Bossy vs. Brett Hull

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He did have dominance over his peers in terms of playoff scoring and goals per game.
No, he didn't. His GPG is lower than Gretzky's and Lemieux's at his age.

Who's saying this in 2025? Maybe I missed those posts in this thread, but who's saying this in this debate?

I think Hull vs Bossy is a great debate BTW. I don't like how I'm reacting in this thread, but if you're going to create one, why are you so readily mocking, or egging on like you are?
I see it ON FB ALL THE TIME. Literally, ALL THE TIME. You can never mention Bossy without someone posting "GOAT goalscorer!" right below.

You are blaming me for your reactions? There is a word for that, you know.
 
No, he didn't. His GPG is lower than Gretzky's and Lemieux's at his age.


I see it ON FB ALL THE TIME. Literally, ALL THE TIME. You can never mention Bossy without someone posting "GOAT goalscorer!" right below.

You are blaming me for your reactions? There is a word for that, you know.

I'm responsible for my own reactions.
 
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No, he didn't. His GPG is lower than Gretzky's and Lemieux's at his age.
The pre dynasty, and even dynasty oilers had much less depth than the islanders. Gretzky's line and Messiers line saw much more ice time than Trottier/Bossy. Which in some ways makes the Oilers success more impressive.

Someone broke down the islanders ice time on this forum once, and found Bossy was only getting like 18 minutes a night. Those islanders teams were very deep and consistently rolled 4 lines.

You seem to have some bias against Mike Bossy.
 
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The pre dynasty, and even dynasty oilers had much less depth than the islanders. Gretzky's line and Messiers line saw much more ice time than Trottier/Bossy. Which in some ways makes the Oilers success more impressive.

Someone broke down the islanders ice time on this forum once, and found Bossy was only getting like 18 minutes a night. Those islanders teams were very deep and consistently rolled 4 lines.

You seem to have some bias against Mike Bossy.
If this isn't a strawman argument, I don't know what is.
 
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I've watched a few games yes of course, I don't like to comment much on players I haven't at least seen a little of.

So how much of Brett Hull's peak did you watch? Recently? If you want some games of what I'm on talking about I can put up the Wings Blues series 1991
Okay, do that. Before even watching, I will give you physicality in dishing it out, but he would go anywhere, take any hit. I will get back to you on the shots, he had a few good ones. Bossy never really had a drop in his production. At the end, sometimes playing only a few shifts, he was on pace for 48 goals and 95 points in 63 games(80 game season). Who knows whether he would have played any longer?
 
I know Bossy is #1, and you know he would not be #1 had Gretzky and Lemieux retired at the same age.

You just keep throwing random words and trivia at me. I believe we are done here.
 
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Mr. Bossy played only 752 games (in regular season). Just for fun, here's how others were scoring goals up to exactly that many career games:

0.831 Gretzky
0.824 Lemieux
0.762 Bossy
0.711 Brett Hull
0.629 Kurri
0.624 Ovechkin
(0.623 Bure -- in 702 career games)
0.601 Esposito
0.589 Lafleur
0.588 Yzerman
0.585 Goulet
0.581 Richard
0.578 Robitaille
0.565 Selänne
0.564 Lafontaine
0.560 Bobby Hull
0.543 Ciccarelli
0.528 Stamkos
(0.511 McDavid -- in 701 career games)
0.504 Mogilny
0.499 Gartner
0.497 Howe
0.493 Draisaitl
0.493 Shutt
0.489 Crosby
0.482 Beliveau
0.465 Sakic
 
I know Bossy is #1, and you know he would not be #1 had Gretzky and Lemieux retired at the same age.

You just keep throwing random words and trivia at me. I believe we are done here.

Well, like I said I think Lemieux is equal or greater to Bossy.


Gretzky was also a great goal scorer, I probably wouldn't have him lower than 4th or 5th. His numbers being so far ahead of Bossy need to be given context of their ice time and defensive responsibilities however.
 
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Well, like I said I think Lemieux is equal or greater to Bossy.


Gretzky was also a great goal scorer, I probably wouldn't have him lower than 4th or 5th. His numbers being so far ahead of Bossy need to be given context of their ice time and defensive responsibilities however.
No, they don't. Because Gretzky's "responsibilities" also included giving more assists than the rest of the world had points.
"Not lower than 5th"?? How awfully generous of ya!
Like I said: I believe we are done here.
 
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Not really related to the specifics of Hull vs. Bossy, but illustrative of the impact of scoring eras, is that if you adjust Bossy's numbers to the hypothetical of him starting his career in 1994-95 instead of 1977-78 he hits 50 goals one time.

1994-95 53 -> 48
1995-96 69 -> 62
1996-97 51 -> 42
1997-98 68 -> 47
1998-99 64 -> 42
1999-00 60 -> 43
2000-01 51 -> 36
2001-02 58 -> 39
2002-03 61 -> 41
2003-04 38 -> 27

This kind of thing is why younger fans (millennial and younger) just aren't going to share the Bossy worship. Raw numbers from the 1980s just aren't going to hold as much weight to fans who came up in depressed scoring environments where even all time greats struggled to crack 50

Adjustments based on average scoring are particularly hard on this era and likely especially in a case like Bossy where the context people have given in this thread isn’t captured.
 
Well, like I said I think Lemieux is equal or greater to Bossy.


Gretzky was also a great goal scorer, I probably wouldn't have him lower than 4th or 5th. His numbers being so far ahead of Bossy need to be given context of their ice time and defensive responsibilities however.
There were at least four or five better goal-scorers than Gretzky just during Gretzky's prime. If we include during his whole career, several more than that.

Unless you're just using total goals scored as your basis, there's no way you can justify Gretzky as one of the 10-best goal-scorers ever. He didn't have enough talents as a goal-scorer.
 
Bossy and Tonelli were the second-to-last pieces of the Islander dynasty. Bossy, especially, as he provided the goal-scoring that they didn't otherwise have.

But the final piece was the crucial depth that came in the '80 season...they added half their dynasty defensemen - Morrow, Langevin, and Lane, as well as Duane Sutter, who was especially important in the 2nd-half of the dynasty, and most especially Butch Goring, who was a star and brought a whole new dimension to the team.

As good as Potvin, Trottier, Bossy, Tonelli, etc. were, they likely don't win any Cups without Goring, Morrow, Langevin, and the Sutter brothers, who all came along in the '80s.
 
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Mr. Bossy played only 752 games (in regular season). Just for fun, here's how others were scoring goals up to exactly that many career games:

0.831 Gretzky
0.824 Lemieux
0.762 Bossy
0.711 Brett Hull
0.629 Kurri
0.624 Ovechkin
(0.623 Bure -- in 702 career games)
0.601 Esposito
0.589 Lafleur
0.588 Yzerman
0.585 Goulet
0.581 Richard
0.578 Robitaille
0.565 Selänne
0.564 Lafontaine
0.560 Bobby Hull
0.543 Ciccarelli
0.528 Stamkos
(0.511 McDavid -- in 701 career games)
0.504 Mogilny
0.499 Gartner
0.497 Howe
0.493 Draisaitl
0.493 Shutt
0.489 Crosby
0.482 Beliveau
0.465 Sakic

Adjust for era, then ice time, I wonder what we get.
 
Unless you're just using total goals scored as your basis, there's no way you can justify Gretzky as one of the 10-best goal-scorers ever. He didn't have enough talents as a goal-scorer.

The only people I would put definitively above Gretzky are Lemieux, Bossy and of course Bobby Hull.

Scoring 92, 87...ect goals in a season somehow isn't good enough for the top 10?
 

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