Who owned the "Best player in the World" title since the Wayne/Mario era

[North Cole]

I guess it's Crosby based on the op. Doesn't seem to be close either. I see Crosby in every paragraph since he came into the league.

According to the presented data, how can you choose anyone else. Data can't lie... can it?

Congratulations to Crosby on being the best player since Mario and 99. Good thing there weren't any good players between 97 and 06

 

[FlyTimmo]

17/18
Crosby has earned a year's grace at the top. McDavid and Kucherov have the best chance to join him.

Wut?

 

[North Cole]

Wut?

Best not to ask. Just agree it's Crosby and keep scrolling

 

[daver]

I guess it's Crosby based on the op. Doesn't seem to be close either. I see Crosby in every paragraph since he came into the league.

According to the presented data, how can you choose anyone else. Data can't lie... can it?

Congratulations to Crosby on being the best player since Mario and 99. Good thing there weren't any good players between 97 and 06

What would your list look like?

 

[General Zodd]

It's Erik Karldson... next...

 

[nowhereman]

As I've said before, the title of "best player in the world" seems to change from season to season for some people (and month to month for others). You can see it in this thread, just by the nature of some of the posts here.

I'm of the opinion that a player's worth should be judged over a period of several seasons, to account for consistency and sustained success. The problem is, many people seem to confuse "best season" with "best player" (see anyone who claimed that Kane or H. Sedin were better than Crosby).

If Crosby has been the most successful player of the last decade, with a combination of more top three Hart finishes/top three Art Ross finishes/Conn Smythe wins/Cup wins, etc., it's a bit disingenuous to break it up into smaller sample sizes. For that reason, I don't even agree with the OP breaking this up season-by-season.

I think that 2008-2010 was the only period of time where Sid's title was challenged. However, I still feel he was better than OV, at that time, and the majority of hockey people thought the same. OV would win every fan poll but people like Scotty Bowman saw Sid as the best, since he was a better driver of offense and played the more valuable position. But, at that point, I don't think there was a wrong answer, as OV was out of this world.

Crosby may not have always played at a level higher than every other player in the NHL, from season to season, but, over the last decade, no one has been better. No one has had higher peaks (see 2010-11) and no one has had more sustained success. No one has won more major individual hardware (Hart/Lindsay/Art Ross/Conn Smythe) than him and no one has had more team success than him (Stanley Cup/Olympics/World Cup).

To me, that's the definition of the best.

 

[daver]

If Crosby has been the most successful player of the last decade, with a combination of more top three Hart finishes/top three Art Ross finishes/Conn Smythe wins/Cup wins, etc., it's a bit disingenuous to break it up into smaller sample sizes. For that reason, I don't even agree with the OP breaking this up season-by-season.

It gets tricky if you don't, especially since the lockout with the way OV, Crosby, and Malkin, the three best talents to join the league between 1995 and 2015 showed up at the same time and have had unique ups and downs to their careers.

Breaking it up season by season doesn't mean there is a new best player each year but it recognizes that a player may have put an equal or better season than the best player after knocking on the door for a year or two. There are certainly many years where the best didn't change but many others where it would be unfair to not acknowledge an ascension to greatness.

 

[Tad Mikowsky]

I guess it's Crosby based on the op. Doesn't seem to be close either. I see Crosby in every paragraph since he came into the league.

According to the presented data, how can you choose anyone else. Data can't lie... can it?

Congratulations to Crosby on being the best player since Mario and 99. Good thing there weren't any good players between 97 and 06

Of course it's Crosby based on the OP because the OP is incredibly biased for Crosby.

 

[daver]

Of course it's Crosby based on the OP because the OP is incredibly biased for Crosby.

Let's see your list then.

 

[trick9]

2007-2010:

GP: 233 - 211

Goals: 171 - 108

Assists: 160 - 176

Points: 331 - 284

PPG: 1.42 - 1.35

GPG: 0.73 - 0.51

Yeah... really hard to figure out who was the better player.

 

[High five Tom]

Lindros

 

[Ciao]

I don't think there's been one player who is so far above the others that he deserves the world's best title since Lemieux retired.

Who is the best golfer in the world? It depends: which day?

Same with hockey.

If and when the world's best emerges we don't have to debate it. Until then, one answer is as good as another.

 

[ItMe]

Dale Weise

/Thread

 

[BruinDust]

Jaromir Jagr won 5 of the 10 scoring titles in what I consider the post Wayne-Mario era (95 season until 2004).

He's the best player IMO in between Wayne/Mario and Sid/OV/Malkin.

He doesn't get the credit because the gap between him and the next best players of that era isn't as large as it was when Wayne and Mario were in their hayday. You can make a solid argument for a whole bunch of guys from that same 10 year era.

 

[I am not exposed]

17/18
Crosby has earned a year's grace at the top. McDavid and Kucherov have the best chance to join him.

One of the most laughable and ridiculous things I have read on this board. Congratulations!

 

[Empoleon8771]

Jaromir Jagr won 5 of the 10 scoring titles in what I consider the post Wayne-Mario era (95 season until 2004).

He's the best player IMO in between Wayne/Mario and Sid/OV/Malkin.

He doesn't get the credit because the gap between him and the next best players of that era isn't as large as it was when Wayne and Mario were in their hayday. You can make a solid argument for a whole bunch of guys from that same 10 year era.

I don't think it's that, I think Jagr has just been underrated his entire career. He won 5 of 7 Art Ross trophies from 1994 to 2001, and he would have won a 6th with the year he had 149 points had it been in any other year (Lemieux won with 161 points). He had by far the most points of any player from 1994-2001, with having 155 more points in 7 less games than the #2 scorer of that time (Teemu Selanne). Despite that, he won 1 Hart in those 7 years. I think he has always just been underrated, he deserved at least 3 or 4 Harts over that time and I think people would look upon him better had that happened. It was just some bull**** by the Hart voters, where they loved good old Canadian boys (Lindros, Sakic, Pronger, even Lemieux) over some European scorer.

Here's some proof for how much bull**** Hart voting was in the late 90s and early 2000s: Lemieux had more Hart votes in 2000-2001 than Jagr, despite Jagr winning the Art Ross trophy and Lemieux playing in only 43 games. Jagr had 45 more points than Lemieux, but since Lemieux was a legend and what he did was so impressive, he got more Hart votes than Jagr did. In that year, Jagr got 0 1st place votes despite leading the NHL with 121 points, and Sakic got 53 of 62 1st place votes with 118 points.

It's less problematic now than it was then, but I firmly believe there is a Canadian bias among award voting in the NHL.

 

[Melkor]

To keep it simple, just going to lump it into periods, with "early" being for example 2000 to 2005 and "late" being 2005-2010:

Late 90s: Jagr, honorable mention for Hasek
Early 2000s: I'm honestly not sure, no one stood out this period as being the best. You had Jagr and Hasek take a slight step backwards into a massive group with players like Iginla, Sakic, Forsberg, St. Louis and such. Forsberg missed an entire season, that's the big thing that's preventing me from saying he's the best. I'm not sure on this one.
Late 2000s: Ovechkin, not close
Early 2010s: Crosby, not close
Late 2010s: To be determined, we're only halfway through them right now.

Basically this. Good to see this from a Penguins fan. Anyone who didn't see how much better Ovechkin was than any other player in the world just havent watched hockey at that period of time. Really not close.

 

[feffan]

I'm of the opinion that a player's worth should be judged over a period of several seasons, to account for consistency and sustained success. The problem is, many people seem to confuse "best season" with "best player" (see anyone who claimed that Kane or H. Sedin were better than Crosby).

I think that 2008-2010 was the only period of time where Sid's title was challenged. However, I still feel he was better than OV, at that time, and the majority of hockey people thought the same. OV would win every fan poll but people like Scotty Bowman saw Sid as the best, since he was a better driver of offense and played the more valuable position. But, at that point, I don't think there was a wrong answer, as OV was out of this world.

What the heck? Ovechkin won 3 straight Lester Pearson! In no way did the majority of hockey people think that Crosby was better. There is no argument for Crosby 2007-2010. And if you really think that one shouldn´t be judged by only one season, that would even give Ovechkin 2005-2010.

 

[Dr Jan Itor]

Lidstrom through 06 or 07 (8 top 2 Norris finishes, 5 wins, 1 Smythe, 5 top 10 Hart finishes)

Ovechkin picks up there until ~ 2010 (2 Hart's + another 2nd place, 3 consecutive Pearsons)

Nobody in 2011 - 2013 (Crosby too injured, Ovechkin not dominating like before, pre-elite level Karlsson)

Crosby/Karlsson from 2013 to 2016 (Crosby really only in the conversation because of the post season, otherwise losing MVPs to Kane/Price and scoring titles to Benn/Tavares/Kane isn't a great feather in his cap)

McDavid now and likely going forward for the next 10 years, unless Kucherov takes it from him

 

[snipes]

A years grace lol

Anyways McDavid is the best player in the league since 2016-17

 

[daver]

Jaromir Jagr won 5 of the 10 scoring titles in what I consider the post Wayne-Mario era (95 season until 2004).

He's the best player IMO in between Wayne/Mario and Sid/OV/Malkin.

He doesn't get the credit because the gap between him and the next best players of that era isn't as large as it was when Wayne and Mario were in their hayday. You can make a solid argument for a whole bunch of guys from that same 10 year era.

If you want to go back to 94/95, I think Lindros had the better claim to the best player (if Mario is out) until the 97/98 season.

If you had to pick one player in a time period from 95 to 2005, for sure it's Jagr. This is meant to be a more in-depth rating where Jagr's three years in Washington are considered.

 

[Brucelenok]

Again this Canadian bias about Ovechkin. He seriously is becoming underrated around here while Crosby is getting overrated. From 2005 till 2010, it is Ovechkin and it is not close.

 

[daver]

Again this Canadian bias about Ovechkin. He seriously is becoming underrated around here while Crosby is getting overrated. From 2005 till 2010, it is Ovechkin and it is not close.

What did OV do in 2005/06 and 2006/07 to win the title of best player?

 

[daver]

Lidstrom through 06 or 07 (8 top 2 Norris finishes, 5 wins, 1 Smythe, 5 top 10 Hart finishes)

Ovechkin picks up there until ~ 2010 (2 Hart's + another 2nd place, 3 consecutive Pearsons)

Nobody in 2011 - 2013 (Crosby too injured, Ovechkin not dominating like before, pre-elite level Karlsson)

Crosby/Karlsson from 2013 to 2016 (Crosby really only in the conversation because of the post season, otherwise losing MVPs to Kane/Price and scoring titles to Benn/Tavares/Kane isn't a great feather in his cap)

McDavid now and likely going forward for the next 10 years, unless Kucherov takes it from him

After Mario retired in 97, you think are Lidstrom is the new best player?

 

[Thread The Needle]

No mention of Lidstrom yet? Consider him mentioned. Nevermind I was too late.