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Whose Really the Next Gretzky?

Justin Mazzarese

Sports Editor

Growing stale of the countless Jordon- comparisons to Grant Hill, Kobe Bryant and now LeBron James, with none of them coming close, it seemed a little ridicules that people would dare to compare anyone to Gretzky, �The Great One.� The next Messier- alright. Next Jagr- I can see it, I could even see the next Lemieux, but the next Gretsky? Come on.

Most people at the beginning of the season, myself included, thought that the tag of �The Next Gretsky,� was just a sales pitch and another reason why the non- casual hockey fan should tune into hockey this season after they left their fans in the cold for a year. Could Sidney Crosby really be that good? It just seemed too high of praise to an unproven rookie at the time but becoming the youngest player (8/7/ 87) to score 100 points in his rookie season validated some of those comparisons but still did not make them right in the first place.

Crosby joined Teemu Selanne (132), Peter Stastny (109), Dale Hawerchuk (103), Alex Ovechkin (106), Joe Juneau (102) and Mario Lemieux (100) as the only rookies ever to score 100 points in the season. One name should stand out on that list if you have been following hockey this season- Alex Ovechkin.

Although Crosby has become the youngest player ever to reach the 100 point mark, his fellow rookie rival, Ovechkin, reached the 100 point plateau a week before Crosby. So who really deserves the comparison to Gretsky? The answer to that is no one but let�s see who deserved the hype.

Well they were both selected number one overall in the draft. (Ovechkin was drafted number one in the 2004 draft but due to the lock out, this would be considered his rookie season) and both reached 100 points in their first regular seasons in the NHL with Ovechkin scoring three more points than Crosby with 106; a slight edge to Ovechkin.

Ovechkin showed a balanced attack by producing in assists too as his position calls for more goal scoring while Crosby is a center and usually the assist man on goals. So with that said, Ovechkin did a better job at his position as he was ranked third in the NHL with 52 goals and Crosby was ranked seventh in assists with 63. But has an overall offensive player, Crosby has a slight nod in rankings has he scored 39 goals which was good for 12th in the NHL while Ovechkin ranked 20th in assists with 54.

What separates the too is their Olympic performances this year. Although not to argue whether Crosby should have been on the Canadian Olympic team, because he may have helped the underachieving team, the fact is he was left off. However, his counterpart was on the Russian Olympic hockey and produced on hockey�s biggest stage. He had the game winner against Canada in the third period and tied the game in the third against the United States; he also had goals against Latvia and Slovakia which Russia won easily.

However, with their impressive rookie campaigns it�s almost inevitable that they will not accomplish the resume that Gretzky complied so the comparisons need to stop. Just like how you can not compare someone to Jordon until they have hit as many big game shots and carried his team to six NBA championships, you can not compare someone to Gretzky until their number is retired throughout the NHL.

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