NHL players have some hot takes.
On Wednesday, the league's players association published the findings of its annual poll, in which more than 500 players answered a slew of hockey-related questions.
Most of the questions elicited unsurprising responses, but there were a handful of interesting results:
Carey Price gets included among all-time greats
There's no denying the Montreal Canadiens goaltender has had a terrific career to this point, or that he's one of - if not the - best active netminders, but Price got a bit too much love in this survey. Here's how 361 players voted when asked who they believe is the best goalie of all time:
| Player | Percent |
|---|---|
| Patrick Roy | 39.3 |
| Martin Brodeur | 33.2 |
| Dominik Hasek | 13.6 |
| Carey Price | 3 |
| Ken Dryden | 3 |
Somehow, Roberto Luongo didn't make the top five despite ranking fourth all time in wins and sitting in the top 10 in save percentage. Also, where were Jacques Plante, Terry Sawchuk, and Ed Belfour?
Chalk it up to recency bias and the respect players around the league have for Price, but it still didn't make much sense.
Overwhelming support for the current point system
When asked whether they like the way points are awarded for a win or a loss in the regular season, the players reached a clear consensus, with 77.7 percent support among the 412 who answered.
That's somewhat surprising, considering the "loser point" (the awarding of a single point for an overtime or shootout loss) has plenty of critics in hockey circles and is arguably a major reason for the increase in parity in the NHL standings.
Somewhere, Stan Bowman is sighing.
Tim Peel is surprisingly well-respected
The fact that Wes McCauley received the most votes when the players were asked to name the best referee wasn't a shock, but Peel somehow garnered 4.4 percent support among 113 players, finishing third behind only McCauley and Kelly Sutherland.
Peel is without a doubt the NHL's most controversial official. He has a lengthy history of blown calls, and who could forget his interview with Yahoo Sports' Greg Wyshynski that was conducted at a bar and got Peel suspended?
Perhaps it's simply a matter of name recognition, but clearly other referees were more deserving.
Ott's coaching prospects better than Ruff's
Steve Ott might be more popular behind the bench than he was as a player.
The former pest and current St. Louis Blues assistant coach got 5.1 percent of the votes among the 216 players who answered when asked which current assistant coach should be the next head coach.
D.J. Smith of the Toronto Maple Leafs (first with 8.3 percent), Todd Reirden of the Washington Capitals (second with 7.4 percent), and Ulf Samuelsson of the Chicago Blackhawks all finished ahead of Ott, but the fact that he got more support than longtime NHL bench boss Lindy Ruff (fifth with 4.2 percent) was a bit of a head-scratcher.
They really, really like Peter Forsberg
NHL players love them some Foppa.
Peter Forsberg got the most votes among the 379 players who replied when they were asked to name their favorite player growing up (8.4 percent, edging out Steve Yzerman at 8.2).
More alarmingly, though, 2.3 percent - or the fifth-highest total - of 388 players responded with Forsberg's name when asked to pick the best forward of all time.
Sure, the Colorado Avalanche legend was a terrific player, albeit in a career cut short by injuries, and yes, most of the players made more reasonable choices (Wayne Gretzky, Mario Lemieux, Sidney Crosby, and Jaromir Jagr rounded out the top four) but the fact that Forsberg was mentioned before the likes of Gordie Howe, Bobby Orr, Maurice "Rocket" Richard, and Mark Messier made it clear that some of the current players could use a history lesson.
(Photos courtesy: Getty Images)
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