Top 10 NHL Players of the Modern Era

2. Wayne Gretzky

Point Shares per Game: 0.17

To a lot of people, what Michael Jordan is to basketball, Gretzky is to hockey. That is to say that some see him as the GOAT (Greatest Of All Time). But, according to point shares per game, he isn't number-one.

Gretzky played only 20 seasons, yet leads all players with 251.0 career point shares, with 223.9 alone on offense. Outside of Borque, that's more than all total point shares from other players.

In the face of his greatness, it's sometimes surprising that Gretzky played for six different teams. He did, however, make a home in Edmonton with the Oilers and L.A. with the Los Angeles Kings, with nine and eight years within those two organizations, respectively.

If you want to pick one, the numbers tell us that Gretzky's best season came at the youthful age of 21, with the Oilers. In that 1981-82 season, he tallied 19.7 point shares on a career-high 90 goals and a grand total of 212 points. Quite possibly as a product of Gretzky's youthfulness, Edmonton lost in the first round of the 1981 playoffs.

It wasn't until a few years later that he started racking up the titles. He won two straight in 1984 and 1985, as well as 1987 and 1988. Even before that, though, he had already started his individual run through the hardware. In total, he amassed five Byngs, five Pearsons, nine Harts, two Smythes and 10 Ross awards.

Gretzky was voted into the All-Star game 18 times and is the NHL's all-time leader in points, goals, assists among many others. He was enshrined in the Hall of Fame in 1997.