daver
Registered User
Definitely agree with that. But it should have no bearing on overall ranking though - not sure if you were implying it should.
Crosby's great because he's pretty damn great at everything. He's not the best at any 1 thing (in fact he may not be top 5 in any actual category) - but he's near the top in a majority of categories, enough to make his overall resume/career stand out a lot. Beliveau is maybe a bit like that too.
Although far more subjective, I think hockey IQ, or the ability to combine his IQ and the physical skills to make the play better than anyone currently, is up there with anyone not named Wayne. He tends to lose the "eyetest" battle because he makes hard plays seem easy and makes the easy,simple plays better than anyone.
At the end of the day, goalscoring gets a slight bias over playmaking but Crosby's overall offensive resume including the ability to carry a line, produce with any level of offensive deployment, while playing a good to very good defensive game needs consideration.