[rhettyeakley]

Apples to Oranges.

In hockey Bobby Orr was great, but if we are talking about goalies most goalies in the 1960-early 70's were still employing an upright style of playing, it wasn't until later that the butterfly style (which is far more effective) was Universally employed. While it is true Gretzky played when they had slightly smaller pads than they do today it was far more similar to today's style of play than what Howe, Hull and even Bobby Orr played with. Also Bobby had health problems that limited his career. The only other hockey player that was like Gretzky was Lemieux, however his health problems are well chronicled. My vote for best hockey player ever is Gretzky with little debate.

As far as Gretzky vs Babe Ruth... People need to stop comparing goals in hockey to home runs. That comparison makes no sense. A home run, while great for your team is not the only way to score. In reality in baseball the home run is more of a novelty than it is the end all and be all of what a batter is looking to do, which is to score runs. While it is certainly the easiest way to throw a number on the scoreboard as it only requires one swing, if home runs we're all that counted we would view players like Adam Dunn as being better than some other players like Jeter that are obviously all-around better ballplayers. Did Babe Ruth have more RBI's than an entire team? Did he score more runs than an entire team? The answer is no and IMO while it is obviously problematic to compare hockey to baseball I think people are making odd comparisons.

All that being said I think Ruth in baseball is more significant than Gretzky in hockey.