Eh, the main reason for Seattle's success was sustained activity - there aren't many teams where literally every player is active and has an update heading into the playoffs. Gretzky is great, don't get me wrong, but he doesn't do much if Quill, or Laflamme, or V2A, or his own players aren't surrounding him and seeing a massive upgrade from the beginning of season to the end. And a lot of that falls on the GM.