NHLPA poll: Crosby most complete player again

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 talk.

McDavid (9.5%) was second in the “most difficult player to face in their own end” category behind Lightning defenseman Victor Hedman (20.3%).

T-Mobile Arena, home to the Vegas Golden Knights, was named the toughest place to play as a visiting team (31.4%) with PNC Arena in Raleigh, home to the Carolina Hurricanes, ranking second (16.3%). For the sixth straight season, Montreal’s Bell Centre was named the arena with the best ice.

Away from the rink, Bruins forward David Pastrnak was judged to have the best style (15%).

Italy was named the global destination where NHL players most want to play a game — no surprise, given that the 2026 Olympic Winter Games are being held there.

Finally, Marie-Philip Poulin of Montreal in the Professional Women’s Hockey League was named the “PWHL player you most enjoy watching” with 31.8% of the vote, outpacing Hilary Knight of PWHL Boston (14.8%).