Ovechkin tops Gretzky, Hull and Lemieux in greatest goal scorer in history competition

NBC Sports recently ran a bracket on social media asking fans to vote on the greatest goal scorers in NHL history and… well let’s just say that hockey fans aren’t exactly all on the same page with its results.

Washington Capitals captain Alex Ovechkin bested the likes of legends like Mark Messier, Wayne Gretzky, Brett Hull and Mario Lemieux en route to the fictitious award.

Check it out:

I gotta say… whatever your thoughts are on Ovi, he certainly took a hard path to the crown.  Messier, Gretzky, Hull and Lemieux are all in the conversation for greatest players of all time, forget just goal scoring. 

Some of these choices though… I dunno…

Gordie Howe is obviously an absolute legend and one of the best to ever lace up the skates but Mike Bossy was simply born to score goals. Ditto for Joe Sakic who was bested by Jaromir Jagr in round one. It’s hard to argue against Mario, of course, but until Gretzky came along there was no one in NHL history who put up goals like Phil Esposito.

In any case, it’s hard to argue against Ovi in this contest. He’s the greatest goal scorer, certainly, of the past 20 years and if you were to place him alongside some of these other legends in the 70s, 80s or 90s, there’s no doubt that he’d stack up there with the all-timers.