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oshawaguy t1_j9l7pvw wrote

While acknowledging this remarkable achievement, it’s worth noting that he did this in 545 games, while Wayne Gretzky took 352 games to achieve this. Furthermore, Gretzky scored his 1600th point in 667 games, 315 games from his 800th point. Really puts his (Wayne) talent in perspective.

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dreamtimeboomerang t1_j9m1ghn wrote

You have to apply a scaling factor to Wayne in my opinion. Goaltending standards have improved unfathomably in that time. Completely different game now and a record like Wayne's will never be touched for that reason

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Domesticated_dad t1_j9m55ta wrote

Gretzky forced the entire game to change. People can try and diminish what he accomplished because of how much the game has changed since his time but like... He's one of the biggest reasons why the game changed. Sure eventually it would have evolved on its own but he moved it forward in a way that few players will ever be able to. His impact evolved the sport.

The stats are impressive enough on their own but the truth is Gretzky's legacy is way more important than that. Heck it could easily be argued that American hockey owes much of its popularity to the Gretzky to LA trade but that's another topic entirely.

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Tanstalas t1_j9m6ofj wrote

Well, him going to LA made the NHLPA very happy.

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oshawaguy t1_j9nbggv wrote

Well, goalies like Hasek , Roy, Belfour?

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dreamtimeboomerang t1_j9ngm01 wrote

All of those guys dominated in the 90s, and that was when goalies in general improved considerably and the game was changing a lot.

Look at Gretzkys stats through the 90s. They fall off a cliff in comparison to the 80s. After 1990, he only had 2 seasons with more than 100 points. Still very good obviously, but pales in comparison to when he was putting up 200+ in the 80s. His numbers look much more comparable to numbers you'd see in today's game, in comparison to the ridiculous numbers in the 80s.

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middleagedstudent t1_j9mak5e wrote

If Gartner had 700 goals, Conor would have 1200 in that same era.

Hard to compare when the game has changed so much.

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jamesa7171 t1_j9nj8tn wrote

If you look at era-adjusted points:

Gretzky: 2475 points in 1487 games (1.66 points per game)

McDavid: 923 points in 545 games (1.69 points per game)

Given that Gretzky's totals include some later-age years it isn't quite fair to say that McDavid is outpacing him, but the other commenter is correct that the records can't be compared straight up.

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