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Legacy

Howe's name and nickname, "Mr. Hockey", as well as his late wife's nickname as "Mrs. Hockey", are registered trademarks. Howe was also referred to during his career as Power, Mr. Everything, Mr. All-Star, The Most, The Great Gordie, The King of Hockey, The Legend, The Man, No. 9, and "Mr. Elbows" (for his tough physical play). Howe is widely considered the most complete player in all of hockey history. Once Howe began dominating the NHL, NHL scouts were given new directives to discover players that played the way he did. Howe's strength, scoring ability, and speed exemplified the perfect example of the modern-day role of a power forward and someone who can play the 200-foot game. Howe's brawn and physical play inspired the coining of the " Gordie Howe hat-trick "—a goal, an assist and a fight—which is now a standard part of hockey's vocabulary. Ironically, Howe himself only achieved his namesake hat-trick twice in his long career, both in the early 1950s, because few players dared to fight him after Howe soundly defeated New York Rangers enforcer Lou Fontinato at Madison Square Garden in 1959. (For comparison, the current leader in Gordie Howe hat-tricks, Rick Tocchet, achieved the feat 18 times in his career.)

Howe was known for being a well-mannered and trusting person off the ice who never questioned the salary the Detroit Red Wings owners paid him. When it became public knowledge Howe had scored more than 600 goals for the organization before it reluctantly offered to pay him over $40,000, his linemate, Ted Lindsay, began a campaign to establish a player's association to unite for fair wages against the NHL owners. This would be the nucleus of the movement that became the National Hockey League Players' Association.

Howe's time playing with the WHA with his sons allowed the fledgling professional league to gain much-needed legitimacy and the ability to fill stadiums. The increased competition for hockey talent forced the insular NHL to seek players beyond its traditional North American sources and recruit professional European players and to expand into new cities to gain new fans. Wayne Gretzky was one of the players who elected to join the WHA instead of the NHL. Over the years, Howe became good friends with Gretzky, who had idolized him as a young player and who would later break many of Howe's scoring records and milestones. While Gretzky surpassed Howe statistically, it was Howe who had first set the standard for consistent, high-level play. Howe's number 9 has been worn as a tribute to him—Gretzky wore number 99 as a direct tribute to Howe since 9 was taken during the early parts of his career.

Another milestone was reached in 1997 when Howe played professional hockey in a sixth decade. He was signed to a one-game contract by the Detroit Vipers of the International Hockey League and at age 69, made a return to the ice for one shift. In so doing, he became the only player in hockey history to compete in six different decades at the professional level, having played in the USHL, NHL, WHA and IHL from the 1940s to 1990s.

Howe's first 20 seasons came during an era when the schedule was only 70 games, scoring was difficult, and checking was tight; he never scored 50 goals in a single season. Howe is currently fourth on the NHL's all-time points list with 1850 total points (801 goals and 1,049 assists) after Wayne Gretzky, Mark Messier and Jaromír Jágr. Howe is still third on the all-time goals list, with only Gretzky and Alexander Ovechkin ahead of him. When career regular season goals from both the NHL and the WHA are combined, he ranks first in goals with 975, ahead of Gretzky's 940.

At the time of his retirement, Howe's professional totals, including playoffs, for the NHL and WHA combined, were first. He finished with 2,421 games played, 1,071 goals, 1,518 assists, and 2,589 points. However, Gretzky would later pass him in goals (1,072), assists (2,297) and points (3,369), but not in games played or games played with one team. After Howe's death, Gretzky called Howe "the greatest hockey player ever", and said that if it were up to him Howe's No. 9 would be retired for all NHL teams the same as his own No. 99. Howe's record of 1,767 NHL games played was surpassed in April 2021 by Patrick Marleau. However, combining his games played in the WHA, he holds the record for most regular season games played in the major leagues with 2,186.

Howe played internationally on one occasion, at the 1974 Summit Series.