Who was the most undeserving Conn Smythe winner in the last 10 years?

[Eisen]

So who should have won then? Most people have no issue with Kessel being picked and the voting reflected how close it was between the two.

It certainly isn't a slam dunk that Crosby was handed the Smythe without earning it.

Letang or Kessel in my opinion. It just seems like when in doubt, pick the star. And there was certainly the narrative going for Crosby. Granted, though, it's not as blatant as Niedermayer with the Ducks. If he were on the list, that would have been my vote.

 

[amnesiac]

Letang or Kessel in my opinion. It just seems like when in doubt, pick the star. And there was certainly the narrative going for Crosby. Granted, though, it's not as blatant as Niedermayer with the Ducks. If he were on the list, that would have been my vote.

Pronger deserved it but was suspended in the finals, Nieds was a clear 2nd.

 

[86Habs]

Williams in 2014 for me. Doughty, Kopitar and Carter would all have been more appropriate Conn Smythe recipients than Williams.

 

[Eisen]

Pronger deserved it but was suspended in the finals, Nieds was a clear 2nd.

Pahlsson to me. Pronger had 2 suspensions. That doesn't scream valuable to me.

 

[amnesiac]

Pahlsson to me. Pronger had 2 suspensions. That doesn't scream valuable to me.

Was still the best player in the playoffs. Im pretty sure they forgave his suspensions given what he did for that team.

Pahlsson was a key piece no doubt, but we just about never see a 3rd line shutdown centre win the Conn SMythe. That whole line (Niedermayer-Pahlsson-Moen) was great too, not just Pahlsson.

 

[Mulletman]

Just leaves out Toews. How convenient...

 

[Il Stugotz]

Tim Thomas: used illegal pads after the league dismissed the goalie supervisor for the finals so that Colin Campbell's son could win a Cup

Ovechicken: Kuznetsov was their best player and the difference maker; Caps are a first or second round speedbump without him going Godmode

 

[The Moose is Loose]

2016 for sure.

The league was definitely thinking this could be the last cup the Crosby/Malkin Penguins core wins and we can’t have Crosby retire without a Conn Smythe.
(Honorable mention to the exact same thing occurring with Ovechkin/Kuznetsov but it wasn’t as bad as Crosby/Kessel since Ovi had the goals argument)

If they could have seen in the future and knew that Crosby would actually earn the Smythe the following year on the path to another cup, they definitely would have given the 2016 Smythe to Kessel or maybe Letang

 

[JaegerDice]

Kane is the only Conn Smythe winner I can think of who literally said somebody else should have won it.

Not the standard hockey humble ‘there are tons of guys on the team who could have won it’ but rather ‘this particular person should have won it’.

Crawford was jobbed that year.

 

[slapKing]

Kane is the only Conn Smythe winner I can think of who literally said somebody else should have won it.

Not the standard hockey humble ‘there are tons of guys on the team who could have won it’ but rather ‘this particular person should have won it’.

Crawford was jobbed that year.

if I had to guess, Crawford didn't win because the league didn't want to award a goalie a smythe 3 years in a row, and that crawford didn't have a reputation as an elite goaltender. some people viewed him as Niemi 2.0

 

[AvroArrow]

Glad the hockey world can agree that was Kessel's Conn Smythe

 

[Hockey Outsider]

I think it's a matter of how the question is interpreted.

If the question is who had the least impressive performance (comparing these ten playoff runs to each other) - the answer is almost certainly Crosby in 2016.

If the question is who was least deserving (looking at how deserving these players were of the Conn Smythe, comparing them to all of the other players in each year) - the answer is probably Williams. I think he was less valuable to the Kings than Kopitar, and probably Doughty as well. The 2016 Penguins were a balanced team and I don't think anybody was clearly more valuable than Crosby (Kessel arguably was, but it's not clear-cut, as it is in the case of Kopitar over Williams).

 

[Lame Lambert]

Meant to pick 2016 but hit 17. Kessel should’ve been the clear winner.

 

[COHawk]

Just leaves out Toews. How convenient...

That was 11 years ago. Read the thread title...

 

[WarriorofTime]

Crosby got a Career Achievement Award because they didn't realize Pens would go back to back and he'd be more deserving the next year. Kessel was very unpopular with the media. Perfect recipe for a Conn Smythe robbery. Should have been Kessel's IMO.

 

[ESH]

Kane, Williams, and Crosby are the 3 I would’ve voted for someone else

I wouldn’t call any of them “undeserving”, more so “less deserving than others”

 

[HugeInTheShire]

I picked Williams, if it's all time that belongs to Jean-Sebastien Giguere in 2003
Brodeur should have won that year by a huuuuuge margin

 

[McNuge]

Crosby 2016 easily it should have been either Phil or Letang. Crosby would have been my third pick that year.

 

[LakeLivin]

I started to follow hockey later than many and this is one of those polls where I don't feel qualified to answer the question. Typically I wouldn't have voted but I was curious to see the results so I just picked the bottom name on the list, who happens to be Hedman.

I know that some poll creators believe that requiring a vote in order to view results may either boost participation or somehow reduce "herd bias". On the other hand, I wonder how much noise that introduces into the results due to less informed people who wouldn't have otherwise voted but are forced to make a pick in order to see the results?

I'd suggest that poll creators who use the "must vote" option to reduce herd bias might want to consider including a "no vote" or "just looking" option at the bottom in order to reduce more or less random noise in the poll results.

 

[WarriorofTime]

Crawford had that one brutal game in the Stanley Cup Finals against the Bruins that likely cost him the Smythe. Also Goalie fatigue. This was in the 'second DPE era' so games were low scoring, people had enough of just giving it to the Goalie every year, or so it felt like. There was also a pretty prevalent belief that Crawford was basically just a plug Goalie and it was all the Hawks system.

 

[JaegerDice]

Crawford had that one brutal game in the Stanley Cup Finals against the Bruins that likely cost him the Smythe. Also Goalie fatigue. This was in the 'second DPE era' so games were low scoring, people had enough of just giving it to the Goalie every year, or so it felt like. There was also a pretty prevalent belief that Crawford was basically just a plug Goalie and it was all the Hawks system.

The funny thing is he let in fewer goals than the guy at the other end of the ice in that one bad game.

 

[Joe McGrath]

F! Voted Crosby 2017 but meant 2016.

me tio

 

[Hockeyholic]

I picked Williams, if it's all time that belongs to Jean-Sebastien Giguere in 2003
Brodeur should have won that year by a huuuuuge margin

Yep.

Three shutouts in the Finals. His team won. That was just plain robbery.

 

[HugeInTheShire]

Yep.

Three shutouts in the Finals. His team won. That was just plain robbery.

7 shutouts in those playoffs alone! For perspective I think Carey Price has 8 or 9 in his career

I've never been a fan of giving the loser team the Conn Smythe

 

[Hockeyholic]

7 shutouts in those playoffs alone! For perspective I think Carey Price has 8 or 9 in his career

I've never been a fan of giving the loser team the Conn Smythe

Either have I.

It kind of diminishes the significance of the award.