I was perusing a list of all the top single season points leaders in NHL history, and was a bit shocked:
https://records.nhl.com/records/skater-records/points/skater-most-points-one-season
Now, spots 1-13 are occupied by Wayne Gretzky and Mario Lemieux; lets assume they are unicorns with an amazing 160 points or more per season.
What confounds me is the next player who hits the list from the 21st century is Joe Thornton at #66 with 125 points in 2005-2006; the same season Jaromir Jagr got #70 with 125. He also got #79 with 121 2000-2001.Only Sidney Crosby and Joe Sakic fill the top 50 list representing the past 2 decades. To put this in perspective, the first non Mario-Wayne guy on the list was Steve Yzerman in the late 90s with 151.
No one from the past 10 years even cracks the top 50.
Of the top 50 season long points leaders in the NHL not named “Gretzky” or “Mario”, only 4 players in the past 20 seasons have made the list.
Is this because of better goaltending? Rule changes? Ice time management? More teams diluting the player pool and leading to less assists?
I do remember in the early 80s NHL scores were like that of indoor soccer . . . .9-8 . . … 7-5 . . . .etc…
Why are there no longer 150-200 point scorers in the NHL anymore?