I'm a huge Ovi fan, but completely disagree with you on this. Ovechkin is the better goal scorer in my opinion, but overall, it's Lemieux >> Ovechkin.
Peak: Lemieux >>> Ovechkin and anyone not in the big-4
Prime: Lemieux > Ovechkin. Obviously injuries hurt Lemieux, but he still crushed point races while being a dominant goal scorer.
We can agree to disagree. I think as time goes by, people will appreciate OV more. Lemieux put up his massive point totals with numerous hall of famers on his team, during an era with no parity and record high scoring.
He never won anything without multiple hall of famers in a lopsided NHL. Can you imagine having
7 other hall of famers on your team? No other team was even close to that many those years.
Later in his career when that changed and he came back in 01-03, in a much more modern NHL, his point and goal totals at 36-38 look similar to what OV is doing now. It was probably also harder not having a 5 time art Ross winner and the 2nd all time points leader behind Gretzky on his team.
Career/longetivity: This is the only area where you can make an argument that they're about even. Ovechkin will finish with way more goals, significantly more adjusted goals, close points, a fair bit ahead in adjusted points. But when considering the large gap in the above, Ovechkin having a longer elite career without injuries won't make up for this.
Combine the 3 above, and there's no chance for Ovi>Lemieux to be a thing.
This area is the only one you can argue they aren’t even, especially if OV gets to 900. OVs accomplishments and trophy case is so much bigger that it’s really not that close. Lemieux is a ‘what if’ and OV is actually going to be the greatest goal scorer of all time due to tangible evidence.
Like I said, give it time. Let OV hit 900, retire, be inducted, and have his legend grow. Pretty soon we will talk about prime 07-10 OV as an unstoppable force, the memories of him being stopped will fade, just as they did for Lemieux.
