https://triblive.com/sports/nhl-player-vote-penguins-sidney-crosby-most-complete-player-but-not-best-forward/
NHL player vote: Penguins’ Sidney Crosby ‘most complete player,’ but not best forward
The NHL’s players apparently do not consider Sidney Crosby to be the league’s best forward — but they do view him as the game’s most complete player. And if the stakes are highest, they’re still sticking with Sid.
The NHL Players Association on Tuesday released the results of their annual player poll of more than 20 hockey-related questions that was conducted before the league shut down its season in the wake of the coronavirus pandemic. The NHLPA said almost 600 players responded, and the Penguins are well-represented in the results.
Crosby, as might be expected, is prominent in that. Though he finished as a distant runner-up to the Edmonton Oilers’ Connor McDavid (68.4%-14.9%) in the balloting for NHL’s best forward, Crosby did garner nearly half the vote (45.6%) for “most complete player.” The Boston Bruins’ Patrice Bergeron was second with 25.4%; McDavid was not among the top four.
Crosby also beat out McDavid (second place at 30.5%) and Bergeron (fourth at 3.3%) in voting on the question of, “If you need to win one game, who is the one player (any position) you would want on your team?”
Crosby’s friend and fellow Nova Scotia, Canada, native Nathan MacKinnon finished third both in that question and in “best forward.”
Crosby, incidentally, was the players’ top pick (25.7%) for player who is not on social media but should be.
The #NHLPAPlayerPoll has returned for the 2019-20 edition, in which 588 players from each of the 31 NHL clubs were polled anonymously on 20 hockey-related questions during the season ? https://t.co/tEYAl5V73o pic.twitter.com/I2Vx0hQyt8— NHLPA (@NHLPA) March 31, 2020
The only other active Penguins player to appear among the top four in voting in any category was defenseman Justin Schultz, who garnered the third-most votes (4.1%) for “best golfer.”
PPG Paints Arena placed fourth for “arena with… the best visitors’ dressing room,” and former Penguins Hall of Famer (and current owner) Mario Lemieux (9.24%) was third to Wayne Gretzky (31.8%) and Bobby Orr (15.0%) in balloting for “Of all players past and present, who would you pay to see play?” McDavid (7.8%) placed fourth.
Among former Penguins listed, Marc-Andre Fleury was third in voting (8.9%) behind Carey Price (41.6%) and Andrei Vasilevskiy (17.1%) as the NHL’s best goalie. Phil Kessel got the fourth-most votes for funniest player.
Keep up with the Pittsburgh Penguins all season long.
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