A Statistical Freak

There are hockey players whose seasons and careers leap of the page statistically when compared to the rest of their peers, and it often brings up a question of "Was Player X that much better than everyone else" or some variation of it. Sometimes, it's just a player finding himself in the right circumstances where he plays mainly injury-free and is able to capitalize on a lot of opportunities. Far more rarely, though, does a player's career simply blow everyone else's career numbers away. Today, we'll take a quick look at why Wayne Gretzky's records may be challenged, but it's very doubtful anyone will ever take a run at Gretzky's point toal when he finally hung up the skates.

I'm pretty certain everyone knows that even if one took away all of Gretzky's goals, he'd still hold a 42-point lead over Jaromir Jagr for the most points all-time, but a Redditor with the handle "r/dataisbeautiful" took the data comparison to the next level by graphing all players who have scored 1000 NHL regular season points AND 100 NHL playoff points to see just how good the best of the best NHL players are. Feast your eyes upon these statistical plot points.

That's pretty insane, right? One person did note that there aren't many red dots on the map, and that's likely going to change in the coming years with Stamkos, McDavid, and Draisaitl sitting just outside the 1000-100 point cutoffs, but just look at the top-right corner and tell me that's not impressive. Yes, Messier, Jagr, Howe, and Francis were good in the regular season while players like Kurri and Glenn Anderson stepped up their games in the playoffs, but no one is anywhere close to what Gretzky did in both seasons. Only Crosby appears to be on the right trajectory, but he's light years behind Gretzky's production based on current stats.

That little guy in the top-right corner? I wouldn't worry about that little guy. He never seemed to have a problem in the offensive zone.

Until next time, keep your sticks on the ice!