Once again, peers vote Sidney Crosby NHL's 'most complete player'

It has been nine years since Sidney Crosby was voted the NHL’s MVP in balloting by the NHLPA. But even if union membership doesn’t believe Crosby is any longer their brethren’s most valuable, it keeps on singling him out as its most complete.

Crosby, for the fourth consecutive year, was the most-named response to the question, “Who is the most complete player?” in the annually released poll.

Crosby was chosen by 30.1% of the 626 players who responded to a 14-question poll, the results of which were released on the NHLPA website. Crosby easily paced the category. Runner-up Patrice Bergeron of the Boston Bruins received 18.8% of the vote.

Crosby was the only Penguins player to rank among the top five in any of the questions that asked for a superlative among active NHL players in 11 categories: nine on-ice and two off of it. The league’s players also were asked which road city was the best for an off day (Las Vegas) and which arena had the best ice surface (Montreal’s Bell Centre).

Neither Pittsburgh nor PPG Paints Arena ranked in the top five of either list of responses.

That's a wrap on the 2022-23 #NHLPAPlayerPoll.

See the full results of this year's poll, as voted on by the players: https://t.co/uZArTNQ3xy pic.twitter.com/lBlHoWSLCj

— NHLPA (@NHLPA) March 22, 2023

Crosby’s only other appearance in the poll was as a distant second to Connor McDavid in response to the question, “In a must-win game, which forward do you think would be most impactful?”

Crosby received 11.0%, but Edmonton Oilers star McDavid garnered 59.3% of the vote.

Crosby won the Ted Lindsay Award (formerly Lester B. Pearson Award) as the NHLPA-voted “most outstanding player” for the 2008-09, 2013 and 2013-14 seasons.

Another tidbit from the survey: A pair of popular players who used to spend a lot of time in the Penguins’ locker room were singled out as the two most-used responses to the question, “Which NHL player is the best guy in the locker room?”

Marc-Andre Fleury received the most votes, followed by Phil Kessel. Fleury was with the Penguins from 2003-17 and Kessel from 2015-19.

Also, Kessel’s sister, Amanda, came in fourth in balloting for answers to the question of, “Which female hockey player (current or past) would you most want to play alongside?” Amanda Kessel works in the Penguins’ front office.