Best player (s) in the league when taking more than one regular season into consiseration in the Crosby era:
05/06 - Jagr/Thornton/Lidstrom maybe
06/07 - Crosby/Thornton
07/08 - Crosby/OV
08/09 - Crosby/Malkin/OV
09/10 - Crosby/OV
10/11 - Crosby/OV
11/12 - Crosby/Malkin
12/13- Crosby
13/14 - Crosby
14/15 - Crosby
15/16 - Crosby/Kane
16/17 - Crosby
17/18 -Crosby/McDavid
We're obviously in the minority but that's how I see things too. Of course to argue this you have to be pretty loose with the term "best player in the world" - no question about that, but that's how I generally view it when I talk about best player in the world. Ie in the late 90s, to me it's Jagr/Hasek - not Jagr *or* Hasek.
If a discussion wants to be had about who had the absolute best performance/season in a given year, different topic with only 1 guy eligible and Crosby looks a lot worst.
But I don't think if you asked someone in 2015, 2013, 2009 or 2016 who the "best hockey player in the world was" - that Crosby's name wouldn't come up in a large majority of cases.
I would also argue that:
- You can probably take that title away from Crosby at some point between this season (18-19) or even last year. I think most people today say McDavid surpassed him, and Crosby hasn't really done anything to warrant being #1 still.
- You should add McDavid to 2016-2017. Maybe in the moment, you don't add him that year (see if it's sustainable and not just a lucky season) - but since he's now showing consistency, absolutely McDavid as co best in 16-17.
- MacKinnon in my book is well on his way to working his way into the conversation alongside McDavid this year. If he makes this sustainable - i add his name back retroactively to last year too.