Yeah that is the crux of the question. I think the McDavid and new NHL crew comparison muddled the main point, but I do think the main point stands.
Much has been made about Howe's dominance of the early fifties, his percentage of scoring leads and so on. How much does that have to do with his competition?
I think just looking within the fifties themselves demonstrates the point:
1950-1951 to 1953-1954
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1955-1956 to 1958-1959
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(Just in case it's called out, I omitted 1954-1955 because this is coming from a post before on Howe's injury that year, it flatters him to remove the season rather than run 1954-1955 to 1958-1959)
Now obviously Gordie Howe was in his late twenties in the second period. The question really is, how would early twenties Gordie look against that latter fifties peer group?
Or how would Gordie's dominance look if guys like Beliveau, Bathgate, Moore, Geoffrion, and so on were in their primes in the early fifties.