MacMacandBarbie
Registered User
- Dec 9, 2019
- 2,855
- 1,882
The 'big 4' is a weak thing that gets thrown around on these boards only from what I have seen. Its a collection of names that are acceptable to be brought up in conversations with the great one, including the great one. I don't think really anybody considers Howe the best, but instead use him as a barometer for 'Do you even belong in the conversation' because nobody is going to be able to out compile Howe.Any more individual hardware and perhaps upping his game one final time to the tune of 160 points, and the stragglers arguing that he’s not #5 are going to be dismissed and laughed at, as they deserve.
Lemieux and Orr can be considered better than Gretzky, and it would be a hot take, but people would listen. Because when Orr/Lemieux was healthy, they looked unstoppable. They could be hurt and still be the best player that year.
This is a level McDavid hasn't shown. He isn't rattling off 7 straight Art Rosses. He isn't stealing Art Rosses from a prime Gretzky, and looking like the greatest goal scorer this league ever saw while doing it. Orr had 8 consecutive Norris trophies and won the Art Ross as a defenseman.
McDavid is on track to maybe be considered as good as Howe. When it is all said and done, he will be talked about in the same breath as Howe/Lidstrom/Hasek/Jagr/Ovechkin/Bourque/Crosby, and that is okay. Trying to shoehorn him into an entire 'tier' will go about the same way it has for the people who posed that question about Bourque, Lidstrom, Hasek, and Jagr. Close but no cigar.