The Great One

Wayne Gretzky’s career point record will never be broken plain and simple. He is called “The Great One” for a reason. He amassed 2856 points over his career in the regular season with 1485 games. Gordie Howe is in second place in the all time point records with 1850 points in 1767 games. “The Great One” has 1006 more points than Howe in 282 less games. He averaged 150.3 points per season and that’s factoring in his later seasons which were less than average. Many people consider Sidney Crosby “The Next One.” Even if “Sid the Kid” keeps up his current pace, he would have to play for about 28 or 29 seasons to come close to the last record. In other words, he would have to play late into his 40’s and stay injury free, while keeping his pace steady. Call me crazy, but that seems like a long shot. How about another angle? Throughout history, the only other player that actually stood a chance at even touching his record was Mario Lemieux. He is the closest to Gretzky’s single season point record of 215 with 199 points. Unfortunately Mario’s career was rocky and injury filled, so he could not stay consistent throughout his career, which is something that is critical to even coming close to any record. Unless there are some dramatic changes in the rules of hockey or how people lay the game, I believe Gretzky will stay “The Great One” and the record will stand unbroken.