We don't have any hockey right now so we'll have to take our NHL news wherever we can get it, so it was a blessing to have the NHLPA release the results of its annual Players Poll on Tuesday morning. The Players Association surveyed nearly 600 players with a collection of questions on a variety of topics, including peer evaluations and inquiries into arenas, teams and off-ice fun.
Let's take a look at some of the results.
Best forward: Connor McDavid (68.35%)
Not really much of a surprise here. McDavid is widely considered the most talented and skilled player in the league by fans and pundits, so it makes sense that his peers would feel the same. He's only getting more powerful apparently, as he took home 63.6 percent of the votes as the winner last year.
Best defenseman: Victor Hedman (37.88%)
Mark Giordano won the Norris last year but Hedman has taken home the NHLPA title of best defenseman for the second straight year. The Lightning blueliner had 31.7 percent of the vote last year.
Best goalie: Carey Price (41.55%)
This is a really interesting one considering Price's performance has taken a dip since 2017 but he clearly hasn't lost admiration from his peers. He won last year's vote with 29.9 percent and has struggled for much of this season, yet his voting percentage has seen a significant increase. Feels like this one is a bit of a reputation award.
Most complete player: Sidney Crosby (45.56%)
Even though he may not be considered the best forward, Crosby still clearly gets high marks across the board and in all facets of the game. He performs at such a consistently high level and has all the intangibles you look for, so it's hard to argue here.
Best trash-talker: Brad Marchand (25.87%)
For the second straight year, Marchand has been blessed with the crown of best chirper, which shouldn't come as much surprise. But, for the second straight year, he's also been named the league's worst trash-talker (10.59%). Clearly not all those chirps are landing.
Funniest player: Keith Yandle (17.98%)
SONK!
Best bromance: David Perron/Ryan O'Reilly (6.42%)
This just in: Winning a Stanley Cup can do a relationship a whole lot of good.
Best social media follow: PK Subban (13.59%)
Subban is quite good on social media but, in fairness, the bar here is so, so low.
Best golfer: Joe Pavelski (15.84%)
Makes sense considering all his years in San Jose
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In addition to all the individual player awards, there were also several other topics that were voted on. In the arena category, the Edmonton Oilers were voted to have the best visitor's locker room (38.01%) which, in my opinion, isn't necessarily a good thing. You don't want opponents too comfortable in your building. Meanwhile, the Bell Centre in Montreal was voted as having the best ice surface in the league (31.75%).
Something to note: An overwhelming majority of players (73 percent, to be exact) voted in favor of relaxing the game-day dress code and implementing a fashion code similar to that of the NBA. That's not entirely surprising considering we've seen a lot of the game's younger players embrace the world of fashion (often strange fashion) in recent years.
The Chicago Blackhawks won best jerseys (28.25%) but, in an interesting twist, the Vegas Golden Knights came in second (albeit a distant second) with 6.83 percent of the vote. And, of course, Gritty won best mascot with just over 69 percent of the vote for the second year in a row, because of course he did. Nice.
You can see the full poll results here.
