Hindsight being what it is, Brett Hull can't say with certainty he would have had the Hall of Fame career he had, or that his father, Bobby, would have had the Hall of Fame career he had, without Gordie Howe having the Hall of Fame career he had.
"To me, [Howe] was the embodiment of the game," Brett Hull said Friday. "He loved it so much that he played until he was 52 years old. He was my dad's idol. He was Wayne Gretzky's idol. He touched so many generations of hockey.