Sidney Crosby Ranked Top Player of the 2000s

Connor McDavid? Nope. Alex Ovechkin? No, again. In a holiday ranking of the top players of the 21st century, it was entirely fitting and correct that Sportsnet named Sidney Crosby the top-ranked player of the century.

No other player has won back-to-back Conn Smyth Trophies, a few Ted Lindsay awards, a couple of Hart Trophies, a couple of Stanley Cups, and elevated a nation’s psyche with the most dramatic goal in Olympic hockey history.

Crosby has done all of those things, punctuated by his Golden Goal to win gold with Team Canada on home soil in 2010.

“‘The Kid’ came will all kinds of promise and delivered on every bit of it. Had Crosby, at age 22, just decided to retire after scoring the golden goal for Canada at the 2010 Olympics on home soil, he still would have been an all-time legend in this country. Except for a couple scary seasons where he was waylaid by concussions, the story of Crosby is front-to-back brilliance,” list author Ryan Dixon wrote.

Crosby has 1637 points in just 1311 games (and counting). In his 20th season, he’s aiming to break Wayne Gretzky’s record of 20 seasons of more than a point-per-game. Crosby currently has 41 points (10-31-41) in 39 games. Earlier this season, he broke Mario Lemieux’s Penguins franchise assist record with his 1034th helper.

While Ovechkin is just 25 tallies shy of Wayne Gretzky’s all-time goals record, he lacks the breadth of accomplishments and two-way game that Crosby brings. While McDavid might be the most individually skilled and important player to his team since Mario Lemieux, he’s won exacdtly…nothing.

McDavid’s Game 7 loss in the 2024 Stanley Cup Final might forever be the unfortunate but defining moment of his career.

If you need some controversy on the list, Jaromir Jagr was omitted, as was Martin St.Louis and Steven Stamkos.

We will quibble with ranking Patrick Kane (No. 9) well ahead of Pittsburgh Penguins center Evgeni Malkin (No. 19) despite Malkin having more points in the same time period and playing the harder position of center. However, after 19 seasons, Malkin and Penguins fans are used to him being undervalued or underestimated.

With the 2007 Calder Trophy, a Hart Trophy, a Conn Smythe, and a scoring title earned over nearly two decades of work with 1327 points, we would have placed him in the top 10, but certainly ahead of Leon Draisaitl (the Malkin 2.0 sidekick at No. 17) and Kane.

To no surprise, Ovechkin was ranked second, McDavid third. Detroit Red Wings defenseman Nick Lidstrom was fourth, followed by Martin Brodeur at No. 5.

While Crosby was the top player, the list had seven defensemen but only two goalies: Brodeur and No. 25 Carey Price of the Montreal Canadiens. Dixon gave plenty of weight to the defensemen, including Victor Hedman (No. 10), Chris Pronger (12), and Scott Neidermeye (13).

You can read Sportsnet’s full list of the Top 25 Players of the 2000s here.