Even if Gretzky were playing around 25 minutes a game, guys like Crosby would need to play 100 or so games to even match the total ice time played.
At his best, Gretzky would score a point roughly every 9.5 minutes of ice-time. Gretzky was playing at least 410 minutes more than Crosby, so that's a rough deduction of 43 points. Let's say that 215 point season is like a 170-175 point season in terms of normal TOI.
Now factor in the tougher matchups (not playing tons of ice-time against the worst pairings), better goalies, better defenses, better competition, and Gretzky would never be able to score absurdly high numbers.
The best players today would definitely be scoring over 120 points if they played as much as Gretzky, Lemieux, Jagr, etc. were playing.
If everything were adjusted correctly, I think you would find that Gretzky, Crosby, Lemieux, etc. would be very close at the top of the best scoring seasons ever.
Where did you come up with that "score a point roughly every 9.5 minutes"? How do you know its not 8.5? That would translate better to what ice time he like had, instead of this ridiculous notion he played 30 minutes or higher per game.
I already proved with the math that in order for his teammate to put up the numbers they did, there is no way he plays even 28 minutes per game. High TOI in todays game is 21.5 go 22 minutes of TOI. Of course there is more depending on if there is OT or not or how many special teams had to be used during that time.
This is simple man. What ever Gretzky played, Kurri also played. You minus their minutes played from 180 minutes per game of possible forward ice time. The other players on his team must have minutes.
At a 26 minute module, that equals approximately, 52 minutes of that possible 180 minutes of forward minutes. That leaves 128 minutes left for guys like Messier, Mactavish, McClellan, Tikanen ( and he played a ton), Anderson, Hunter, Summonen. Those players put up big points and they used ice time. That only gives those players approx 18 minutes of ice time. Did Anderson put up 54 goals in 18 minutes of ice time? NO he did not. That leaves zero minutes for the other 3 players like the goons and Lumley etc.
The math doesn't even add up on 26 minutes. And, then to suggest he did it nightly during his career is absurd.
It could be done at 22 minutes but you have to remember, Kurri always always played with Gretzky.
A person, given the time needed to could figure out near exactly what he played by averaging what the other players ice time must have been in order to put up the points they did and subtract it from Kurri and Gretzky's ice time.
You have to remember, there is max 180 minutes of forward ice time in a game and that has to go out to players on all lines. Messier, Anderson, Summonen, Mactavish and McClelland had significant ice time and you can pretty much figure out what MacT and McC had as 3rd and 4th line centres. It would be comparable to todays NHL. If you say they had more, then Kurri/Gretzky had less.
The 4 centres were Gretzky, Messier, Mactavish and McClelland. I would wager that Messier got better than 2nd line centre minutes. MacT and McClelland got average 3rd and 4th line minutes.
When you do the math, its clear that there is no way Gretzky/Kurri played more than 22 to 24 minutes per game.
Take the 4th line and minus it from the 180 forward minutes. its likely about 9 minutes per player per game. Thats 27 minutes. Minus 3rd line minutes from the 180 and that is about 15 minutes (likely a bit more) from the 180 minutes and that is 45 minutes. So 3rd and 4th line minutes are about 72 minutes from the 180, which is about 102 minutes left for the second line and 1st line. The second line likely got between 16 and 18 minutes but I would argue that Anderson and Messier and Summonen got more. Probably close to 19. That comes to 57 minutes from the 102 left. That leaves 45 minutes for Kurri/Gretzky and a goon.
Well guess what, its even worse now because a goon was on Gretzky's wing most of his career.
Its no longer just Kurri and Gretzky, Its Kurri, Gretzky and Semenko or McSorley.
What ever you give gretzky for minutes, you have to give Kurri and a goon the same minutes. There were never a goon receive more ice time than a goon riding shotgun with Gretzky.
