Sidney Crosby remains the NHL’s most complete player, according to his peers.
The annual NHL Players’ Association poll was released on Tuesday, with 663 members chiming in on 12 hockey-related questions. It’s the 10th edition of the players poll.
Crosby, the 37-year-old Pittsburgh Penguins star, was named the NHL’s most complete player for the sixth straight season. But there’s a challenger to his throne: Crosby earned 33.81% of the votes with Florida Panthers star Aleksander Barkov (30.95%) right behind him. Year over year, Barkov has cut Crosby’s lead for the award from 140 votes to just 18 votes.
Crosby was also named the NHL’s smartest player (27.02%) over Tampa Bay Lightning star Nikita Kucherov (24.71%), as well as the player his peers would most rely on to win a faceoff (20.39%) overtaking Nashville Predators center Ryan O’Reilly (9.95%), who won the category last season. Kucherov was named the NHL’s best playmaker (48.25%).
Edmonton Oilers star Connor McDavid was also a multiple category winner, taking best overall forward in a romp (73.89%) over Nathan MacKinnon of the Colorado Avalanche (9.62%); and best overall skater (66.41%) over Cale Makar of the Avalanche (11.41%), who was named the NHL’s best overall defenseman (71.78%) by a wide margin over Quinn Hughes of the Vancouver Canucks (7.44%).
The vote for best goaltender offered the poll’s most surprising result. Connor Hellebuyck for the Winnipeg Jets, who is expected to win his second straight Vezina Trophy as the league’s top goaltender, placed third in the vote (15.57%) behind Tampa Bay’s Andrei Vasilevskiy (31.13%) and Igor Shesterkin of the New York Rangers (23.58%).
In other superlatives, Boston Bruins forward David Pastrnak and Toronto Maple Leafs center Auston Matthews tied for the player with the best fashion sense (15.75%), while Kevin Hayes of the Penguins was named the player who would make the best broadcaster after their playing career is done. Bell Centre in Montreal won for best ice (44.96%) for the seventh straight season.
Finally, the NHLPA members were asked what innovative rule from the Professional Women’s Hockey League they’d like to see ported over to the NHL. The “Jailbreak Goal” rule won with 29.70% of the vote, in which a power play for a minor penalty ends if a short-handed goal is scored. Right behind it was the PWHL’s standings format of three points for a regulation win, two points for a shootout or overtime win, and one point for a shootout or overtime loss.
