Art Ross Trophy 1981-2001 or The Dominance of Gretzky Lemieux and Jagr

The Art Ross Trophy is awarded in the NHL to the winner of the highest point total at the end of the season. For over two decades, however, only three hockey greats have won this prestigious trophy – Wayne Gretzky, Mario Lemieux and Jaromir Jagr.

Art Ross Trophy

Art Ross Trophy is awarded annually to the player with the most points at the end of the season – the so-called Canadian scoring trophy, where the number of goals and assists in the regular season are added up. This trophy was first awarded in the 1947/48 season to Elmer Lach of the Montreal Canadiens, who accumulated 61 points in 60 games.

Never in the NHL has there been such dominance by three hockey players who managed to win the league’s scoring from the early 1980s until the turn of the millennium. That dominance lasted an incredible 21 seasons, with only Wayne Gretzky, Mario Lemieux and Jaromir Jagr taking the scoring trophy.

Wayne Gretzky (1981, 82, 83, 84, 85, 86, 87, 90, 91 and 94)

”The Great One”, a legend by the name of Wayne Gretzky dominated the ice immediately after his entry into the NHL. He won the points in seven consecutive seasons (1980/81 – 1986/87). In those seven seasons, he amassed an incredible 1,356 points. He averaged almost two hundred points per season.

He is the only hockey player to date to break that mark in the NHL. And he’s done it four times! His reign was interrupted for two seasons by the Crown Prince Mario Lemieux. At the end of the “Golden Eighties” he found his equal.

On November 22, 1999, Wayne Gretzky was inducted into the Hockey Hall of Fame. In eight seasons with the @LAKings, Gretzky set NHL records for points (1,851), and goals (802), and is the #LAKings' all-time leader in playoff scoring with 94 points in 60 playoff games.#GoKingsGo pic.twitter.com/27TfKvQ4iP

— The Kingstorian (@Kingstorian) November 22, 2023

In the early 1990s, Gretzky dominated the scoring in two straight seasons. Of course with the onset of the new decade his productivity declined, wild shootouts were no longer commonplace. Still, in the 1990-91 season, when he won the scoring for the ninth time, he amassed a magnificent 163 points. He was no longer a scorer, however, but he was scoring points primarily for his passing.

His last tenth win came in the 1993/94 season, when he won the scoring with 130 points. After that, he handed over the reigns to other world hockey personalities. The pearl is that he had the same number of points as Marcel Dionne – 137 – when he entered the NHL in 1979/80. However, for Dionne the greater number of goals scored was decisive.

Mario Lemieux (1988, 89, 92, 93, 96 and 97)

a “Penguin” in body and soul. Immediately after entering the NHL, he confirmed that he would be a star of the league. In his fourth season, he managed to break Gretzky’s seven-year reign. In 1987/88, he amassed a remarkable 168 points.

A season later, he went even further. He literally exploded in points. He scored 199 points, but due to a sore back that had been with him his entire career, he never surpassed the “immortality” mark. Anyway, it’s the fifth best performance of all time.

Mario Lemieux’ s career total is 1,723 points. But he’s never played a complete season in his career. He was limited by injuries, such as a bad back or even cancer, for almost his entire career. Yet he never gave up and always came back even stronger.

In the NHL, he averaged almost two points per game, and he didn’t even play a thousand games. Still, he broke the 1,700-point mark. He had to miss more than 600 games in his career for various reasons, which is 7 full seasons. Only ”god knows where he would be if he could play the same number of games as Wayne Gretzky. Maybe Lemieux would hold the record.

If Mario was healthy, he was more than an even match for Gretzky. He saved his next two championships for the first half of the 1990s, when he dominated the 1991/92 and 1992/93 seasons. The fourth championship in 1993 in particular shows what a brilliant player he was.

For a big guy Mario Lemieux could really dangle. This move was so iconic they made a statue out of it. #legend @penguins pic.twitter.com/dyWi5vMtqz

— Hockey Hall of Fame (@HockeyHallFame) July 8, 2017

Lemieux missed almost a quarter of the season that year, and 21 players broke the 100-point mark. Moreover, it’s the last season that really gave a flashback to the offensive 80s. American Pat Lafontaine went for the win in the season of his life, not missing a single game and scoring a lifetime 148 points. However, despite missing a full 24 games, Mario’s powerful finish took him to an unprecedented 160 points!

He had to miss the whole of the following season due to an unpleasant diagnosis. It was lymph node cancer. However, not only did he beat the disease a season later, but he dominated the entire NHL again in the 1995/96 and 1996/97 seasons. He then retired, only to return to the ice 3 and a half years later.

Jaromir Jagr (1995, 98, 99, 00 and 01)

Jaromir Jagr broke into the NHL in the 1990/91 season, and over time it came to call him ”Mario’s Apprentice”. At first, he was just getting his feet wet in the toughest hockey league in the world. But especially in the playoffs, he showed he was a rising star. He improved year by year in points.

And Jagr has really grown into a star next to Lemieux. He first won the league’s scoring title in the 1994/95 season, which was affected by the lockout. Moreover, it was the first season in Pittsburgh in 10 years that Mario was not on the team. All the more pressure was put on Ron Francis and just Jagr on the Penguins.

However, he handled it in his own way, practically the whole shortened season was one big race for the scoring winner between Canadian Eric Lindros and the Czech still playing legend. At the end of the season, both players had the same number of points. Jagr played into Jagr’s hands that Lindros missed two games and because he had more goals scored, he took his first Art Ross Trophy with equal points (70).

ICYMI: Jaromir Jagr (743-1,108—1,851) passed Gordie Howe (801-1,049—1,850) for 3rd on NHL’s all-time points list. pic.twitter.com/MobOWpP8RF

— NHL Public Relations (@PR_NHL) March 8, 2016

For the next two seasons, Jagr himself had to bow to the artistry of Lemieux. And even though he scored a record 149 points a season later, it just wasn’t enough, as his teammate racked up 161. After Lemieux retired to a well-deserved hockey retirement, the scoring throne was vacant.

Jagr then dominated 4 seasons in a row. Between the 1997/98 and 2000/01 seasons, he was unrivalled in the NHL, scoring 102, 127, 96 and 121 points. Most interesting is his fourth championship in the 1999/2000 season.

It was a bit reminiscent of Mario’s 1993 victory. No one has even broken the 100-point mark in the NHL this season. The Czech player had to miss 19 games due to injury and still dominated the scoring with 96 points.

And almost iconic is Jagr’s last fifth scoring victory in the 2000-01 season. Until December of this season, he was somewhere around 20th place, but the Christmas period saw the sensation of Mario Lemieux’s return to the ice, who was already the Penguins’ owner at the time.

Although he hadn’t played a live game in over three and a half years, the chemistry between Jagr and Lemieux worked right from the first game. The Czech forward was suddenly picking up points by the handfuls again, and in the season finale, with a little help from his “teacher”, he beat Joe Sakic.

Source: NHL, Wikipedia