When it comes to the GOAT argument, there is hardly one for hockey. In basketball, there’s LeBron or Jordan. In football there’s Brady or Montana. In baseball there’s…. about a million GOATs. But in hockey, you’ll hardly find anyone that doesn’t belive they know the answer to that. It’s Wayne Gretzky, almost unanimously.
Sure there are some that will say Mario Lemieux was better, but he just had a shorter career. Some will also vouch for Bobby Orr, with his position on the blueline and his shortened career often cited. Others will say Sidney Crosby or Connor McDavid are the better players in a new, different NHL. Overall though, it’s Gretz. It’s always been Gretz.
If you need any sort of argument, just look at the numbers. Gretzky holds the NHL record for just about everything on offence. The Great One doesn’t just hold the records, though, he has a stranglehold on them that is nearly impossible to fathom repeating.
So when it comes to family stats, it’s fair to say that Wayne really carries the load on that one. With brother Brent playing a grand total of 13 games, amassing four total points, Wayne was definitely the more prized hockey player. He garnered 2,857 points in 1,487 games played. That’s nearly two points per game.
Wayne carried the Gretzky’s to sit 3rd on the all-time family points leaderboard with a total of 2,861. On Saturday, they dropped to fourth, but it wasn’t really very fair. Paul Stastny scored two points on Saturday to break the tie with the Gretzky family. The only difference? Paul is the 5th Stastny to play in the NHL, with family members Anton, Marian, Yan, and of course his Hall of Fame father Peter coming before him.
The list was put together by u/AbsoluteIKeatI, and it shows the total points by each family member. It also gives the other families on the list, with the Hull family – featuring Bobby, Dennis, and Brett – coming out on top. The Sutter family is up there because they had seven family members make it to the big leagues.
This list doesn’t really mean much beyond cool trivia. There are lots of good players that aren’t represented just because they didn’t have any family members join them in the show. Still a cool things to know!
(H/T u/AbsoluteIKeatI)
