Sidney Crosby, Connor McDavid, Vegas favorites in NHLPA poll

Greg Wyshynski, ESPNApr 10, 2024, 10:34 AM ET

CloseGreg Wyshynski is ESPN’s senior NHL writer.

Pittsburgh Penguins star Sidney Crosby was once again named the NHL’s most complete player in the annual NHLPA poll released Wednesday.

Crosby earned 38.4% of the votes for “most complete player” ahead of Aleksander Barkov of the Florida Panthers (14.6%). In the five seasons the NHLPA has voted on this category, Crosby has won it every year.

A total of 639 NHLPA members took part in the NHLPA Player Poll this season, the ninth time the players association has conducted one. Players from each of the 32 teams were surveyed anonymously by the NHLPA during the first half of the regular season.

Crosby was a close second (13.6%) to Ryan O’Reilly of the Nashville Predators (14.5%) in “the player you’d most want to take a faceoff on your team.”

But Crosby (11.6%) finished a distant second to Connor McDavid (48.7%) as “the forward you’d want on your team if you needed to win one game.” Andrei Vasilevskiy of the Tampa Bay Lightning (46.9%) won the goalie category for the third straight season, while Cale Makar of the Colorado Avalanche won for defensemen (56.4%) for the second straight season.

Makar was also named the best breakout passer with 26.6% of the vote.

McDavid also won best stick handler (35.5%), finally topping Detroit Red Wings star Patrick Kane in the category after finishing second for three straight seasons. But the Edmonton star was second overall (20.9%) for “best playmaker” to Nikita Kucherov of the Lightning (28.5%). Both McDavid (99 assists) and Kucherov (96 assists) are trying to become the first players since Wayne Gretzky in 1990-91 to tally 100 assists in a season.

McDavid (17.5%) was also second in “which player do you least enjoy playing against, but would like to have on your team?” The winner for the third straight season was Brad Marchand of the Boston Bruins (29.2%), who is infamous for frustrating opponents with his offensive skill and his trash…


Source link : https://www.espn.com/nhl/story/_/id/39913853/sidney-crosby-connor-mcdavid-vegas-favorites-nhlpa-poll

Author : Greg Wyshynski

Publish date : 2024-04-10 15:50:42

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