Where does Sidney Crosby Rank All-Time?

[Jameis1of1]

I'm new to watching hockey and have never played it ... but I like Crosby. I'd like to know where you real hockey buffs feel he ranks amongst all-time greats?

[subban7677]

It's so hard to compare players over different eras. This is why simply looking at stats just doesn't work. I like to look at how a player compares to his peers and and this gives me a slightly better perspective. Crosby spent most, if not all of the last decade as the best player in the world. He would definitely be in my top 20. But how many players have been the best for a decade? Would this put him in top 10? I'd like to hear what others think.

[pwaldo]

I think if he didn't have a history of concussions you could make the case he could play long enough to crack into the all time top whatever but the guy is literally one hit away from having his career ended. I just don't see him playing long enough to do it unfortunately.

[Jameis1of1]

So where would you two fella's rank him? I don't know enough about hockey to even make an educated guess as really the only names I know and which I even watched play a single game are Gretzky, Super Mario and Patrick Roy and I imagine those three would all rank higher on a GOAT list than Crosby ... I've also heard Howe, Hull and Richard are three of the greats, so that's 6 right there, but, could Crosby be #7 or is that way to high?

[subban7677]

Bobby Orr was better, maybe Jagr too. If we're including goalies I'd put Brodeur and Hasek ahead of him too. Where are we at now?

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[clvc0017]

I am not even the biggest Crosby fan, but in my opinion he is a top 10 player of all time.

If you want to look at the individual, 6th all time in career PPG in an era where goaltending is probably at its best, and goal scoring per game is not as high as past eras.
If you want to look at the team stats, 3 Stanley Cup championships in a salary cap era is very difficult to do. He does has some great teammates around him, but you also constantly see how he plays with "lesser" line mates and they always perform well with him.
The list of individual and team accomplishments is a long one, and achieving all he has, and he's still only 30 (with all the injuries he's had) is something special.

Judging players from different eras is always difficult. For me, when it comes to judging athletes in team sports, it comes down to 2 things:

1. Do you make those around you better
2. Do you win championships

When you look at what he's done, it's hard to say he is not one of the 10 best of all time.

[canucksfan007]

I voted Top 6

Hes no Wayne, but then again, no one is. His career assists speak for themselves.

#1 - Gretzky

#2 - #10 - there is definitely an argument for Crosby to be anywhere in this category.

IMO, the fact that he is doing what hes doing now, with the the skill level between 1st and 3rd line players the closest its ever been .... puts him above players who played in the 50s 60s 70s 80s ... I know that comment wont be too popular with many members on this site, but compare the NBA today to hockey in the pre-Gretzky era.

You got your 1 - 3 NBA teams that can actually compete against each other. Hell would have to freeze over for one of those teams not to win the title. Take a BIG step down, and youve got your middle of the pack teams ..... take another even bigger step down, you have your bottom feeders. Orr / Howe / Richard, even Wayne early in his career ... played when the talent gap was so big, they hardly had to try, were able to smoke on the bench between shifts and drink alcohol / eat hot dogs during intermission. Summer training? You mean party / eat whatever they wanted / be rockstars? Gretzky even admitted that he stopped really trying to reach 100 goals during his 92 goal record season because he felt it would be easily attainable in the coming seasons. What does that say about his competition?

To me, to be the best, you need to compete with the best. Crosby for sure has the stiffest competition of all the players that are on the Top 10 All Time Players list right now. The only reason I say Crosby is arguable at #2 - #10, is because Gretzkys should be the undisputed #1 on everyones list.

[bdiam]

"because Gretzkys should be the undisputed #1 on everyones list"


Did you ever hear of a guy named Bobby Orr? Better yet, did you ever hear what players like Howe, Hull, Beliveau, etc., etc., used to say about Orr? - how he belonged in a different league? I won't "diss" Gretzky because his numbers and what he's done for the game speak for themselves but ask yourself, how do you think Gretzky would have held-up playing in the late 60's and 70's? As great as Orr was, all those shots to the knees still couldn't be avoided.

I must be getting old because anyone who remembers Mario Lemieux or that saw him play, would have a hard time saying that Crosby was half as good as he was. Crazy statement? Before all these stupid division names, there was once a proud division called the Patrick Division. Thru the 80's, every team in that division beat the holy hell out of each other every time they played each other. Like Lindros after him, Mario (because of his size and who he was) took a "beating" almost every division game. Beating wasn't just body-checks but cross-checks, slashes, punches, spears etc. Rarely did anyone stick-up for him and those games, took their toll. Conversely, how many "real hits" does Crosby take in an entire season? You can probably count them on a single hand.

More than twenty years ago, a bunch of us were sitting around one night after a card show conversing over some refreshments. The oldest chap there, put it like this to us: "in a fantasy game (6 on 6), I'll pick the first two players, then you pick the next 6 and my next four won't even matter because I couldn't lose". In-short, he said that he would take Orr and Sawchuk and since nobody would be able to take the puck away from Orr once he got it or catch-up to him and nobody would likely score on Sawchuk, so how could you lose? Everyone there came-up with dream teams and after debate, everyone still wouldn't bet against the Orr-Sawchuk team. The only teams that people really debated hard over, is if someone took one of the Canadiens lines/teams from the mid-late 50's or perhaps the Red Army team that played as a unit. This gent actually saw both Orr and Sawchuk play, so who could argue with what many already believed, never having actually seen them play.

Use the only "test" and plug a truly great player or team into different decades and see how they hold salt. Could the Islander teams in the 80's win Cups in the 60's? How about in the 90's? Today? I say yes to all. Would Lemieux have been great today? Could anyone stop Orr today? How would Crosby have done in the 50's? People can easily say that the game is different but plug a truly great player or team into any decade and the result of their greatness (if they truly are great), shouldn't change. The only thing that could stop dynasty teams from years past today, is the salary cap.

[Devlin]

The different eras make it tough, as in mostsports. The equipment and speed of the game has really
evolved. I feel top 10, but one could make a case for any of the categories.

[subban7677]

I am of the opinion that Gretz is the undisputed #1, but Orr was before my time, so there's that. I put #1 Gretzky, #2 Orr, #3 Howe, #4 Lemieux, and you can start arguing from there.