He’s 35, but Sidney Crosby is still carrying a lot of weight and respect across the league as one of the top players. NHL Network listed the Penguins’ captain as the seventh best player for the upcoming season.
Pittsburgh Penguins center Sidney Crosby ranked seventh on the final part of NHL Network’s five-part Top 50 Players Right Now series, which ranks the best players in the National Hockey League, earlier this evening. The three-time Stanley Cup Champion finished one spot ahead of six-time All-Star Victor Hedman of the Tampa Bay Lightning and one spot behind 2021 Conn Smythe Trophy winner Andrei Vasilevskiy, also of the Lightning. In addition to Crosby, teammates Jake Guentzel and Kris Letang ranked 34th and 36threspectively, on the second episode of Top 50 Players Right Now.
The series counted down the best players based on player performance over the past several seasons, with an emphasis on the 2021-2022 regular season and 2022 Stanley Cup Playoffs. Future performance was also taken into consideration by NHL Network researchers, producers, analysts and hosts when determining the final ranking.
On [the] countdown, Kevin Weekes said of Crosby, “This guy is all hockey all the time, he’s all people all the time. He makes the right decisions on and off the camera, on and off the ice, [and is] one of the best players in history. …I can tell you guys, anytime I’ve talked to Sid, it’s hockey related. He’s so dialed in, he’s such a student of the game. So, for a lot of young girls and boys out there that are aspiring to do more, become more and accomplish things, the best player in this era is a student of the game 24/7, you should be one too.”
Crosby got a little more love from this countdown then he did on TSN’s similar list, where he checked in at 11th.