In fairness, most of the people in that league are not of NHL quality
I feel like that was more and more of an issue the further you go back in time. Its part of how the star players dominated so much...along with crappy stand up goalies of course.
The game is getting better and better where every decade, the difference in skill and ability between a first line player and a 4th line player is shrinking. Of course at the highest level, those tiny differences can become noticeable over the course of a full season. Less so over the course of individual games.
Heck, you could go see an AHL practice and a top scorer like Gaudette might look a lot better than a guy like hamonic at an NHL practice.
Different roles, but clearly Gaudette is way more skilled at things like skating, stick handling, passing, shooting, etc. than hamonic.
But one will probably make a million or two over his career while the other will make like 20 million over his career.