Sidney Crosby ranked “most complete player”, “best role model” by NHLPA membership

This time of year one fun thing on the internet is a survey published by the NHL Players Association about a ton of different topics that their membership chimes in on.

Sidney Crosby saw his name pop up a few times in the results. Crosby placed a distant second to Connor McDavid in the “If you need to win one game, who is the one skater you would want on your team?” at 42.4% to 17.3%. Answers were recorded prior to Tuesday’s Edmonton/Pittsburgh game but showcases like that, in which McDavid recorded four points, demonstrate why he is held in such high regard from his fellow players.

Crosby, however, finished in first place for the “Who is the most complete player?” question, earning 29.5% of the vote to beat Florida’s Aleksander Barkov and Boston’s Patrice Bergeron.

A very impressive win for Crosby was the “Which NHL player is the best role model?” category, where the Penguins’ captain earned 42.7% of the vote. The second place finisher, Bergeron, was way back in single digits (9.8%). That truly shows the level of respect Sid commands among his peers.

Crosby didn’t finish among the top vote receivers in the “best passer” category, which seems a curious omission, but after all the other gushing that NHL players did, perhaps they were ready to move onto some other targets.

One other very interesting answer from the NHLPA came in a Marc-Andre Fleury question and answer session.

Fleury could have punted and made a funny joke with Bill Guerin (his current GM of the Minnesota Wild) or even Alex Goligoski, who Fleury has played with in Pittsburgh and Minnesota currently.

Instead, Fleury chose his good pal Sid. The two were always very close in Pittsburgh, including constant row-mates on buses and planes over the years.

Fleury is a free agent this summer. He also did not want to be traded to Washington this spring, for the potential of playing the Penguins. Pittsburgh only has one NHL caliber goalie (Tristan Jarry) under contract next season. Could Fleury get his wish to want Crosby as a teammate again in the future?....Stay tuned...