If you’ve listened closely enough over the years, you may have picked up on the whispers that Mark Messier is overrated. One only needs to Google “Mark Messier overrated” to find a chorus of message board threads making such a claim. In fact, this sentiment has become strong enough that Messier has probably entered “underrated” territory at this point. While there is no question that his career was not of the caliber of Wayne Gretzky or Mario Lemieux, what he did over 25 seasons is matched only by a handful of skaters in NHL history. The genius is in Messier’s full body of work. From his two-way play and positional versatility to his regular season and playoff accolades, there are very few holes.

Before we get on with the actual substance of Messier’s resume, let’s introduce the elephant in the room when it comes to discussing his historical significance, which also happens to be the fuel for much of the overrated claims. It is not uncommon for Messier detractors to point out that his greatness was greatly enhanced by The Great One. The argument goes something like, “anyone who played with Wayne Gretzky would’ve put up Hall-of-Fame numbers,” as if two superstars are not allowed to exist on the same team. Fortunately, Messier made this an easy misconception to refute since he was the best player on two Stanley Cup winning teams after he stopped playing with Gretzky. In fact, Messier scored 30+ playoff points in both of his post-Gretzky Cup wins, and picked up regular season and postseason MVPs along the way. In an interesting twist that belies the notion that Gretzky was responsible for Messier’s success, it was actually Gretzky who never won a Stanley Cup without Messier. Messier’s accomplishments are his own, and now that we’ve addressed this, let’s get into the weeds on what gives him an easy top-10 resume in NHL history.

Messier’s Resume

1). Only player in NHL history to score at least 10 points in 14 consecutive playoff appearances. 

2). Only player to score at least 25 points in the playoffs for six different Stanley Cup Champions.

3). Only player to win the Hart Trophy and the Stanley Cup in the same season for two different franchises. 

4). Only player to be named a First Team NHL All-Star at center and forward.

5). Only player to be named a First Team NHL All-Star multiple times at two different positions.  

6). Only player to win the Hart Trophy and the Conn Smythe at different positions.

7). Only player to have captained two different franchises to Stanley Cup titles. 

8). One of only two players in NHL history to score 30 points in the playoffs three times. Gretzky is the other. 

9). One of only two players to score 25 points in the playoffs six times. Gretzky is the other. 

10). One of only two players to score at least 20 points in the playoffs seven times.  Gretzky is the other.

11). One of only two players to score 30 points in a single playoff for two franchises. Gretzky is the other.

12). One of only two players with two Hart Trophies and six Stanley Cups. Jean Beliveau is the other. 

13). One of only two players with two Hart Trophies, six Stanley Cups, and a Conn Smythe (Beliveau).

14). One of only two players to win the Hart Trophy for two different franchises. Gretzky is the other. 

15). 2nd most playoff points in NHL history (295), 62 points ahead of 3rd place (!!!).

16). 2nd most playoff goals in NHL history (109).

17). 2nd most playoff assists in NHL history (186).

18). Most short-handed goals in NHL playoff history (14).

19). 6th all-time in playoff points per game in NHL history (1.25). 

20). 3rd most regular season points in NHL history (1887).

21). 3rd most regular season assists in NHL history (1193).

22). 6th most adjusted points in NHL history (1732). 

23). 9th most regular season goals in NHL history (694).

When Messier gets devalued, it’s because he doesn’t have the gaudy single-season statistics that are a staple of the great and magnificent ones like Wayne Gretzky and Mario Lemieux. The problem is, Messier isn’t being compared to Gretzky and Lemieux, or even Alexander Ovechkin and Sidney Crosby. He’s being compared to everyone else, and outside of a very select few, Messier’s cabinet is simply stocked with more stuff. Given that he is likely the second greatest playoff performer of all-time, and the added degree of difficulty that goes with both being named 1st Team All-NHL and winning a Stanley Cup on a team with Gretzky, then doing it on that same team without Gretzky, then doing it for an entirely different franchise altogether, Messier has more than enough bona fides to be a credentialed member of the top-10. 

It’s rare that the biggest “What if?” in the history of a sport also just happens to come from one of the greatest players that sport has ever seen. This is the weird intersection where Mario Lemieux’s resume exists. Lemieux missed four full seasons due to lymphoma, and large portions of several others as a result of a litany of physical ailments. He played in just 64% of Pittsburgh’s games during his playing career. However, what he did in that 64% is quite literally the highest level of play that hockey has ever seen. It’s fair to say that Lemieux’s relatively meager games total keeps him from being a serious challenge to Wayne Gretzky on the GOAT throne. Gretzky isn’t just the greatest hockey player of all-time, he’s the greatest athlete in the history of team sports. Joining Gretzky ahead of Lemieux is Alexander Ovechkin, who led the NHL in goals a record nine times and has the most goals in the history of the NHL. Throw in the fact that both Gretzky and Ovechkin played close to 600 more games than Lemieux and it becomes pretty hard to argue they are not the two greatest hockey players of all-time. That third spot, however, is a tight race between Lemieux and Gordie Howe. Bobby Orr had a remarkable peak, but he’s just not a strong candidate for the third spot, having played only 657 games in the weakest era in NHL history. It’s hard to begrudge anyone for going with Howe in the third spot given his longevity, but he played in a league with just six teams, and never produced the high-end seasons that Lemieux did. As astonishing as it might seem, Lemieux–even playing just 64% of Pittsburgh’s games–seems to have done enough to lock down the 3rd spot. 

The most telling statistic to convey Mario Lemieux’s historical magnificence is the fact that he won six Ross Trophies (league scoring titles) and three Hart Trophies (league MVP) while playing smack dab in the middle of Gretzky’s prime. Unbelievably, he did this despite playing 65+ games in a season just six times in his entire career. In the 13 seasons from 1984-85 to 1996-97, Wayne Gretzky and Mario Lemieux each won six Ross Trophies. During this same span, Gretzky won four Hart Trophies while Lemieux won three, and it should’ve been 4-3 in favor of Lemieux had MVP voters not lost their collective minds by awarding Gretzky the Hart following the 1988-89 season in which Lemieux outscored Gretzky by 31 points. Almost immediately after Lemieux entered the NHL, Gretzky’s stranglehold on league dominance ended. It was Lemieux who not only ended Gretzky’s run of eight consecutive Hart Trophies, but also his seven consecutive Ross Trophies. 

While Lemieux’s greatest achievement was playing a stalemate with the greatest athlete who ever lived, the statistics that he compiled to do so are, unsurprisingly, out of this world. Gretzky holds the NHL record with a hilariously scalding 1.92 points per game. Lemieux is right on his heels at a similarly sizzling 1.88 points per game. No other retired player in the history of hockey even reached 1.50 points per game. Even more impressive, Lemieux is actually the record holder for most adjusted points per game (1.68), which attempts to equalize all NHL players based on competition level and playing conditions. Furthermore, consider there have been 13 seasons in the history of hockey that resulted in 160+ points. Gretzky has nine of them, Lemieux has four, and the rest of the players in NHL history combined have zero. Lemieux put up 199 points in the 1988-89 NHL season which is 45 more than any non-Gretzky player in NHL history. Lemieux even has Gretzky beat in career goals per game and goals created per game. While Lemieux’s regular season exploits are a marvel–and it’s definitely easy to lose hours of your life falling into the rabbit hole of Lemieux’s statistical greatness–it’s unlikely that his regular season output alone would be enough to claim the third spot in a sport that is built on the legacies of playoff immortals. If you don’t know if Lemieux is one of those immortals, well, this is Mario Lemieux we’re talking about. 

Entering the 1990-91 NHL season, the Pittsburgh Penguins had not won a single playoff series in franchise history. Then Super Mario happened. Lemieux not only led the Penguins to their first ever series win, he brought the Stanley Cup to Pittsburgh on the heels of a virtuoso playoff performance. Lemieux scored 44 points on his way to the Conn Smythe Trophy (playoff MVP). Lemieux’s 44 points were the second most in the history of the NHL playoffs behind only–you guessed it–Wayne Gretzky. Lemieux would go on to lead the Penguins to a second consecutive Stanley Cup in 1991-92, and once again took home the Conn Smythe, becoming the first skater ever to win back-to-back Conn Smythe trophies. Lemieux’s 78 points over two consecutive NHL playoffs are the second most in history behind only Gretzky (82 points in ‘83-84 and ‘84-85). He is second all-time (behind Gretzky) in points per game and goals created per game in the playoffs. 

Eddie Vedder once sang, “I know I was born and I know that I’ll die…The in between is mine.” Mario Lemieux’s career left the hockey world wanting more, so much more. Injuries and health scares derailed what could’ve been the greatest career in the history of sports. Still, what Lemieux accomplished in between is so magnificent that it is very difficult to make the case that more than two players in NHL history deserve to be rated ahead of him on the all-time list. Le Magnifique gets the nod at three.

It’s hard to say whether Tony Parker is underrated by every demographic, or just the one that does a surface level check before rendering a verdict. Judging by career accomplishments, it would be easy to assume that he was a fairly nondescript role player for a championship level franchise. First, it would be unfair to Parker to call him a role player. He finished in the top 10 in MVP voting four times, and garnered MVP votes in seven different seasons. He was also a six-time all-star selection. Just from his regular season output alone, Parker has a strong case as a top-100 player of all-time. When we add in the fact that he’s one of the most decorated playoff performers in NBA history, it’s not a question of if he’s a top 100 player, but how high on the list does he go.   

Parker helped lead the San Antonio Spurs to five NBA Finals appearances, including four NBA Championships. He was the leading playoff scorer for the Spurs on the 2014 title team, and was named the Finals MVP in 2007. He is one of only three point guards since 1960 to win four NBA Championships with a career scoring average of at least 17 points. The other two are Magic Johnson and Steph Curry. He’s also one of only two point guards in history with four NBA Championships while holding at least a 49% career field goal percentage. Magic Johnson is the other. Parker has played the 6th most playoff games in NBA history, and is one of only five players to play at least 220 playoff games with a career scoring average of at least 17 points. The others are LeBron James, Tim Duncan, Kareem Abdul-Jabbar, and Kobe Bryant. 

Parker’s playing style was truly one-of-a kind for point guards. He probed and broke down defenses in a way the league had never seen before and has not seen since. In truly one of the more remarkable stats in NBA history, a whopping 34.8% of Parker’s field goal attempts came from within three feet of the basket. Even more remarkable, his field goal percentage on these shots was a mind-blowing 64.8%. To put that in perspective, both of those percentages are higher than Hakeem Olajuwon’s, who just happens to be one of the top-5 centers the league has ever seen.

The number of point guards who have been the focal point of multiple NBA Championship teams–let alone four–is few and far between. The point guard position has historically not been the straw that stirs NBA dynasties. Outside of Magic Johnson and Steph Curry, it just hasn’t happened, which is a testament to how unique Tony Parker’s career was.