Registered youth players is the appropriate metric. Which is down in Canada but not even close to down 4 times.
This is the most talented NHL that has ever existed. Look at the game, look at the speed. Theres ONLY talent. Gone are the days of drafting grinders, hitters and fighters.
If you could sit glass side at a game in the 80s and then now today, you'd realize how undeniably better the talent is. Multitudes less space and time, faster, defensive structure, goalies. The list could go on forever.
Gretzky is Gretzky and would dominate any era. But he absolutely benefited from playing when he did.
The user was talking about a talent density six times lower. So I'm only talking about talent density.
In Canada, the Gretzky generation is by far the most talented in the history of Canadian hockey. Current Canadians are far from matching them. And Europeans were starting to appear.
The league had only 20 teams.
So in terms of talent density, there was no increase with the significant decline in the density of Canadian players and the dilution of talent in a 32-team league.
Gretzky didn't benefit any more than the players of his generation. When you score 1,000 more points than your best contemporary, that says something.
Overall, boomers born in 1960s outperform players born in 1990s/2000s in sports.
Twice as many and ten times more active in sport.
Current generations benefit from better coaching, but the talent density is lower. It's just that if you put Gretzky in today's hockey, he's even better because he's better coached. But he faced a dense generation. The top 30 players born in the 1960s outperform the top 30 players born in the 1980s.
GK : Roy, Hasek, Moog, Fuhr, Vanbiesbrouck, Vernon, Barrasso, Hextall, Belfour, Joseph, Burke
DF : Bourque, Coffey, McInnis, Leetch, Murphy, Chelios, Suter, Housley, Stevens, Jonsson, Babych, Patrick, Duchesne, Hatcher, Schneider, Blake
FW : Gretzky, Messier, M.Lemieux, Yzerman, Sakic, Fedorov, Kurri, Goulet, Savard, Oates, Hawerchuk, Andreychuk, Gilmour, Hull, Hunter, Ciccarelli, Carbonneau, Loob, Larionov, Kerr, Nicholls, Larmer, Sutter, Nieuwendyk, Francis, Thomas, Bellows, Verbeeck, Tocchet, C.Lemieux, Tikkanen, Lafontaine, Robitaille, Richer, Kamensky, Damphousse, Recchi, Fleury, Mogilny, Shanahan, Leclair, Turgeon
Spread across an NHL with 50% fewer teams (30 to 20)...