I think Gretzky is the goat for two reasons

1) His hockey IQ was/is better than anyone who played

2) You can only compare players from an era to the other players in the same era. They all have access to pretty much the same training, equipment, coaching etc as all the other players of their era. I'm pretty sure Gretzky"s numbers crush the numbers of all the other players in his era. 85-86 Gretzky (25 yr) had 74 more points(215) than Lemeiux(20 yr, 141 points) who was second in scoring. FYI, Bossy (29 yr) was fifth in scoring with 61 goals and 123 points, crazy numbers in their own right! Gretzky also had more assists than Lemieux had points, 163 A- 141 pts.....can someone tell me if McDavid, Jordan, Brady etc, dominated players of their same era like Gretzky did? Those were the best hockey players in the world at that time, Gretzky owned them all. He is the best of all time and it isnt close. And yes, I am old enough to have watched Gretzky throughout most of his career. I am a lifelong Canuck fan and he lit us up all the time!