Best Player Post-Mario

[Taluss]

Ovi, But definitely think McDavid has a chance to overtake once his career is done

 

[Kenneth C Russell]

McDavid. You can't convince Crosby fans he's not as great as they think he is. Someone called him the "greatest player in the world" so it MUST be true because... You know.... Someone said it.

Crosby is the best marketed player, how about that? They hyped the HELL out of him before he played a single NHL game and continued to do so throughout his career. Why? Same reason Zegras will PROBABLY win the Calder. Try and appease the east-west coast markets and sell stuff. Why do you think they dragged Zegras to the All Star game like some sort of circus performer? EMBARRASSING! Have some respect for yourself boy! Demand a PROPER invite.

Sure Seider is probably a top 5 D in the entire league already at 20 years old but can he do it while balancing a beach ball on his nose? This is getting stupid.

McDavid is the BEST player. Ovi is the BEST goal scorer. Crosby is a top 5 center just like he's ALWAYS been!

 

[daver]

McDavid is the BEST player. Ovi is the BEST goal scorer. Crosby is a top 5 center just like he's ALWAYS been!

Thanks, Kenneth, for finally bring some truth to HFBoards AKA "The Crosby Lovefest".

 

[Favin]

Crosby, Ovi, Kane...

Better question, who was the guy between Mario and Sid?

 

[Weztex]

McDavid. You can't convince Crosby fans he's not as great as they think he is. Someone called him the "greatest player in the world" so it MUST be true because... You know.... Someone said it.

You don't think that Crosby ever was the best hockey player in the world at any point of his career?

 

[Nathaniel Skywalker]

McDavid. You can't convince Crosby fans he's not as great as they think he is. Someone called him the "greatest player in the world" so it MUST be true because... You know.... Someone said it.

Crosby is the best marketed player, how about that? They hyped the HELL out of him before he played a single NHL game and continued to do so throughout his career. Why? Same reason Zegras will PROBABLY win the Calder. Try and appease the east-west coast markets and sell stuff. Why do you think they dragged Zegras to the All Star game like some sort of circus performer? EMBARRASSING! Have some respect for yourself boy! Demand a PROPER invite.

Sure Seider is probably a top 5 D in the entire league already at 20 years old but can he do it while balancing a beach ball on his nose? This is getting stupid.

McDavid is the BEST player. Ovi is the BEST goal scorer. Crosby is a top 5 center just like he's ALWAYS been!

Yeah they hyped a player who scored 100 points at 18. Swept the awards at 19. And led his team to the Stanley cup finals leading the playoffs in scoring at 20. And since then win a truck load of other awards. What a bust

 

[Felidae]

16 votes for Jagr and Hasek, 1 vote for Roy, 3 for Lidstrom as opposed to 100+ for Ovi, Crosby and McDavid is quite something..

 

[bigbabybuda]

Ovie is so under underrated. Before he won a cup he couldnt even be compared to Crosby because of lack of team success. Despite winning multiple presidents trophies and like 6 or 7 rockets. Now hes losing to someone who has won one playoff rd and just doesnt have the resume yet to be considered greater yet. Bet it's the same people who held it against Ovie dismissing not that its someone else against him.

 

[pi314]

The fact that Ovechkin is a goalscoring machine and the NHL gives out an award for scoring the most goals, skews the optics of his actual on-ice impact. If you're going to prop him up over all these other legends (including Crosby), because of his goalscoring, you're basically just trophy-counting and ignoring context. For instance, there were many years where OV won the Richard and wasn't even a top 5 player in the game or top 10 in scoring. In fact, Ovechkin has won 7 out of the last 10 Richard trophies but has only finished top 5 in scoring twice (finishing 3rd and 4th) and top 10 three times (finishing tied for 8th). In that case, what does that trophy really tell you about his overall ability to impact games compared to his peers? Obviously, that type of hardware run is beyond impressive but I don't feel it tells the whole story.

Now, to be clear (because I usually end up critiquing OV in the Sid vs. OV debates), I think that OV is a top 10-12 player of all time. But I don't think his goalscoring and Richard trophies alone are enough to place him just under Wayne and Mario and clearly ahead of everyone else.

If I need an all-around force that plays the most important position in the game and makes everyone around him better, driving offense like no other player in the league has for the last two decades, Crosby is the clear choice. This is the case, whether you want to use the eye test, raw production or advanced analytics. And comparing him to Sakic or Yzerman, because he "won some individual awards and had team success" is a major disservice to him and you know it. Crosby has contributed a lot more to his team success than many are willing to admit and the criticisms of that fact are growing tiresome.


I'm sorry but what are you even talking about? 99% of this site treats OV like a god and the worst thing anyone has said about him in this thread is that Richard trophies don't tell the whole story. What more do you want?

If anyone is being disrespected in this poll, it's Jagr, Roy, Lidstrom and Hasek being listed as "other".

Very true.

People over-value raw stats.

The type of player that loses games 8-6 will have better stats than the type of player that wins games 2-1.

But are they actually better?

The true impact of a player is the net goals they create for their team.

Ovi is the best goalscorer or our age and also one of the worst defensive players of all time.

People have to constantly make excuses for why he doesn't win.

The true best players win games best on best.

 

[CapsJunkie]

I was gonna say Ovi but that one kid said Crosby and it isn't debatable sooo

 

[AgeIess]

Goal scoring is OV easy.

Best player as in most dominant.

McDavid

Most success:

Crosby

Spot on summation.

 

[Hisch13r]

It's Sid

 

[Habs10025]

Sidney Crosby.