Mario Lemieux
Gordie Howe
Stat by stat
Bars are scaled to the leader in this list.
The verdict
Gordie Howe leads 4 of 5 categories. Our all-time ranking places Mario Lemieux at #3 and Gordie Howe at #4.
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The case for Mario Lemieux
At six-foot-four with impossible hands, Mario Lemieux may be the most talented player who ever lived, a scorer who could deke through an entire team or overpower it. Le Magnifique won two Stanley Cups with the Pittsburgh Penguins and captured the Art Ross six times, all while battling adversity that would have ended most careers: chronic back injuries, and a 1993 diagnosis of Hodgkin's lymphoma. He returned from his final radiation treatment to play that same night, then won the scoring title. His 1.88 points per game is the highest of any player with a substantial career, trailing only Gretzky. In 1988-89 he scored 199 points; in one 1988 game he tallied goals five different ways, at even strength, on the power play, shorthanded, on a penalty shot and into an empty net. He retired in 1997, returned in 2000 as a player-owner having literally saved the franchise from bankruptcy, and played until 2006. Had health permitted a full career, the debate for number one might look very different.
The case for Gordie Howe
Mr. Hockey combined scoring, toughness and almost supernatural longevity across an astonishing five decades of professional play. Gordie Howe won four Stanley Cups with the Detroit Red Wings, six Hart Trophies as MVP and six Art Ross scoring titles, finishing in the NHL's top five in scoring for 20 consecutive seasons, a record of sustained excellence unmatched in the sport. He retired, then returned at 45 to play alongside his sons in the WHA, and skated one final NHL shift at age 52 in 1980. Howe scored 801 NHL goals and 1,850 points, figures that stood atop the all-time list until Gretzky surpassed them. He was as feared as he was skilled: the Gordie Howe hat trick, a goal, an assist and a fight in one game, immortalizes his willingness to punish anyone who challenged him. Ambidextrous, powerful and endlessly durable, he defined the complete power forward and served as the standard against which every scorer was measured for a generation.