Mario Lemieux
Maurice Richard
Stat by stat
Bars are scaled to the leader in this list.
The verdict
Mario Lemieux leads 3 of 4 categories. Our all-time ranking places Mario Lemieux at #3 and Maurice Richard at #6.
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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 Maurice Richard
The Rocket was hockey's first great goal-scoring folk hero and the fiery soul of the Montreal Canadiens. In 1944-45 Maurice Richard became the first player to score 50 goals in 50 games, a benchmark that stood as the sport's ultimate scoring feat for decades, and in 1957 he became the first to reach 500 career goals. He won eight Stanley Cups, including a record five in a row from 1956 to 1960, and led the Canadiens with a competitive fury that made him a cultural icon in Quebec. His 1955 suspension by the league president sparked the Richard Riot in Montreal, an event now seen as a flashpoint of French-Canadian identity. Richard finished with 544 goals and 966 points in a low-scoring era, and, remarkably, never won a Hart Trophy despite his dominance. From the blue line in he was terrifying, his eyes reportedly blazing as he bore down on goaltenders. The NHL's trophy for its leading goal-scorer bears his name.