Gretzky and his fans may still believe that he was the best player to ever don skates and play the game, but one thing is for sure, he wasn’t as great of a team player as either Mario Lemieux or Sidney Crosby. It’s easy to point out why Gretzky is considered so great when you look at the team that surrounded him – something that is nigh impossible these days with salaries escalating faster than revenues warrant. The Penguins are trying however. It is also easy to point out and show how Lemieux was a far superior player when you look at the pathetic teams that surrounded him – yet he still performed at a level unarguably on par with Gretzky. The “better” player considering that? Not even close.

With the new documentary “Kings Ransom,” we once again see why I think it is a no-brainer that when it comes to both on ice talent and off ice class I would pick Mario any day of the week and twice on game day for my team. For that matter I would say the same thing about Sidney Crosby.

“If Sidney Crosby walked in this room, who would know him? In the NBA, every team has a star,” former Kings owner Bruce McNall said gushing over Gretzky. Really? “Who” would know him? Lots of people Mr. McNall. Lots of people.

Hate to break this to you, but outside of the hockey world and even within it, many, many people would not even know Wayne Gretzky if they saw him. He’s old guard and quite frankly the younger fans of hockey these days know little to nothing about him except that there seems to be a lot of “99″s hanging from rafters in arenas around the league thanks to an NHL decision to retire the number league wide. Adoration that, if you ask me, is a little unwarranted and Mr. McNall, you think a little too highly of your former player if you ask me. But it is easy to say when a room is full of people who already know Gretzky or are there specifically to see him.

But I think that before we deify old 99 we have to look with a critical eye at why Gretzky wound up leaving the Oilers, causing a near revolution in Canada, and headed to the LA Kings, a team that has been so perennially bad that they are often forgotten about when naming teams in the league in casual conversation. Gretzky left Edmonton because the Oilers could not afford him any more in a time when free agency was escalating salaries. And Canada’s golden boy did little to help. He refused to renegotiate his contract putting the Oilers in a bind with his current contract up the next year. Gretzky basically punched his own ticket out of Canada and while fans to this day blame the Edmonton organization for the debacle they rarely dare to utter a critical word of 99 or ask why he was so unwilling to do what needed to be done to stay in the Great White North.

Contrast and compare …

Mario Lemieux played on horrendously bad teams from the time he was drafted by the Penguins.  Yet despite putting up comparable numbers to 99 all things considered he took less money than Gretzky in each year of his contracts except one (his last when his back loaded salary kicked in).  Even upon returning to the league after retirement (and despite still putting up super superstar numbers once he did), he still had less dollars per contract year than Gretzky did at the end of his career.  Lemieux took less money to help his team.  Then there is modern day superstar and Penguins center Sidney Crosby.  He too took less than what he could have easily made on the free market to stick with the Penguins when it came time for a deal – something that rubbed off on other players with the team as Malkin, Staal and Fleury took either less than market value to keep the club on a strong footing.  Several role players (including Guerin and Fedotenko this year) also followed Crosby’s lead and like the team and winning so much that they took pay cuts just to play here while they could have easily gone elsewhere.

So to Gretzky’s adoring throngs, I say give me Lemieux and Crosby any day.  And if you don’t know Crosby to see him then that is your problem and no one else’s.  But remember, while Gretzky may have matured later and finally come to understand why Edmonton did what they did, some players understand that while they are still playing and do whatever they can to help the team.  Pittsburgh has been blessed to have two such players and they have elevated themselves above 99 because of that.