Breaking down Sidney Crosby by calendar year

Another year is about to change over, which always leads to a period of reflection on what we have seen gone down. For Sidney Crosby, he’s no different from the world at large being mainly on the sidelines in 2020 as circumstances out of his control have kept him off the ice.

Unfortunately, be it acts of injury, lockout, and now a global pandemic, Crosby’s career has been pockmarked and certainly almost permanently derailed. Beyond that, however, it’s been an electric show of dominance that has place him in the pantheon of the all-time greats.

Here’s what Sid has accomplished in each calendar year of his career. Achievements are listed by the actual year he has won awards.

The clear and evident missing chunks of 2011 and 2012, when Crosby was mired with concussion/neck issues (and a lockout) has almost certainly cost him at least 200 total career points, given his point totals in 2010 and 2013 surrounding that period.

Those 1,263 career points places Crosby currently in 39th all-time in total NHL points, in a different world where he avoids the major injuries and there was no half-season lockout in 2012 and he would rank all the way up in 15th place and be on track to eventually match and surpass Mario Lemieux’s franchise record 1,723 points.

Luckily though, back in the land of reality, Crosby was mostly healthy for six years from 2013-18 and able to really cement his legacy with a sensational career second act. That stretch includes two Stanley Cup championships buttressed with two Conn Smythe’s for playoff MVP, plus two Pearson/Lindsay awards as the player voted MVP, and a Rocket Richard (most goals scored in a season) and a Art Ross (scoring title) and a Hart (MVP).

Beyond that, Crosby had a whopping 81 assists in 78 games in calendar 2006 in the high-flying early days of the salary cap era. His goal scoring peak occurred in 2010 with 60 goals in 66 games, as by then his game evolved into being an elite goal scorer. We have more on this 2010 stretch of absolute dominance, including a 25 game point streak later this week.

Now aging into his mid-30’s, 2018 shows a best case scenario now for what to expect going forward with about 30-35 goals and 65-70 assists still a very attainable target if his health will allow it.

2021 will be a very busy year, if that health holds up. There are 56 games scheduled from January to May. The NHL’s intention is for a normal 2021-22, and in 2019-20 in a normal start to the year, the Penguins played 39 games in the 2019 portion of that season. So add 56 to 39 and we are looking at about total 95 regular season games (let’s hope, anyways) in calendar 2021. Crosby has never played more than 83 regular season games in a calendar year — but the opportunity to set a career-high for games played in a single year will be available in 2021, if you’re searching for some small silver lining in the shitstorm of a year that has been 2020.

That ideally means we could be looking at up to another 100 or so points at this time next year (maybe even more, if Crosby plays in nearly all the games) as the calendar turns into the next year.