Crosby vs. Gretzky

With Penguins' forward Sidney Crosby on the verge of his 1,000th career NHL point, it begs the question of where he belongs on the pecking order of All-Time greats.

When the Penguins play host to the visiting Winnipeg Jets tonight, it will be another opportunity for their superstar forward to cement his place among the All-Time NHL greats with his 1,000th career point. Crosby earned his 999th career point Tuesday night with an assist in the Penguins' 4-0 shutout over the Vancouver Canucks. The 29-year old has tallied an impressive 30 goals and 31 assists in 49 games played this season, and will be looking to become the 86th player to record 1,000 points in NHL history. Although it seems 'Sid the Kid' has been around forever, he presumably has a good amount of time left out on the ice at 29 years of age. Despite the fact that he has had a rather injury plagued career and his fare share of concussion issues, Crosby doesn't seem to be slowing down as one of the NHL's elite forwards when he's healthy. Having already lifted the Stanley Cup twice in his career he will surely be looking to build on his already profound success. The Penguins are in the thick of a hotly contested Metropolitan Division race, with the Rangers and Blue Jackets all separated by two points. The Capitals have been on a tear winning six in a row, sitting atop the division with 84 points. Crosby will look to blow past the 1,000 point mark and continue to lead his extremely skilled group towards another possible Stanley Cup berth. 

With Crosby sure to hit this significant milestone tonight or in the near future, I took a look at his career statistics compared to the undoubted greatest player of All-Time, Wayne Gretzky. While Crosby's career stats are impressive, it is truly amazing to see the remarkable numbers Gretzky put up in his career, especially in the mid-1980's with the Edmonton Oilers. Crosby has not played many full NHL seasons, so that is a factor in the comparison as well. Gretzky's best years in Edmonton spanned throughout the early to mid 1980's, and then on with the Los Angeles Kings in the late 80's and early 90's. A few years in the 80's really stand out and are almost unthinkable. In arguably the best regular season ever, Gretzky scored 92 goals and tallied 120 assists in 1981-82 in 80 games played. He followed that up with another three seasons of 200+ point totals in the 1980's. Despite that being maybe the best individual season ever, it is still not his highest point total in his career. In 1985-86, Gretzky scored 52 goals and tallied 163 assists in 80 games played. Gretzky's numbers during these years are something that no man will probably ever come close to repeating. His numbers began to taper off as he got later in his career, but they were still more than respectable. Now, looking at Crosby's seasons in comparison, the Penguins' forward's best season came in 2006-07, where he scored 36 goals and tallied 84 assists for 120 points in 79 games played. Gretzky matched his career high point total in assists alone in the 1981-82 season. Crosby has had five seasons in his career where he's notched over 100 total points, where Gretzky has had four seasons with over 200 points. While Crosby is considered one of the best players in this generation, he still does not even come close to Gretzky's all-time numbers. So, while he is on-track to join an elite club, I think we have to recognize how no one will ever replicate what Wayne Gretzky did. Crosby will be placed among the conversation of the greats, but Gretzky is in a league of his own.