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".