[ThomCat]

It's apples & oranges. Gretzky played in a much more diluted league. He was surounded by superstars. Even the 3rd line on those Cup teams were allstars. How many H of F players were there? Blueliners...allstars, goalie... Hof F. I believe those teams would have won the Cups even without him, in fact, they did. Orr put the NHL on the map throughout the country. To further overuse a phrase, he made everybody around him better, much better. Esposito made a living and set a scoring record (at the time) just hanging around the net and scooping rebounds. #4 got in front of enough pucks to keep Cheevers star shining. Even his own players on the ice with him would find themselves in awe and mesmerized by his supremacy. He's got my vote for #1 all time . BTW, anyone ever hear #9 , Detroit RedWings?????