Wednesday morning, the NHLPA released the results from their annual Player Poll, which surveys roughly 500 NHL players on everything from how good other players are, to skills, and arenas and fans.
This season, Capitals captain Alex Ovechkin received the most love as the player with the best shot at a whopping 50.2 percent of the vote.
Others receiving votes in the category were Shea Weber, Patrik Laine, Auston Matthews, and Steven Stamkos.
.@ovi8, over 500 NHL players took part in the 2018-19 #NHLPAPlayerPoll and your peers voted your shot as the best in the league. Congratulations! pic.twitter.com/0Rwn9vJz8F
— NHLPA (@NHLPA) March 20, 2019
Ovechkin’s heavy one-timer may be the reason why he is the only player in the NHL currently on target to reach 50 goals this season.
Ovi’s Caps teammates received admiration from the NHLPA too. Nicklas Backstrom and Evgeny Kuznetsov were voted as the second and fourth most underrated players with 11.4 percent and 4.4 percent of the vote, respectively. Last season, Backstrom was voted the league’s most underrated player.
Brooks Orpik received a nod as the third best general manager candidate after retirement at 4.5 percent behind Sidney Crosby (5.5 percent), and Jason Spezza (4.8 percent).
Other interesting poll results include:
- Brad Marchand received the most votes as the best trash talker AND the worst trash-talker in the league. I’d be interested to know what quantifies “best” and “worst,” like variety of material, amount of cursing, things like that.
- For the first time in the poll, players voted on best female player. US Women’s National Team member and Les Canadiennes forward Hilary Knight beat out her Montreal teammate Marie Philip-Poulin. Both will play in the Clarkson Cup Sunday. Poulin was the only Canadian National Team member to get votes in the top five, although props to the NHLPA for listing the primary teams as their CWHL and NWHL affiliates, which they’ve previously been hesitant to do given the one league talks.
- 66 percent of players would want jerseys that feature nicknames for a game, similar to what the MLB does. How many are just players’ last names with an added “y” or “s” or “er” at the end?
- Connor McDavid has displaced Sidney Crosby as the most difficult player to play against, the best forward, and the player people want to start a franchise with. This feels like a changing of the guard to the next generation of superstars.
- P.K. Subban was voted as the player who’d be the best TV analyst once they retire. Fam, P.K. is already killing the TV game. He’s done analysis for NBC Sports during their telecasts once the Preds were eliminated from the playoffs, and already hosts his own show called The P.K. Project which is available on NBC Sports and YouTube.
- Vegas has the best fan atmosphere after only being around for one year, beating out Montreal’s Bell Centre which won last season. That is mind boggling, and if Seattle is looking for a franchise to emulate when they come into the league, they should take notes from the Golden Knights.
Feeling so honored right now all those years of hard work has paid off!! Want to thank everyone who has supported me in this journey to best and worst trash talker and all my work colleagues around the NHL couldnt have done it without you! @NHLBruins @NHL @NHLPA pic.twitter.com/ofAj1DNFod
— Brad Marchand (@Bmarch63) March 20, 2019
Headline photo: @NHLPA
