some facts:
gretzky
missed seven out of the last eight games of the regular season. LA went 1-5-1 in those games. with gretzky, they were 33-34-6, 13th in the league. not great, but better than the 34-39-7 they finished the season with. 15th, or 7th last.
gretzky’s main linemates were bob kudelski and mike krushelnyski in the first half, kudelski and tomas sandstrom in the second half. the other line was robitaille and taylor with nicholls in the first half, and todd elik in the second half.
his PP: duchesne, robitaille, taylor, and nicholls before he was replaced by sandstrom.
mario
likewise was at basically .500 with him in the lineup (27-28-4). they were 12th when he left the lineup. ultimately, the pens finished 17th, or 5th last: 32-40-8.
mario’s main linemates were bob errey and rob brown, until they traded dan quinn for tony tanti and he had errey and tanti for two weeks before he got hurt and missed (effectively) the rest of the year. the second line was was cullen with stevens and recchi.
his PP: coffey, cullen, stevens, and quinn before he was replaced by zarley zalapski.
yzerman
his regular linemates were gallant with a combo of mostly shawn burr and joey kocur on the other wing, with a little dave barr. his PP was chiasson, federko, gallant, and a fifth guy i can’t figure out from the box scores. some jimmy carson.
poor linemate support, sure. but damn, his team was 28-38-14, good for 3rd last in the league.
with all this weighed, it’s hard for me to not see messier and hull as two of the top three forwards, probably with gretzky as the third guy. both were on winning teams that began the playoffs with home ice.
hull
regular linemates were peter zezel and sergio momesso. the other line was oates between paul maclean and rookie brind’amour. there were a few patches when sutter loaded up hull and oates on the top line, but just brief spells (but they were productive). there was more oates with hull toward the end of the season, but sutter went back to zezel in the playoffs.
momesso: 27 ES pts with hull
zezel: 16 ES pts with hull
oates: 17 ES pts with hull (vs 37 in 60 games the next season, so he clearly didn’t play that much with hull in 1990)
the PP unit was jeff brown, zezel, oates, and momesso. i’m pretty sure i’ve read that zezel was the center on the PP that year, with oates on the point. both had 34 PP pts.