Does Wayne Gretzky think Jaromir Jagr could have broken his goals record?

The Great One knows about the Great ‘What-If.’

What if Jaromir Jagr, who has 742 career goals through Thursday’s games, hadn’t lost roughly two seasons to labor stoppages and hadn’t spent three years toiling in Russia’s KHL? 

Would Jaromir Jagr have passed Wayne Gretzky’s all-time career goals mark of 894?

“The closer he gets to my records … I’m going to steal his skates,” said Gretzky with a chuckle, speaking to Yahoo Sports this week.

“He’s really taken it to another level. There are only about four players I know that can compete at the level they did at the age of 45 or 46. They were Jaromir, Chris Chelios, Mark Messier and Gordie Howe. The one thing they all had in common was a passion and a love for the game, and a dedication to being the best athlete they can be every single night.” 

“What Jaromir’s doing now is remarkable,” said Gretzky. “It’s one thing to get older. But the players are better, and getting better.”

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But would Jagr have passed Gretzky when Jagr finally (in theory) retires some day?

“Listen, you figure he missed four years,” said Gretzky. “That’s 30 goals a year, approximately – 120 more goals that he could easily have. You’d have a great case to have a conversation about it.”

Gretzky said that despite setting dozens of NHL records during his legendary career, the focus was never on shattering those marks.

“But I never looked at it that way. I just played. Jaromir’s probably the same way. He just plays. If he’s able to break my record, I’d shake his hand. But I don’t think you ever go on the ice thinking ‘I’m going to break this record’. You play because you love it,” he said.

This weekend, Gretzky is exploring another “love of the game,” which is returning it to hockey’s roots on the Canadian pond. Gretzky was a special guest at the Pond Hockey Championships in Plaster Rock, New Brunswick, marking the first time he’s attended the event.

And he wasn’t alone: Gretzky brought along a 20-foot-tall goal light created by Budweiser Canada, which will shine whenever a goal is scored on the pond. From there, the Goal Light will head to the North Pole to sound off when team Canada plays in the World Cup. 

Gretzky said seeing a goal light ignite never stopped being special to him, even after close to 900 career regular-season goals.

“One thing you never, ever get bored with is scoring goals. Every time you see the red light go on, it was always special,” he said.

“That was one of these things when you played in the 70s and 80s. You saw the goal judge. You saw him in his chair. The light go on. That was a pretty cool part of being in the NHL. As a kid growing up, you didn’t have goal judges for youth hockey. You didn’t have goal lights. You knew you were in the NHL.”

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Greg Wyshynski is a writer for Yahoo Sports. Contact him at [email protected] or find him on Twitter. His book, TAKE YOUR EYE OFF THE PUCK, is available on Amazon and wherever books are sold.