Bobby Hull vs Mike Bossy - Better Goal Scorer?
 

I had a pretty good discussion with an ol drinkin' buddy of mine and Im curious to see what others think.

I'd go with Bobby Hull. Close though.

I'll take Bossy.

Bossy 752 games - 573 goals

Hull - 1063 games - 610 goals

In over 300 more games Hull only scored 37 more goals.

Bossy retired after his 30th birthday and 10th season.

Had he played another 8-10 years, he could have easily had another 400+ goals.

9 straight seasons of 50 or better.

Silly totals.

I consider Bobby Hull the greatest goal scorer of all-time with Bossy around #5. Not a large gap between them, though (like between the #1 and #5 *players* of all-time).

I am going with Bossy who is arguably the best pure goal scorer ever.

9 consective seasons with over 50 goals. His only season with less than 50 was his last (38 goals in 63 games).

His junior stats are simply unreal. He averaged a mind-boggling 77 goals in 4 seasons in the QMJHL

Hull easily, another scenario of raw stats from the 80's overrating bossy.

The goal difference is largely era-dependant. Bobby Hull had much better goal-scoring finishes vs his peers.

Hull: 1, 1, 1, 1, 1, 1, 1, 2, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6. (NHL only)
Hull: 1, 2, 3, 4, 5. (WHA only)
Bossy: 1, 1, 2, 2, 2, 3, 3, 5, 7.

I've seen video of Bobby Hull, boy, did he look impressive.

I am not comfortable answering this, I'm a huge Isles and Mike Bossy fan, bias aside, my eyes tell me that it's Bobby Hull. The stats are close, Bossy's ability to score at that elite level, for his whole career, including junior, internationally, playoffs, is unparalleled.

But to the eye-test, maybe a different story. He appeared to be much more dynamic and dangerous, Bossy more stealthy and productive, more subtly.

Hull won the NHL scoring race (for goals) seven times (would have been eight, and six straight, if he didn't miss some games one year).

That's pretty impressive.

Bobby Hull, easily.

Hull is the best goal scorer hockey has ever seen. He led the NHL in goals seven times, including a few times my margins rarely approached by other players.

Mike Bossy has two things going for him him: a shorter career, and a peak in the 1980s, which led to a very gaudy goals-per-game total and leads people to believe that he could have played twice as many games (wasn’t gonna happen in that era; the turnover in the 1988-1993 range was fast and unforgiving), and that if he did, he’d have twice as many goals.

In his last season he was 30 and had his worst per-game total already. It’s likely his decline would have really begun the following season.

The line “In over 300 more games Hull only scored 37 more goals” is pretty lame because it includes a ton of games played past the age of 30 and all the way till 41, ages Bossy never lasted to, in order to see his career averages decline. By the time he was 30, Hull had 472 goals in a very low scoring era, good for 0.58 per game… among players who played before the 1980s, only Richard and Esposito even sniff that figure, and without WW2 and Bobby Orr, no one does.

What Hull did was extremely rare for his era and really for the first 60 years of the NHL. What Bossy did wasn’t. Lemieux scored goals even more prolifically; so did Gretzky. Brett Hull also had the same GPG average before age 30.

That’s not to say Bossy doesn’t deserve a spot firmly in the top-10, but Hull is obviously #1.

Bobby Hull is arguably the best goal scorer of all time. I'd go with him. People get caught up in Bossys 50 goal streak and ignore era/league rank. Then some just pro rate his numbers and say he would have outscored Gretzky if he kept playing.

post is all correct, except this part.

I read his book, he talks about how much pain he was in throughout that whole season, how he shouldn't even have played that many games that year and felt he wasn't contributing to team wins anymore.

He made similar statements in the quest for 50-in-50, when he was pressing too much.

I do believe his scoring rate would have continued, not tailed off too much, only because of the way he played, the types of goals he scored. Unfortunately, scoring goals "that way", standing in the slot, taking abuse, lots of holding, hooking, cross-checking, takes its toll. For anyone.

But he never relied on speed or strength, it was all instinct and positioning. He knew how to score. Not unlike Selanne just knows how to score goals, even though he can hardly skate anymore, compared to his twenties.

I do think Bossy would have scored a lot of goals, if healthy, but not the Gretzky-level, he simply wasn't that good.

Mario, if healthy, could have caught Gretzky, he had that kind of talent...but Gretzky wasn't really a goal scorer, he was a playmaker who also scored, a lot.

Hull. If he had been born in 1960 he would have blown by Gretzky's 894 goals, nevermind Bossy.

Absolutely Hull.

Sounds like a really really good (and clutch) Luc Robitaille.

I'm inclined to go with Bossy, but to be fair I've seen a lot more of him than I have of Hull.

Came in to post this, although I am a very big Bossy fan.

I would furthermore add the overwhelming amount more than the next guy Hull scored in several seasons.
Envision it in the 80's and we are talking 80-90 goal seasons

Here's a nice way to show how dominant a goal scorer Hull was at his peak...

I'm not sure these two sentences can really exist in the same universe.

In the end, Bossy's career was what it was, and a second 7-10 year run of 50 goal seasons has to be a much bigger leap to make than a period spent declining.

Brett Hull vs. Mike Bossy is a better poll than Bossy vs, the elder Hull.

Bobby Hull, Gretzky, Lemieux, Howe and Maurice Richard are my top 5 goal scorers of all-time after I really think about it.

Hull lead the NHL in goal scoring in about 5 or 6 different seasons (some ridiculous number). Bossy only did it twice.

This. Hull is probably the best goal scorer of all time.

well considering the discussion was him saying Bossy was better than Bobby Hull...making a thread about Brett would be senseless in this case

Bossy is known as a goal scorer, Hull as an all-time great player.

Perhaps the artist would prefer Bossy, but the accountant whould take Hull.

bossy averaged 61 goals per 80 games over ten years. 61 is much more than 50.

of course there would be decline, but even in his last session that he played in constant pain, he was on a 48 goal pace.

he scored the type of goals that are impossible to defend, hence, the consistency at all levels, from junior to international.

I have little doubt Bossy would have scored a lot of goals for the next ten, if he was remotely healthy. not unlike Mario would have, injury aside. Of course, we will never know.

doesn't change the fact that bobby hull was probably the better player and goal scorer though.

One thing though - longevity was simply not the norm for players of Bossy's generation. that 1979 draft class played forever, but the players 1-7 years younger just didn't. There were almost no exceptions.

Bossy, for all the talk about his shortened career, still played the 30th-most games among all 1976-1978 draftees. that class seemed to top out at 1000-1050 games and declines were fast. There is just simply no way he would have played 10 more years; he would have been a freak of nature and bucked the generational trend in a massive way.

Look at the number of players 33 and older who played at least half the season in 1991-92. then do it again for 2001-02 and 2011-12.