Gordie Howe (Murillo Pyramid Rank = #3)
Adjusted Stats
1946-1947 Det 79 GP 10 goals 20 assists 29 points 0.36 PPG
1947-1948 Det 82 GP 23 goals 40 assists 63 points 0.77 PPG
1948-1949 Det 55 GP 13 goals 38 assists 57 points 1.05 PPG
1949-1950 Det* 82 GP 46 goals 43 assists 89 points 1.09 PPG
1950-1951 Det 82 GP 57 goals 57 assists 115 points 1.40 PPG
1951-1952 Det* 82 GP 66 goals 54 assists 119 points 1.46 PPG
1953-1953 Det 82 GP 74 goals 69 assists 143 points 1.74 PPG
1953-1954 Det* 82 GP 49 goals 73 assists 122 points 1.49 PPG
1954-1955 Det* 75 GP 41 goals 47 assists 89 points 1.19 PPG
1955-1956 Det 82 GP 54 goals 59 assists 112 points 1.37 PPG
1956-1957 Det 82 GP 59 goals 60 assists 119 points 1.46 PPG
1957-1958 Det 75 GP 42 goals 56 assists 100 points 1.33 PPG
1958-1959 Det 82 GP 40 goals 57 assists 97 points 1.19 PPG
1959-1960 Det 82 GP 34 goals 55 assists 89 points 1.09 PPG
1960-1961 Det 75 GP 28 goals 59 assists 87 points 1.16 PPG
1961-1962 Det 82 GP 40 goals 53 assists 93 points 1.13 PPG
1962-1963 Det 82 GP 46 goals 59 assists 104 points 1.27 PPG
1963-1964 Det 81 GP 34 goals 61 assists 95 points 1.17 PPG
1964-1965 Det 82 GP 36 goals 59 assists 95 points 1.16 PPG
1965-1966 Det 82 GP 34 goals 55 assists 89 points 1.09 PPG
1966-1967 Det 81 GP 30 goals 48 assists 78 points 0.97 PPG
1967-1968 Det 82 GP 48 goals 52 assists 100 points 1.22 PPG
1968-1969 Det 82 GP 49 goals 66 assists 114 points 1.39 PPG
1969-1970 Det 82 GP 36 goals 45 assists 81 points 0.99 PPG
1970-1971 Det 66 GP 24 goals 30 assists 54 points 0.81 PPG
1979-1980 Hfd 82 GP 13 goals 24 assists 37 points 0.45 PPG
Adjusted Playoff Stats
1946-1947 Det 5 GP 0 goals 0 assists 0 points 0.00 PPG
1947-1948 Det 10 GP 1 goal 1 assist 2 points 0.19 PPG
1948-1949 Det 11 GP 9 goals 3 assists 13 points 1.13 PPG
1949-1950 Det* 1 GP 0 goals 0 assists 0 points 0.00 PPG
1950-1951 Det 6 GP 5 goals 4 assists 10 points 1.59 PPG
1951-1952 Det* 8 GP 3 goals 7 assists 10 points 1.25 PPG
1952-1953 Det 6 GP 2 goals 5 assists 7 points 1.19 PPG
1953-1954 Det* 12 GP 5 goals 7 assists 12 points 0.98 PPG
1954-1955 Det* 11 GP 11 goals 13 assists 24 points 2.22 PPG
1955-1956 Det 10 GP 3 goals 9 assists 12 points 1.20 PPG
1956-1957 Det 5 GP 2 goals 5 assists 7 points 1.41 PPG
1957-1958 Det 4 GP 1 goal 1 assist 2 points 0.45 PPG
1959-1960 Det 6 GP 1 goal 5 assists 6 points 1.03 PPG
1960-1961 Det 11 GP 4 goals 12 assists 17 points 1.53 PPG
1962-1963 Det 11 GP 7 goals 9 assists 16 points 1.44 PPG
1963-1964 Det 14 GP 9 goals 11 assists 20 points 1.43 PPG
1964-1965 Det 7 GP 4 goals 2 assists 7 points 0.94 PPG
1965-1966 Det 12 GP 4 goals 6 assists 11 points 0.88 PPG
1969-1970 Det 4 GP 2 goals 0 assists 2 points 0.46 PPG
1979-1980 Hfd 3 GP 1 goal 1 assist 2 points 0.57 PPG
Career - 2063 GP, 1032 goals, 1339 assists, 2370 points, 1.15 PPG
Career-Highs - 74 goals (52-53); 73 assists (53-54); 143 points (52-53); 1.74 PPG (52-53)
Avg. (26 seasons) - 79 GP, 40 goals, 52 assists, 91 points, 1.15 PPG
Peak Avg. (50-58) - 80 GP, 55 goals, 59 assists, 115 points, 1.43 PPG, 3 Cups
Playoff Career - 157 GP, 74 goals, 101 assists, 180 points, 1.15 PPG
Playoff-Highs - 11 goals (54-55); 13 assists (54-55); 24 points (54-55); 2.22 PPG (54-55)
Accolades - 6 MVP awards, 6 Art Ross
All-Star Teams - 12-time 1st-team, 9-time 2nd-team
4-time Stanley Cup Champion
I get the sense that Gordie Howe, revered as he is, pioneer of the famous "Gordie Howe hat-trick", is actually undervalued by today's generation in terms of his place in the history of the game. Sure, before adjustments, he has 801 goals and 1,851 career points, staggering numbers, good for 2nd all-time and 3rd all-time respectively. But I think that Howe became so well-known for playing so many seasons (twenty-six in all!) that he's suffering from Cal Ripken Syndrome: when an excellent player (remember, Ripken won two MVP awards in his prime) becomes more remembered for longevity than their excellence. Actually, Howe is far greater within his sport than Ripken ever was...so a better comparison would be Lou Gehrig, who is also remembered for his "streak", his perserverance, and his courageous speech at Yankee Stadium, rather than the fact that he also happened to have almost 2,000 career RBIs in only 2,200 games and is surely one of the five or six best batters who ever lived.
One of the reasons I wanted to do this blog is to expose the lies behind statistics and reveal how a player was truly viewed during their era. Nowhere is this more evident than in the case of Gordie Howe vs. Mark Messier. Looking at the actual stats, say, 50 years from now, when witnesses to Howe will have departed this world, it'd be easy to say that Messier and Howe were essentially equal.
Howe - 1850 career points in 1767 games played.
Messier - 1887 career points in 1756 games played.
Nothing could be further from the truth. I've got the knives sharpened for a blog entry on Messier later, but for now I'll focus on Howe.
When adjusted for goal averages and prorated to an 82-game schedule (there's no indication that Howe would have had any trouble playing those extra 12 games a year), Howe re-passes Gretzky for the record for most career goals. In fact, it's not even close. Gretzky ends up with 775, while Howe has a staggering 1,032. Let that sink in: Howe scored the common equivalent of 1,000+ career goals. And even though as a right-winger he had less assist opportunities than Gretzky at center, Howe still ends up with 2,370 career points...pretty close to Gretzky's 2,528 (certainly closer than the actual gap, which is over a thousand points).
Howe was at his best in the early-to-mid 50s, which rivaled the mid-to-late 90s (the trap era) for scarcity of scoring. The fact that Howe was able to lead the league in scoring four years in a row while also playing an intimidating brand of hockey, getting in more than the occasional fight, and leading his team to four championships in an era when the Montreal Canadiens were a virtual dynasty makes you understand why Howe was legitimately in the conversation for the best player ever when The Hockey News did it's poll of the 50 greatest players of all-time in 1997 (Howe ended up finishing third to Gretzky and Orr, but only by a nose). Interestingly, Howe wasn't particularly stand-out during the Red Wings' first three championships (he only played one playoff game in 1950), but in 1955 he cemented his legacy with an ass-kicking 11 goals and 24 points in 11 games.
To be sure, Howe's career stats are also inflated by the fact that he played for so long. But here's the thing: he played extremely well late in his career. Check out the career numbers again and you see 100 adj. points in 1967-1968 and 114 in 1968-1969. 114 at the age of forty! I'd venture to say we won't see that again. Pierre McGuire recently mentioned that Nicklas Lidstrom might be the best forty-year old hockey player in the history of the game, but quickly corrected himself (perhaps when he noticed the Red Wing jersey Lidstrom was wearing) and chimed in "well, second best. No one's been better than Howe".
So the numbers speak for themselves: yes, there's longevity, but during his heyday, his eight-year peak, Howe averaged 55 goals and 115 points as a right-winger and led his team to four championships. Perhaps the greatest gauge, in my opinion, of how a player is viewed at the time is the number of all-star teams they make (I'm referring to the official first and second teams named at the end of the year...not all-star games, which are skewed by fan voting. Hello, Mike Komisarek). During his career, Howe was considered the league's best right-winger an astonishing twelve times, and made the second team another nine times. That's twenty-one years out of a twenty-six year career that Howe was at the pinnacle of his position. Now it's easy to understand his legendary status, and hopefully time won't forget his impact.
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