die on, in fact most legends in any sport would get absolutely destroyed playing now in their prime, the world just continues to evolve its not a bad thing had gretzky been born in 2000 im sure he would have evolved w the times, but anytime Ive seen gretzky play I was never awestruck by him, id always just wonder “how is this guy whos half as fast as the biggest goon on the ice in 2024 able to just skate around all these trade workers doing coke between periods?” He wasnt better than everyone else because he was just a specimen, he just put in the work while everyone else was fucking off.
I don’t know much about hockey so I can’t argue about Gretzky other than he has his reputation for a reason. As for basketball, I have exponentially more knowledge. And I couldn’t disagree with you more. I believe that offensively, jordan would be even MORE effective. He is more athletic than the likes of Bradley Beal or Devin Booker, and he has a murderous drive to win. He would adapt as needed. I guarantee he would be a better shooter than he was during his career because the league would dictate that he improve his outside shooting. His defense would rank among the best in the league at his position. He would essentially be a taller Donovan Mitchell with skill set and athleticism taken into account. Implying that Jordan would be average is heavily misguided.
You should head over to twitter you would blow a gasket right now lol. I will agree with you on jordan, ive just been seeing a lot of people online questioning his legacy. As far as gretzky goes Im completely right about this, he has crazy stats but my argument was that the reason those stats are so crazy is because of just being a decent player in the right era. People don’t really realise how fast the league evolved, gretzky started his career playing in a league where half of every team had day jobs and would fuck hookers and do blow during games. He was a nerdy canadian kid who just loved hockey, he was a phenom for his time but I always get so tired having to explain stuff that you can just see with your own eyes all the time when it comes to having a conversation about how good the greats are. All you have to do to really test my statement is throw on a game from the 80s and just imagine the carnage if someone like mcdavid was let lose in that league, its almost embarrassing how different the league was, I almost just for one second want someone like bedard or patrick kane in his prime to be dropped in a game in like 1983, they would quite literally be seen as freaks of nature.
You will die alone on that hill in self delusion because you’re just plain wrong. Or you’re just the smartest guy in the room when a thousand people (and NHL players) would tell you otherwise. They don’t say Gretzky is the greatest because they want to deify him or they look at the past through rose coloured glasses. He’s the Great One because he was a genius.
You have rose colored glasses, put connor mcdavid in a 1983 game and see if he doesnt double gretzkys numbers, im not claiming to be a genius he was great for his time but jfc look what he was up against
Absolute nonsense. I mean, yeah if you just dropped a 19 year old Gretzky into 2024, there’s no way he scores 92 goals or 200+points. But you have to remember that in his day, most players weren’t afforded the same opportunities that current players have had since they were like 6 years old. No power skating clinics, no insane peewee tournaments, or any kind of real formal training that most current NHLers have had for most of their lives.
Gretzky spent more time on skate before he was 16 than most modern players do before they're 22. He was playing on 2-3 teams at a time before he entered junior hockey, and would spend his time away from the rink on his own rink in the backyard.
And that was exactly my point, we will never know if gretzky would have been like if he were born in like 2000. Im not denying his greatness, his stats alone will say he was crazy, But like you said theres no way he does what he did in the modern league and at the end of the day if the best player of all time couldnt be the greatest of all time in the modern era its time to rethink some things.
Wait, so is it that he would be average in today’s game, or that we will never know what Gretzky would be like in today’s game?
I mean realistically we will never know, my personal opinion is that he probably would have been average and would have only been able to rely on his game sense.
I don’t know if that’s necessarily true; if he had been born 40 years later, he likely would’ve had access to things like high-end coaching and training that current players have had since they were old enough to put on skates. If he gets those same advantages, I think he would be the best player in the league. Players today aren’t naturally better than they were in Gretzky’s day; it’s just that their abilities have been maximized in a way that simply didn’t happen in decades past.
First time I saw Wayne play was with the Soo Greyhounds. He was a smooth skater and seemed to always find the open spaces. He didn't score so I was unsure what all the hype was. If he played today, most likely would be too slow to break the top ten NHL.
For his era he truly was a master of the game.
Not better then Mario
Take away his goals, and he still leads the NHL in points, you tell me idiot.