Alexander Ovechkin is about to become the most prolific goal-scorer in hockey history.
But does passing Wayne Gretzky on the career list, a feat once believed impossible, make him the greatest scorer in history?
Maybe. Maybe not.
If goal-scoring is determined strictly by the total number accomplished, then yes, Ovechkin is the champion of all champions. But in order to properly address history, you can’t talk about all-time great scorers without referencing the remarkable careers of Mike Bossy and Mario Lemieux.
You can make the case rather soundly that no one ever was more prolific with the puck than Lemieux. He played 755 games with Pittsburgh before he retired for the first time due to cancer and back issues and, in that time, scored 613 goals. That’s scoring at a 66-goal pace. No one has ever done that before
Twice, Lemieux scored more goals in a season than games played.
Bossy, much like Ovechkin, was a pure goal-scorer. Not explosive like Lemieux, but absolutely gifted as a shooter. His career, unfortunately, was shortened due to severe back troubles. He played only 752 games, a number similar to that of Lemieux’s first pre-retirement games.
The Islanders winger scored 573 goals — not far from Lemieux’s total of 613 — which was later extended to 690 when he returned to the NHL after a three-year absence.
In Ovechkin’s first 752 games with the Washington Capitals — which includes a 65-goal season, his best ever in the NHL — he scored 475 goals. That’s 138 fewer than Lemieux had through a similar stretch and 98 goals less than Bossy.
Bossy had a career half as long as Ovechkin, but scored more playoff goals — 85 to 72. Lemieux played in 44 fewer Stanley Cup games than Ovechkin and scored four more playoff goals.
This is Ovechkin’s time. His season. His month. His record. His run of publicity. Maybe there is a Stanley Cup to go along with all of that in this great Washington season. But in all of the celebration, the names Lemieux and Bossy need to be discussed and acknowledged.
They were the greatest goal-scorers who ever lived. For as long as they happened to play.
THIS AND THAT
What does Mikko Rantanen’s eight-year $96-million deal in Dallas mean for Mitch Marner and his upcoming free agency? Rantanen is four inches taller than Marner, 35 pounds heavier and, over the past five seasons, he’s outscored Marner 437 to 425. The biggest difference, historically, between the two right wingers to date: Rantanen has doubled Marner in playoff scoring, 101 points to 50. Should Marner stay with the Maple Leafs, he will be paid more than Rantanen. Should he choose to go elsewhere — it’s his choice — he will likely be paid a lot more than Rantanen. Unless he chooses a non-tax state such as Texas, the way Rantanen did. If the Leafs retain Marner, it will be at a price somewhere below Auston Matthews’ $14 million a year and above Rantanen’s $12 million. There are no wingers currently being paid more than $12 million a season in the NHL … The two most underpaid veteran players in hockey: Defencemen Jaccob Slavin in Carolina at $6.4 million a year and Gustav Forsling in Florida at $5.7 million per … Carolina Hurricanes’ Eric Tulsky is probably the most educated and academically accomplished general manager in hockey. Good for him. He started the season with the impressive Martin Necas on the wing, but traded him for Rantanen. He made that deal without any assurance of signing the pending free agent winger, which wasn’t smart. Now he doesn’t have Rantanen and he has a collection of draft picks that won’t help his Stanley Cup contending team for years and he has tiny Logan Stankoven on the wing instead of Necas or Rantanen. In some places, that kind of shoddy work would cost the GM his job … You don’t hear Ross Mahoney’s name very often in hockey, but the assistant GM of the Capitals and former chief scout, should get some notice with Ovechkin on the Gretzky chase. It was Mahoney who made the decision to draft Ovechkin over Evgeni Malkin in 2004, when traditionally the centre would be selected before the winger. Mahoney also drafted Nicklas Backstrom and John Carlson, both of whom, like Ovie, played more than 1,000 games in Washington. Also on Mahoney’s draft list: Mike Green, Braden Holtby, Evgeny Kuznetsov, Tom Wilson, Filip Forsberg and Chandler Stephenson.
HEAR AND THERE
What are the Maple Leafs getting by adding centre Scott Laughton to their roster? “One of the best humans I’ve been around,” said Philadelphia Flyers president Keith Jones. According to FWill hlyers watchers, Laughton is outstanding on the puck, skates well and is highly competitive and respected by those he plays against … Laughton was coached in minor hockey by Dan Brown, Connor Brown’s father. The team was one of the more remarkable in GTHL history. Seven players from that West Hill select team that turned into the rep Marlies went on to get drafted in the NHL. Three of them — Laughton, Connor Brown and Adam Pelech — have combined to play 1,783 NHL games and counting … When the Leafs lost in the playoffs to Boston in recent years, Brandon Carlo usually stood out on defence for his sound play with the Bruins. As he joins the Leafs now, he brings 72 games of Stanley Cup experience, which is more than Chris Tanev, Morgan Rielly, Jake McCabe or Oliver Ekman-Larsson have played. And Carlo is younger than all of them … For now, the Leafs’ sixth defenceman is Simon Benoit, not Philippe Myers … Still hard to believe that Brad Marchand is no longer a Bruin. Harder to believe it’s possible that if both Marchand and Matthew Tkachuk are playoff healthy, they could be teaming up with Sam Bennett on a Florida Panthers all-pest line … Is Marchand on your Team Canada Olympic roster next year? Or, will Wilson, Mark Scheifele and Wyatt Johnston be added over Marchand and others? … I have great regard for the work that general managers Brad Treliving, Bill Zito, Julien BriseBois, Jim Nill and Chris MacFarland have done in making their teams harder to play against come playoff time. With a steep proviso: For all of the additions made, Toronto, Florida, Tampa Bay, Dallas and Colorado are all candidates to be eliminated in the first round of the Stanley Cup playoffs. That seems off to me, but it’s possible that Winnipeg will play St. Louis, Vancouver or some weak sister in the first round of the same playoff round that Colorado will play a cage match against Dallas, without The Rock involved … That was a nice piece of work by the much-criticized Kyle Dubas in Pittsburgh, picking up Luke Schenn from Nashville, then turning him into a second-round pick from Winnipeg … The slow, steady, cautious approach Kevin Cheveldayoff takes in operating the Winnipeg Jets would be terrific if he were handling your financial portfolio. You’d get your 8% every year from Chevy. But you’d never hit on a big one …. The Jimmy Devellano GM development tree in the NHL: Nill in Dallas, Steve Yzerman in Detroit, Don Waddell in Columbus, Pat Verbeek in Anaheim. All of them starting in management with the Red Wings.
SCENE AND HEARD
Midway though the season, coach Jon Cooper was quietly complaining about the lack of depth on his Tampa Bay roster. He was also saying that the lack of high draft picks made by Tampa in contending seasons meant the cupboard had gone rather bare for prospects. GM BriseBois must have heard Cooper. He went out and brought back Yanni Gourde from Seattle along with his better teammate Oliver Bjorkstrand, who will score more than 20 goals for the sixth time this season … Washington’s Wilson wasn’t happy about being passed over for Team Canada at the 4 Nations tournament. But he recently had a chat about it with coach Cooper. Wilson very much wants to play for Canada in next February’s Olympic Games in Italy … How hard will it be for the Maple Leafs if they don’t finish first in the Atlantic Division? By finishing second or third, they will face either Andrei Vasilevskiy or Sergei Bobrovsky — combined Stanley Cup wins, three — in Round 1 or Round 2 of the playoffs. They can have a great season and a great playoffs and still get goalied in the first or second round … Does any team in hockey have a 1-2-3 at centre the way the Avalanche do with Nathan MacKinnon, Brock Nelson and Charlie Coyle? This is MacKinnon and Nelson’s 12th season, Coyle’s 13th. Who will be better down the middle? … USA general manager Bill Guerin will have to find a way to add Cole Caufield and Tage Thompson to his Olympic roster next year. Caufield and Thompson are just behind Kyle Connor and Jake Guentzel among American scorers in the NHL this season, with Matthews nowhere to be found on the scoring list this season … Defenceman Ryan Suter, now in St. Louis, leads all active players with 1,508 games played. He has yet to carry the Stanley Cup.
AND ANOTHER THING
One game may have changed the MVP race in the NBA. Nikola Jokic, the three-time MVP, had the first 30-20-20 game in history on Friday night against Phoenix. That’s 30 points, 20 rebounds and 20 assists. All at once. It defies logic and probably will never happen again … The 30-20-20 game came after ESPN basketball voice Brian Windhorst declared the MVP race to be over. “I think he’s in the lead by a lot,” Windhorst said of Canadian Shai Gilgeous-Alexander. Sentence could be changed to: ‘I think he was in the lead by a lot’ … It’ll be interesting to see how easily Seth Jones fits in with the Panthers. He hasn’t played particularly well in recent seasons in Chicago with the disastrous Blackhawks … Hockey reporters and, by proxy, some agents seem obsessed with the tax circumstances in various states and provinces. I asked NHLPA boss Marty Walsh about that recently and whether this would be part of their next CBA negotiation with the NHL. He said, rather definitively, it would not be … Funny how the big sporting free agents such as Shohei Ohtani, Juan Soto and Aaron Rodgers in recent years wound up in high-tax states such as California and New York and nobody even mentioned it … Just for fun, wouldn’t it be great to see Max Scherzer start on opening day for the Blue Jays? Scherzer holds the record for most opening-day starts with the former Montreal Expos in Washington … Amazing how much sound there has been about signing or not signing Vladimir Guerrero Jr., and how little there has been about Bo Bichette, who is also unsigned beyond this season, on the comeback trail. The Jays finished last with Guerrero having a terrific season a year ago and Bichette being injured and off-key all year. The Jays won’t bounce back this season if Bichette doesn’t return to form … The Blue Jays play the Mets in New York on April 4-6. Expect all of the talk that weekend to be Vladdy and more Vladdy … It’s been fascinating to watch LeBron James in his 22nd NBA season still being one of basketball’s best players at a time when Sidney Crosby and Ovechkin are both doing the same in their in their 20th NHL seasons … The year of Treliving: Hired Craig Berube to coach. Signed Tanev as a free agent. Signed goalie Anthony Stolarz. Signed OEL. Traded for Laughton and Carlo. Didn’t trade Matthew Knies … Condolences to Don Cherry and family on the passing of his younger brother, Dick Cherry, who died at the age of 87. Dick played 145 NHL games for Boston and Philadelphia. Don played one NHL game, a playoff outing with the Bruins … Great defencemen need to be paid more in the NHL. Cale Makar is at $9 million a year. Miro Heiskanen makes $8.5 million, Victor Hedman $8 million and Quinn Hughes just less than that. All of them are game-changers. All of them paid a few million less than John Tavares or William Nylander … Nothing worse than hearing that your favourite team was close to acquiring your favourite player. We were this close, the hockey voices scream. ‘This Close’ — it’s the Blue Jays’ mantra … Happy birthday to Rielly (31), Pontus Holmberg (26), Aaron Boone (52), Phil Housley (61), Kenny Smith (60), Bob Boughner (54), Darrell Walker (64), Jim Rice (72), Mike Kiselak (58) and Larry Murphy (64) … And hey, whatever became of P.A. Parenteau?