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The Greatest NHL Players to never win the Art Ross

By Andrew R

Wayne Gretzky and Gordie Howe (Photo by Bruce Bennett Studios via Getty Images Studios/Getty Images)
Wayne Gretzky and Gordie Howe (Photo by Bruce Bennett Studios via Getty Images Studios/Getty Images) /
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Special Mention #3: Brett Hull

In 1990-91, Brett Hull scored 131 points, second only to Wayne Gretzky. That would have been good enough to win the Art Ross in nearly every other season. But The Great One was once again miles ahead of the competition that year. However, Hull was 16 points over 3rd place. If it wasn’t for Gretzky, he had a comfortable margin of victory.

Then the following year, he scored 109 points in an injury-shortened season. Adjusted for a full season, he would have scored 122, which would have put him right up there if it wasn’t for Mario Lemieux.

From the 1988-89 season through to the 1993-94 season, Hull scored 635 points in 470 games, averaging 111 points per game.

But Brett Hull is best known for being a prolific goal scorer. He’s one of the few players to score 50 goals in 50 games – not even his father (Bobby Hull, former Art Ross winner) did that. And his 766 goals is good for 4th all-time, behind only Jagr, Howe, and Gretzky.

Brett Hull even won the Hart in 1990-91, beating out tough competition from Lemieux and Gretzky. That year, he scored 86 goals, a feat only The Great One himself has ever exceeded. And Gretzky only did it two times, first by 6 goals, and then by an even narrower margin of just one.  Brett Hull, therefore, owns the 3rd best record for goals scored in a season.

On top of that all, he’s won the Stanley Cup twice.

Andy Bathgate
Former New York Ranger players Andy Bathgate and Harry Howell. (Photo by Bruce Bennett/Getty Images) /

Special Mention #2: Andy Bathgate

Andy Bathgate played his best known years for the New York Rangers in the 50s and 60s, but don’t count that against him. The Rangers struggled in that era, but Bathgate certainly wasn’t the reason.

For 8 straight seasons, Bathgate finished in the top five in scoring. And he kind of even won the Art Ross, in 1961-62, losing to Bobby Hull on a technicality. That technicality being: when two players are tied at the end of the year, the player with more goals breaks the tie.

The following year, Bathgate again finished second, this time just five points behind Gordie Howe.

Aside from Bobby Hull and Howe, Bathgate had Jean Beliveau and Dickie Moore to compete with every year. And most of those years, Bathgate finished ahead of each of them in points. There just wasn’t one year where he had more than all of them at the same time.

As close as he got, he was rewarded in his career with the Hart Trophy and a Stanley Cup with the Toronto Maple Leafs in 1963-64. And, in 1969-70, well outside of his prime, Bathgate scored an outstanding 108 points with the then-fledgling Vancouver Canucks.

Special Mention #1: Eric Lindros

Like Andy Bathgate, Eric Lindros tied Jaromir Jagr for most points in the lockout-shortened 1994-95 season but scored fewer goals. He was rewarded instead with the Hart Trophy that year.

But had injuries not slowed Lindros down, he would have actually been much closer than Bathgate in the years that followed.

Adjusting for full seasons, Lindros would have scored:

  1. 129 in 1995-96, 3rd to Jagr and Lemieux
  2. 125 in 1996-97, 3 points ahead of Lemieux, for the win
  3. 92 in 1997-98, 2nd to Jagr
  4. 107 in 1998-99, 2nd again to Jagr.

So had things turned out slightly different, there’s a good chance Eric Lindros could have won an Art Ross Trophy in the late 1990s.

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