GOAT Index

Two legends at a time. Thousands of votes. One ranking.

0Voters
0Matchups judged

Phil Esposito: the case for the GOAT

Who's greater?

Standings

Filter voters

    About you

    Optional

    This lets the standings split by age and region, so you can see where generations and continents disagree. Votes are anonymous: no name or email is ever collected.

    Phil Esposito: the case for the GOAT

    C · Bruins · Born 20 February 1942, Sault Ste. Marie, Ontario, Canada · Career 1963–1981

    A big centre who dominated the slot, Esposito was the scoring engine of the Big Bad Bruins and later starred for the Rangers.

    Career highlights

    Why Phil Esposito could be the GOAT

    Esposito shattered scoring norms: first to 100 points in a season and 76 goals in 1970–71, a record until Gretzky came along. He won five scoring titles and led Canada in the 1972 Summit Series. He redefined what a scorer could do.

    What fans say

    Phil Esposito is #25 of 25 in the fan ranking, with a 0–2 head-to-head record from 23 NHL votes. See the full NHL GOAT ranking

    Phil Esposito head to head

    How the ranking works. Every head-to-head vote is a result, like a game. The standings use a Bradley–Terry model, the same idea behind chess ratings: beating a highly rated legend counts for more than beating a long shot. Ratings are shown on a chess-style scale centred on 1500.

    One vote per matchup per person. If you see a pairing again in another session your new answer replaces the old one, so nobody can stuff the ballot by repeating a matchup.

    Anonymous by design. No account needed. A quick bot check from Cloudflare runs once when you arrive, and your votes are tied to a random ID kept in your browser, not to your name or email. Privacy policy.

    Photo credits

      Photos come from Wikimedia Commons under the licenses listed. Each links to its source page.