Mike Gartner (Murillo Pyramid Rank = #130)
Adjusted Stats
1979-1980 Wsh 79 GP 32 goals 29 assists 61 points 0.77 PPG
1980-1981 Wsh 82 GP 39 goals 38 assists 77 points 0.94 PPG
1981-1982 Wsh 82 GP 27 goals 35 assists 63 points 0.77 PPG
1982-1983 Wsh 75 GP 31 goals 31 assists 62 points 0.83 PPG
1983-1984 Wsh 82 GP 32 goals 36 assists 68 points 0.83 PPG
1984-1985 Wsh 82 GP 41 goals 42 assists 83 points 1.01 PPG
1985-1986 Wsh 76 GP 28 goals 32 assists 60 points 0.79 PPG
1986-1987 Wsh 80 GP 35 goals 27 assists 63 points 0.78 PPG
1987-1988 Wsh 82 GP 41 goals 28 assists 69 points 0.84 PPG
1988-1989 Wsh/Min 71 GP 28 goals 30 assists 58 points 0.82 PPG
1989-1990 Min/NYR 81 GP 38 goals 35 assists 74 points 0.91 PPG
1990-1991 NYR 81 GP 45 goals 18 assists 63 points 0.78 PPG
1991-1992 NYR 78 GP 36 goals 37 assists 73 points 0.94 PPG
1992-1993 NYR 82 GP 37 goals 19 assists 56 points 0.69 PPG
1993-1994 NYR/Tor 79 GP 32 goals 28 assists 59 points 0.75 PPG
1994-1995 Tor 65 GP 21 goals 14 assists 35 points 0.54 PPG
1995-1996 Tor 82 GP 34 goals 19 assists 53 points 0.64 PPG
1996-1997 Phx 82 GP 34 goals 33 assists 67 points 0.81 PPG
1997-1998 Phx 60 GP 14 goals 17 assists 31 points 0.52 PPG
Adjusted Playoff Stats
1982-1983 Wsh 4 GP 0 goals 0 assists 0 points 0.00 PPG
1983-1984 Wsh 8 GP 3 goals 6 assists 9 points 1.11 PPG
1984-1985 Wsh 5 GP 3 goals 2 assists 5 points 1.05 PPG
1985-1986 Wsh 9 GP 2 goals 9 assists 10 points 1.15 PPG
1986-1987 Wsh 7 GP 4 goals 3 assists 6 points 0.89 PPG
1987-1988 Wsh 14 GP 2 goals 3 assists 5 points 0.38 PPG
1988-1989 Min 5 GP 0 goals 0 assists 0 points 0.00 PPG
1989-1990 NYR 10 GP 4 goals 3 assists 7 points 0.68 PPG
1990-1991 NYR 6 GP 1 goal 1 assist 2 points 0.28 PPG
1991-1992 NYR 13 GP 7 goals 7 assists 14 points 1.08 PPG
1993-1994 Tor 18 GP 5 goals 6 assists 11 points 0.60 PPG
1994-1995 Tor 5 GP 2 goals 2 assists 4 points 0.71 PPG
1995-1996 Tor 6 GP 4 goals 1 assist 5 points 0.80 PPG
1996-1997 Phx 7 GP 1 goal 2 assists 3 points 0.45 PPG
1997-1998 Phx 5 GP 1 goal 0 assists 1 point 0.22 PPG
Career - 1481 GP, 625 goals, 548 assists, 1174 points, 0.79 PPG
Career-Highs - 45 goals (90-91); 42 assists (84-85); 83 points (84-85); 1.01 PPG (84-85)
Avg. (19 seasons) - 78 GP, 33 goals, 29 assists, 62 points, 0.79 PPG
Peak Avg. (80-88) - 80 GP, 34 goals, 34 assists, 68 points, 0.85 PPG, 0 Cups
Playoff Career - 122 GP, 39 goals, 45 assists, 82 points, 0.67 PPG
Playoff-Highs - 7 goals (91-92); 9 assists (85-86); 14 points (91-92); 1.15 PPG (85-86)
Accolades - None
All-Star Teams - None
Never Won Stanley Cup
Throughout this blog, in the discussion of some of the all-time greats to play the game, you may notice me throwing a few jabs here and there at Mike Gartner and Dino Ciccarelli (particularly Ciccarelli). It's not that I have anything against these players. They were above-average NHL stars for an admirable length of time. They're both in the Hall of Fame (I can't really argue Gartner's inclusion, I suppose, but Ciccarelli is a different matter). But there's a reason that they don't feel as great as their numbers would suggest, and it's because their numbers are a by-product of peaking during the highest scoring decade the NHL has ever known. This is why the adjusted stats system exists: to put into perspective the accomplishments of numbers that appear gaudy, but really aren't. Gartner has over 700 career goals, an astronomical number shared by few. Surely he must be among the greats. Well, in fact, he and Ciccarelli are my cut-off point for the Pyramid, the bare minimum that it takes to make the list of greats.
A question for you right now: remember Darcy Tucker's best season with the Toronto Maple Leafs? He scored (in adjusted terms) about 30-33 goals, couldn't pass worth shit so only mustered about 60-65 total points, but played a nice little gritty style that endeared him to fans. Sure, he wasn't ultra-talented, but he could pot a nice one-timer on the power play and had a nose for the back of the net. No one would mistake him for an all-star, but he was a valuable forward to have on your team.
OK, now that was Tucker's best season. Now imagine a hypothetical forward who puts together, at his peak, eight straight years like that, and then for the other eleven years of his career is a fairly close approximation of that. He's never noticeably worse than his usual 30-30-60, nor is he much better than, perhaps, 40-30-70. So he's Darcy Tucker's best season for nineteen years. Is this guy a Hall of Famer?
Well, you don't have to imagine because, voila, you have Mike Gartner! But what about the 700 career goals, or the nine seasons of 40+ goals? Well, as we see, when adjusted, Gartner only has three 40+ seasons...in today's era (which is actually lower-scoring than the norm), his typical year is basically what a healthy Brian Gionta puts up. That's it. Brian Gionta. Except consistently, reliably healthy year after year.
Does that make him a Hall of Famer? Well, with Gartner, I guess I have to begrudgingly let him in, because even in adjusted stats, he still has 625 career goals, which places him among only nineteen NHL players to have 600. But I don't have to sit there and pretend that Gartner's 708 goals actually places him anywhere near (I mean, not even in the same fucking stratosphere!) other 700 goal-scorers like Howe, Jagr, Gretzky, or hell even Brett Hull (and hopefully Teemu Selanne if he deservedly gets there).
What I find so hilarious about Gartner is he's the anti-Lafleur/Orr/Esposito in that, unlike those three players, his peak average of his best eight years pretty much identically correlates to the average for the rest of his career. In his supposed "prime", which really could be any eight years randomly picked, he averaged 34-34-68, while his overall average over 19 years is 33-29-62...hardly any difference at all.
It's also amusing that Gartner had brutal luck when it comes to team success, which can't really be blamed on him, as he was rarely the best player on his own team (Langway with the Capitals, Messier with the Rangers, Sundin and Gilmour with the Maple Leafs). He was traded away from the North Stars the year before they went on their improbable run to the Stanley Cup finals. And he was traded away from the Rangers the very year they ended their 54-year drought and finally won a Cup. In fact, Gartner owns the record for the most career games played without a Stanley Cup ring.
Hard to believe for someone who scored 700 goals, isn't it?
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