This is why ESPN is a JOKE to Hockey Fans
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- Опубліковано 4 вер 2024
- ESPN just revealed its Greatest 100 Athletes of the 21st Century. It featured Alex Ovechkin, Sidney, Crosby, and Connor McDavid, but was that it? Where did those players rank, and which NHL legends were completely snubbed? Here are my thoughts; lemme know yours in the comments!
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7:37 I meant to say Selke trophy winner for Toews (1 time in '13) 😅Anyway, what do you think of ESPN's rankings for the 3 NHL players it chose, and which players were the biggest snubs for this list? Lemme know your thoughts, and stick around for much more content throughout the offseason. Thanks for watching!
Toews only one 1 Selke
@@WindyCityHawkey also a conn Smythe and 3 Stanley cups and a gold medal in the 2010 Olympics. Still ESPN doesn’t give a shit about any thing to do with hockey.
@@WindyCityHawkey Clearly I need to wipe my memory vault lol
Honestly Sid should in top 10
Crosby and Ovechkin should be in the top 10, McDavid in the top 30.
Lidstrom, Bergeron, Brodeur, Lundqvist, Chara, Kane, Toews, Malkin, Hedman, and maybe Keith should all be added to the list as well.
Anytime I see ESPN bring up hockey in any capacity I always think to myself “awe how cute they’re trying to act like they know anything about this sport”
Fax lol
Fr 😂😂😂
The list suffered greatly from recency bias. They put the likes of Patrick Mahomes (#18) and Nikola Jokic (#28) so high up on the list when they're still in the midst of their careers. The disrespect to Sid and Ovi and hockey in general is insane.
Also, no Joey Chestnut on this list is disrespectful
I looked at the list... they even helpfully broke down the "sports" the athletes were selected from. Nearly a quarter of the list (24) played basketball. The next most popular sport was baseball with 17 athletes. Soccer (Football for the non-Americans) had 15 athletes... and 12 athletes were selected directly from the NFL. That's 68 athletes from 4 of the most popular watched sports in USA!
For a list meant to showcase the "Top 100 Athletes in the World"... only 56 of them are from USA.
I'll let you figure out what the biases which influenced the creation of this travesty.
jokic is only 6 spots behind crosby? embarrassing
I already commented this but espn is a joke they put Albert pujols at number 30 mlb players of all time when he’s top 10 arguably top 5 and put jeter above him even though you know pujols had 703 home runs,3 mvps,was the best player for a solid stretch,has a 918 ops and a 145 ops plus but no jeter is clearly better than him. Bro jeter has pujols beat on average and that’s it.
Mahomes should be at 18 though.
Back when "Sharknado" came out, ESPN tweeted at the San Jose Sharks, "hey, any plans on becoming the SJ Sharknados?"
The official SJ Sharks Twitter responded with "Hey, ESPN, any plans on showing more hockey highlights?"
The best part? Almost every other team (including traditional Sharks rivals) retweeted this response.
Classic 2010s Sharks w
This poll was clearly just a popularity vote amongst clueless casual fans. The funny part is that ESPN would be slobbering on the knob of any NBA or NFL player who had even 50% of McDavids talent. You would never stop hearing about that player 24/7.
Cluless, casual fans? No. More like clueless, biased, sport based writers.
ESPN sucks
Honestly it does. Some say that NBC wasn't that great either but hell I'd rather go back to NBC. At least they covered the NHL majority of the time😂
@@WindyCityHawkey espn cares more about politics now than sports
TSN sucks
It's the USA that sucks. ESPN is just giving viewers and readers what they want. Sometimes we forget how wildly unpopular hockey is here in the US. We all know that it's a 4th sport and that its popularity is weak even by 4th sport standards... but if we're being honest, the reality is that almost no one cares about hockey.
MOST sports fans in the US who live in an NHL city can't name 2 players on their NHL team. An NHL team could be deep into the playoffs in mid-May, and the city's TV stations and newspapers are still covering their NFL team more than the NHL team. It really _is_ that bad here in the US.
So, the more hockey players on the list, the less interesting it is to average Americans.
@@joshuaneal7552 get your facts right...
Boston, Philadelphia, Detroit, Pittsburgh, Minnesota, Chicago, New York, Buffalo, those are not the markets where that applies...
There are SOME good hockey markets in the states. VERY FEW. And they don't grow...Atlanta, and Phoenix in 30 years never grew in popularity...
Meanwhile Gary Bettman TOOK AWAY TEAMS from Winnipeg, Quebec City, Minneapolis and Hartford....
Two of those cities ALREADY HAVE TEAMS AGAIN...SINCE BETTMAN MADE A MASSIVE MISTAKE TRYING TO PUSH HOCKEY ON THE SOITH
Since 1993 Gary Bettman became commissioner, he added teams in San Jose, Anaheim, Phoenix, Vegas, Atlanta, Carolina, Dallas, Nashville, Miami, and Tampa....
Fun Fact:
The NHL teams that lost the most money over the past decade (2012-2021):
-$152,900,000 = Florida Panthers (Miami - 6,183,199)
-$141,600,000 = Arizona Coyotes (Phoenix - 4,845,832)
-$108,800,000 = Carolina Hurricanes (Raleigh-Durham - 1,509,231)
-$83,500,000 = Anaheim Ducks (Los Angeles-Anaheim - 12,799,100)
-$76,000,000 = Columbus Blue Jackets (Columbus - 2,180,271)
-$74,400,000 = Tampa Lightning (Tampa-Saint Petersburg - 3,342,963)
-$59,900,000 = Buffalo Sabres (Buffalo - 1,155,604)
-$130,000,000 = Atlanta Thrashers (Atlanta - 6,307,261) [Atlanta lost $130 million in 5 years from 2005 to 2010]
so it's all of Gary Bettman's expansion teams that bring the league DOWN....
Those markets are why the NHL doesn't generate more money....
Why don't hockey markets have teams....
Milwaukee, Wisconsin
Portland, Oregon
Cleveland, Ohio
Quebec City, Quebec
Hamilton, Ontario
EVERY OTHER LEAGUE GOES WHERE THERE ARE FANS...THE NHL FAILS IN THE SOUTH...Miami, Atlanta, Phoenix...I think Houston will be the next franchise to lose money for the league.
They were clearly going for a "most popular athletes", because McDavid is a better athlete than any baseball player. He stands alone at the top of a sport that's a lot more athletic by default
You can't compare athletes skill when they play different sports. It's just impossible.
It was about greatness not who is a better athlete
Going by general athlete, there’s damn good athletes in all sports. McDavid is a Phenomenon but going by athletic point isn’t working. There’s guys in baseball who can run, jump, react faster than him. He’d be damn good but we can’t go by this.
@@aapoheikkila5542but baseball is 95% just standing in a field, there’s little to no skill involved in baseball outside of pitching. That’s the only impressive position in baseball.
Mahomes being 80 ahead of Mcdavid is INSANE!
Why? He's a champion
@@That90sShow
So is Trevor Lewis.
And then you retort with: "Who the heck is Trevor Lewis?"
To which I reply with: "See! EXACTLY!!!" 🙂
@@That90sShowMaroon should be top 10 then
@@subraxasexcept it’s not, he plays an objectively more interesting sport for the majority of people and he has won. He’s better than McBunz
He won three championships
All Canadians just laughing right now 😂😂. Typical Espn list
This is why I don't watch ESPN!
You watch wokenet?? 😂😂😂
It's like looking at a list of musicians ranked by the Rolling Stone😂
💯
Here's the breakdown:
Sport Count
Basketball 24
Baseball 18
Soccer 15
Football 12
Tennis 6
Golf 4
Auto Racing 3
Boxing 3
Hockey 3
Track 3
Gymnastics 2
Mma 2
Swimming 2
Cricket 1
Skiing 1
Snowboarding 1
The disrespect is unreal.
Golf and tennis over hockey is wild
@@SukunaIsHimhow
They are trying to appeal to a certain audience... hint, it's not hockey fans.
That was my first thought-not a single goalie!
:(
The fact Crosby isn’t in the top 10 is a travesty, I hate Sid as a Hawks fan. But, I mean come on the man has done everything the sport has available and has blown his competition away since he entered the league
One thing about the NHL that just seems to be overlooked by ESPN in general I feel is that the NHL is literally the worlds best Ice Hockey league drawing in not just American and Canadian players but swaths of players from Europe and Russia, no other league pulls players from other countries like the NHL does.
I never thought about that but now I realize it's true.
JaredLS10 NFL, NBA and MLB are the worlds best leagues in their respective sports as well.
@@steve8803 True, mlb is more comparable, but NBA and NFL in other countries are galaxies behind. Unlike NHL and MLB with very competitve leagues in other nations. But they still all chose to come play in NHL or mlb
@@trevormeed7044 there are lots of competitive basketball leagues too. In the top 20 most valuable leagues in the world, there are 3 basketball leagues(NBA, EuroLeague and CBA). Only 1 hockey league in the top 20(NHL). 2 baseball leagues MLB and NPB. And of course a bunch of soccer leagues and a cricket league.
Not the Premier League? they have players from everywhere.
The level of ESPN knowledge of hockey is laughable. We have always known this.
“Experts” 😂
This is why I hate when ESPN or any sports outlets do the BEST OF ALL SPORTS series because it's like comparing apples to bananas. It does make for great clicks and everyone talks about it, but at the end of the day these lists always make people angry (Chiseled Adonis being one as well). So remember when you see lists like this take it with a grain of salt.
ESPN is like the show the View now. Just a bunch of nonsense
If it isn't basketball, ESPN just doesn't give a damn. They don't know and they don't care, but of course they consider themselves "The worldwide leader" Tell you what, you take the 25 best hockey players and pit them against the 25 best players in any other sport, baseball, basketball, football, soccer, and I'll bet the hockey players will kick ass or at least look respectable. Put the other players on the ice and see how many of them can actually stand on skates, much less handle the physical demands of playing a hockey game.
They have been bending over backwards for basketball fans for 2 decades now.
They don't even know basketball. MJ really broke sports media. It needs a reset
I'd like to see any non hockey athlete try hockey and watch as they fumble around in skates.
I'd bet money on that every nhl player could probably pick up any other major sport and at LEAST be at minor league level. While other prof athletes couldnt play hockey worth a dam
Tom Glavine could, and did, on both counts. Would love to see Ovi try to hit Gerrit Cole's 4-seamer. That would be interesting. If he could, hats off to him.
Joe Pavelski would succeed in the WNBA
Ok, this video is the 4th media source I’ve seen talk about this list and the FIRST to go over the methodology ESPN used-props to you for explaining that!
Now that I get how they came up with the list, I can understand how it happened (not saying I agree, but lists like this will always garner criticism and disagreement). Pretty clear that the writers they polled mostly watch NBA, NFL, and MLB and weight those achievements way more.
Sports writters have no memory. Thats why the local guys are better at it cause they stick to one team ya can hardly forget
I'm kind of shocked you didn't mention Hasek when you were listing off goalies?! You mentioned Lundquist, who is definitely behind Hasek. I'm not even a Hasek fan, but that was a brutal snub.
2 Stanley Cups
6 Vezina
2 Hart
2 Jennings
2 Pearson
389 regular season wins
81 regular season shutouts
The list only considered post 2000 career accomplishments. I’m a Hasek fan but he only won one Vezina after 2000. Although he did finally win the cup.
^ Yeah, that's why I didn't include him in my list of snubs. Prime Hasek is as good as it gets when looking at goalies in my lifetime though.
Hasek got the Sabres to a game 7 final. Who else could have done that?
FKA SerialMiller1987 here: ESPN doesn't care about hockey. This list is just another example along with the poor broadcasting, pre-post game shows and intermissions. I didn't think I'd ever say this, but I pine for the days of NBC broadcasts.
Espn cares more about politics and looking woke. Appealing to the hockey crowd does not fit that
When listing the achievements of many of the basketball players they included their All-star appearances and Olympic medals, neither of which was included under Sid's achievements. They all listed league champshions first for most athletes but for Sid, his Stanley Cups are one of the last things they mention
Lidstrom is easily the biggest omission from this list regarding hockey players. He won two Cups, a Conn Smythe, and seven Norris trophies in the 21st century. Very few guys on the list have that type of resume in their given sport, yet he was snubbed anyway solely because he played hockey.
Right spot on here! So much regency bias for ESPN; even their coverage for hockey since re-attaining broadcasting rights, is not worth watching. They are the CNN of sports news... lost in insignificant insight-dry content to "blah-blah" 24 hour content. And arguably, you could add to this that between the 'big four' sports, hockey has their athletes accomplishing what they're doing playing BY FAR the hardest sport to play, technically, and even physically (other than the gladiator sport of American football, maybe; but even here, compare the physical impact a player has to go through to win a Superbowl, compared to what a hockey player needs to endure to win a Stanley Cup!!!). Liked and subscribed!
As someone who appreciates the sport of Hockey and the players that put their bodies on the line to entertain us fans, this list by ESPN is a total disgrace in terms of how they set it up and not giving the players the respect.
To me, ESPN is apathetic towards the NHL Broadcasting once they have it because they RESENT Having It just for the sake of having EVERY Sport in their menu. Smh
As a fellow U.S. hockey fan it’s been so frustrating to see how little regard the U.S. sports media has for hockey in general. Hockey has grown an insane amount since I got into it as a kid and the athletes have only gotten more impressive, states like Florida and Texas are full of hockey fans now. And yet, you still have clowns like Steven A Smith saying things like “I don’t know anything about hockey” despite being from NYC and having one of the most historic U.S. hockey franchises in his home city which has had a Stanley Cup appearance more recently than his beloved Knicks have done anything of note
It's no different here in Canada, where baseball is quite low on the list. I lived my first 47 years in the USA and my next 19 here in Canada. Here, they will spend over 20 minutes breaking down a Leafs-Habs game and cover all 15 baseball games in less than 5. It's true, I've seen it.
@@MichaelWitkowski-dq1nr I’m a Canadian American dual citizen (family from Ottawa) and yeah it’s funny how down here everyone switches off between going crazy for 3 different sports (football, basketball, baseball) and up there it’s basically only hockey lol
ESPN writers have no clue about hockey players
The list was not about hockey players.
When they did this for the 20th century, Gretz was 5th. There’s no reason to have hockey players this low. There’s golfers (no athletic ability required), tennis players (nobody watches them either) and olympians (ESPN 8: The Ocho in festival form) before they get to a hockey player. It’s pure hate!
You think nobody watches Tennis? HAHAHA, Are you serious?
Go anywhere on this planet and ask them if they know who Federer and Nadal are... I am pretty much most would. How is that possible if no one watches them? -- Most Americans don't even know who McDavid is, what does that say about the NHL being watched?
--- Now do the same with McDavid, Crosby, or anyone from the top 10 today... Pretty sure most would have no idea who they are.
How can it be hate when Gretzky was ranked 5th? The difference is Gretzky and Lemieux were properly marketed. Pretty much everyone in N. America knew who they were, so obviously, someone who is massively popular will be much higher on the list than some "random" hockey player (random according to most)
This is not strictly on athleticism, or else the top 10 would be solely Olympians.
@@gost3480 Almost every American I've ever met knows who both McDavid and Crosby are. Even children. They are widely marketed outside of your basement.
@@Lite-8 Oh well if every American you met know him I must stand corrected.
-- Surely all those articles and videos about the NHL not marketing their stars due to their horrible broadcasting deal are nonsense. We shouldn't take into account either the plethora of videos of people being asked who McDavid is and no one seems to know. Didnt one of those videos happen at the Superbowl? Bah who care, all lies. Just like the report that NHL players are not marketable nor is the league and the prediction that the MLS will soon surpass the NHL in the top 4 in sport in north america. Lie. Lie. Lies. McDavid is super popular👍
Depending on who is ahead of him I'd argue its insanity to have him ranked at 5 instead of 1. Gretzky objectively is one of, if not the most, dominant athletes ever. He has the majority of the leagues records with the next guy not even being close on a lot of them. And on ones like single season records he literally holds 1, 2, 3 , 4 etc.
@@Nichaelas Jordan was first. Ali was second i believe. Definitely in the top 4. Zero chance chance Gretzky gets rank higher than either.
Then they was Babe Ruth and Jim Brown I believe (again not sure on the order, but thats top 4). I dont know enough about either to say whether they should be ranked below Gretzky or not. Still at BEST Gretzky is 3.
ESPN needs to leave this world.
To bother the rest of the Galaxy? 🙂
The fact that ESPN speaks to American sporting sympathies is kind of old news. That’s why we don’t bother with them, right? LOL
5:06 yes that big international goal is the whole reason they DONT place Sid higher. They don’t want to insult a bunch of salty Americans
ESPN has gone away from deep analysis on the NBA as well. They swapped to mostly gossip and news.
The Bronny James story is something out of a soap opera it's so bad
@@shawklan27what’s the bronny story
@SukunaIsHim it's essentially a nepotism story where lebron james put his son into the lakers starting roster despite being so shit on the court.
Crosby is number 1 all time big snubbed for being that low
ESPN is just a complete joke
Here's something crazy... 10 or so years ago, when hockey was on NBC, I remember ESPN actually acknowledged that hockey is the most difficult sport in the world, when on their website one time they posted some list ranked by experts on the most difficult sports. Can you believe that?
7 Norris trophies is the craziest stat from this video 🤯 how is that even possible?!
Orr won 8 straight.
@@whodat3700 You ever heard of Doug Harvey?
@@patrickadams6726 I have. The first offensive defenceman for Montreal. Unfortunately he is before my time and there is little video of him to watch. I wish there was so I could see him in action instead of looking at stats.
@@whodat3700 I got to see him at the end of his career, but not in his prime. He was still a star.
@@patrickadams6726 Lucky. To bad television and game taping didn't start 40 years earlier. We still only have a bit of Bobby Orr on tape. Most games weren't taped or televised. I wonder what we missed because of that.
Growing up as an American hockey fan, I’ve always seen the disrespect from ESPN. Stanley Cup winners would only get a 5 min segment and not always the leading story on Sportscenter. Compared to basketball around the same time that would get coverage for days leading up to the winning teams parade. Thankfully creators on UA-cam do a great job covering hockey and the sport gets the shine that it deserves
It taking until #22 to list Crosby was criminal, I laughed and stopped reading the list, especially seeing the athletes chosen before him lol
ESPN is no longer an expert ins sports. They gave that up when they turned into The Jerry Springer show
Sidney Crosby may be the BEST athlete so far in the 21st Century... next to Kobe.
Nick Lindstrom won SEVEN Norris Trophies & didn't make the list. ESPN is flat out WRONG. Nick was a cyborg/robot and that's why he can't make the cut. #5 was perfect in all 3 zones for 23 minutes per game for 20 seasons; set your watch to that.
I agree with most of the points, except for the take on Trout. When assessing baseball players you can't consider playoff success. No other sport is in the same stratosphere innregards to how little a great player can affect their team's success.
Yeah, that was the one where I felt I may have stepped over the line 😆
The disrespect is sickening .
There was 2 lockouts in the 90s during Gretzky career too
Great video and detailed explanation. I hated when espn took over hockey broadcasting. They push so many games to their crappy little app, I loathe it. I really wish the NHL was back on NBC.
I’m an American getting my hockey news from Canadian outlets and NHL Net. ESPN stopped caring about hockey long ago. This guy knows his sports though, gotta give it to him. Subbed.
I knew this was a mistake when NHL first came back to ESPN. Steven A Smith made a video blaming McDavid and Draisaitl for getting swept in the first round of the 2021 playoffs. Even though they were the only Oilers players who had a point-per-game in that series
Local blackouts are the worst part of espn’s coverage. I barely was able to watch any coyotes games cause of the damn blackouts.
Yes completely agree. Couldn’t watch my team either unless they were the ESPN/ABC national game.
@@jasongodek9828 Whats worse is that out of the games that you could watch, half are blocked behind a pay wall.
@@BrickyMcghee404I pay for rds in Ontario and half the habs games are blacked out. Why
@@BandcampTT Money. They want you to pay tickets to watch the games in person.
@@terminator6950 the only games we can find are Punjabi😂 full French family and since we live on the border they don’t give a shit. we love going to games but you’re looking at 120 a ticket for 400 seats and a hotel on top
There's a reason why Sportsnet gets more views on yt for hockey than NHL's official channel
Can’t speak for the Americans, but there’s no Canadian I know that considers ESPN an authority on the NHL.
The 3 players actually selected, Lidstrom, Brodeur, Malkin, and Kane are the must-haves. There's certainly an argument for others, but I'd be ok with the list if only those 7 were selected
Your title sums it up perfectly. ESPN is a joke to hockey fans, more specifically Canadians. If you catch an ESPN broadcast on a VPN you can't help but feel "aww good for them, they actually learned the players names for the broadcast, good for you guys."
Ovechkin, a player that likely ends his his career close to 900 goals if not 900 goals, is 54. ESPN has no clue what they are talking about.
You want to talk about top hockey players who should be in consideration for the top 100 athletes of the 21st century, I'd also add in Gerome Iginla, The Sedin Twins, Mika Kiprisov who towards the end of the Flames' early 2000s run was single headedly keeping that (with the help of Iginla's scoring) keeping that Flames team relevant for longer then they should have been.
Then there's his scoring rival from Vancouver, Markus Naslund, who led the most famous line in hockey of that era, The Westcoast Express (Naslund, Morrisson, Burtuzzi) as another who should have been given at least a look. Oh, and how about one of Ovechkin's early rivals for the best goal scorer of his era, Steven Stamkos? You'd think he'd be worth at least a look, scoring multiple back to back 60 goal seasons in the tale end of the Dead Puck Era.
They're a joke to most fans of most sports 🤷♂️
Thank you for the video. It just proves that ESPN shouldn't be considered the "best in sports". The title should really read "the best in North American sports, but really only American Football, Baseball and Basketball."
The problem with lists like these is that it’s so difficult to compare sports to each other. Football and Baseball players don’t have the impact on their teams like hockey and especially basketball. Then u also consider the individual sports like golf,tennis,track and Motorsport.
Great post. ESPN should not cover hockey
A guy who lives in Victoria, BC hearing an American saying “my guy Steve Nash! Santa Clara represent” must think. What the actual fuck?
Also, Sidney Crosby may be the youngest captain in the NHL to have won a Stanley Cup, but the Stanley Cup predates the NHL, and Mike Grant of the 1895 Montreal Victorias is the youngest player to have ever captained his team to a Stanley Cup
As a soccer fan, I too dislike ESPN. ESPN only cares about 3 sports really. The rest just get thrown around. They may have 1 or 2 people who understand those sports but they don't have a team.
Nothing makes me laugh harder than the ESPN announcers showing an amazing highlight in soccer in a Top 10 play and them announcing "what a kick" 😂
I am European so I dont know much about baseball or American football but this list seems like a usa popularity chart instead of goat list.
The Stanley Cup is the hardest trophy to win out ANY sport. I’m not a McDavid fan by any means or an Ovi fan, but to have McDavid, Ovechkin, and Crosby ranked that low is just stupid!
Ortiz is above Ovi in my opinion based on being clutch in the playoffs alone. Ortiz came up huge over and over again whereas Ovi kept failing.
I think someone like henrik or shesty or officer bob should have been in the top 50
Hockey is a niche sport in the US and arguably behind soccer in terms of audience familiarity, so don't be too bothered by this list. I'm also a fan of soccer and cricket and I'm annoyed that some guys weren't on this list as well (ex Rohit Sharma, MS Dhoni, Robert Lewandowski, Luis Suarez, Sergio Ramos, Kevin De Bruyne, Manuel Nuer, etc.). It is what it is.
ESPN is American. you think they will admit a Canadian is better? LMFAO
this
They had MMA legends GSP and Jon Jones (yes I know roids) outside the top 40. That is absurd. Then Like you said, no Lidstrom, no Lundqvist, and no Brodeur at all? Brodeur who went to the SCF at 42 years old? ESPN is a disgrace to sports and sports fans.
Paul Henderson scored the ultimate goal in hockey
Carey Price
Not quite as passionate as you are about the list, but I will point something out about it and what it says about lists like this and sports media in general: there were no goaltenders on the list.
Like, yes, you mentioned that there were no goalies in hockey on the list, but there were none in Soccer either. All of them were midfielders or strikers, the people who are going to get the goals. Hell, there weren't even defenders among the soccer picks.
And that's... Terrible. We need to have an understanding of team sports beyond who is the one who scored the most goals, hit the most home runs, drained the most threes, ran the most touchdowns. These are *team* sports. And, yes, the final score is the thing that ultimately matters at the end of the day, but that reflects both how much your defense prevented the other team from winning as much as your offense.
Agree with the anti-hockey bias here, but biggest snub has to be Christine Sinclair...Like Marta at 32, and Sinclair not on the list? Really??
It is pretty clear they have bias based on popularity of sports. Sid has won EVERYTHING, been the mvp and captain doing it along the way. World jr, world championships, Olympics, the cups... comparables would be guys like lebron, ronaldo and lewis Hamilton
Correction on Salaries. The Revenue share structures are virtually identical - 50/50. The difference is value. The NHL is worth $6.6b with rosters up to 23 players. The NBA is $10.5b and a 17 player bench. It's got nothing to do with rigidity, as salary caps get exploited all the time.
The list should be comprised of 100 hockey players, as it’s the hardest sport to play.
What a slap in the face to hockey... hockey is the most difficult sport to learn and they never give it respect in articles like this. McDustpan as much as I hate him is probably the best athlete in the world across all sports
mcadiv over joey chestnut is crazy
When I saw only three hockey players on a list of 100 athletes of the century I was pissed. ONLY 3! Give me a break. Surely there could have been at least 15 or 20…that leaves 75 to 80 athletes in the other sports.
ESPN definitely has its biases when it comes to sports coverage. Coverage of hockey in America and especially the west coast and non-traditional markets is why it took me a while to come around to the sport. On the positive side there is more room for hockey to grow.
Line changes and goaltending make it much more difficult to dominate in hockey. It's a better team sport though and the team award is more important than any individual award.
I just ignore anything with ESPN when it's about hockey or baseball.
Yeah they’re all time 100 mlb players list is a joke bob Gibson who had the greatest pitching season of all time is at number 35 they put Mariano Rivera above him,Derek jeter is above Albert pujols and pujols who is a top 10 player is number 30 and Barry bonds is number 8 and I know he did steroids but I do not care because he is the greatest player to ever play the game.
They don't understand the degree of difficaulty the sport of hockey demands.
I think it’s easy to say a bunch of NHLers should have been on, but 100 is a really small number when you’re looking at every sport in the world. Even in a sport like football that was way, way more well represented than the NHL, at 99 was Ed Reed, who is probably the best at his position of all time (or at least a very close #2 to Lott). That’s a tough bar to reach, so I think a bunch of guys mentioned in this video never had a realistic shot even if ESPN did care about being more objective and getting more hockey players on.
The 2 that are just crazy not to include though are Lidstrom and Brodeur. Even if they did a lot in the 90s, their resumes in the 2000s should have them very easily make the list.
Jagr I get not including considering a lot of his damage was done in the 90s. Someone not mentioned that I think is in the same camp is Sakic.
Malkin and Kane should be on, but again, if you actually break it down in every sport while trying to be objective, I think you’ll find a ton of snubs in a lot of sports considering how many great athletes there have been.
Players from the NFL, NBA, and MLB are all over-represented. American Athletes are over-represented comprising 56 out of the 100 names. For a list of 100 top athletes... they were pretty good at picking names American viewers would recognize...
Espn talking about hockey is like doing a child a favor by giving him a candy to shut them up.
you cannot be surprised that ESPN doesn't give a shit about hockey
Micheal Phelps is a great athlete. 28 Olympic gold medals is an amazing feat no doubt. But honestly every time they use a different stroke or add a bit of distance to a race it’s considered a different event. No he was the best swimmer for 4 Olympics. Individuals on team sports get so much less respect despite dominating!
7 wnba players better than McDavid? Really?
Ah well Espn shot their credibility with this list to say the least. Lame list.
@kwaty I just looked at their ranking, smh. I don’t like McDavid, but bare minimum, he should be in the Top 20. He’s been racking up points and hardware galore since he came into the NHL.
Jagar gloves on NYR are hilarious. Think he painted them lol
Serena williams at #2 is crazy with Ussain bolt at #9
Serena is the best FEMALE tennis player of all time. Usain Bolt is the fastest human being EVER! ESPN is owned by Disney. Enough said
Patrick mahomes is only there because the league gives him free wins by given tons of flags and having a good team around him.
ESPN knows nothing about hockey. It is a joke.
Being born in 2006, I grew up in the Sidney Crosby era that we continue to live in. I will always be a leafs fan, but tbh I’ll also be a penguins fan solely because of Sidney Crosby.
I love that crosby and ovie both have cups my favorite is probably ovie cuz he can hit not just score. Its that same admiration when you realize a good fighter can actually score, such as probert. Not a great scorer obviously but he had puck awareness and chipped in at times no doubt.
ESPN is a minor factor in sports outside NA
We already know ESPN sucks at everything hockey. We saw that from their horrible broadcasts, play by play choice for the SCP and the disaster of Game 7 coverage. This should come as no surprise to us hockey fans.
Regarding the list, I don't know how Jagr isn't the top ranked hockey player on the list. Second overall in scoring, all the awards you spoke about, and the only athelete who OWNS and PLAYS on a team (and he's in his 40's!).
What got me was the huge placement difference between Nash and McDavid...when you're coming up with arguments on contribution to the sport, they are very similar as far as elevating their teams and I can see them being just outside the top for never having won a championship, but from 51st to 98th is almost unfathomable especially since I'm pretty sure most people would agree that McDavid is far more dominant in his sport than Nash was.
One small correction to the video...Ovechkin might be the greatest goal scorer of the 21st century, but Bossy is the greatest goal scorer of ALL time. By the way, the reason why scoring averages were higher when Gretzky and Lemieux were playing is BECAUSE Gretzky and Lemieux were playing. Look at the stats before their careers and after their careers.
McDavid IS Currently The Best Player in The National Hockey League !!!!
This IS Coming from A LIFELONG LA KINGS FAN !!
👑🏆🏒😎👍🌴☀️🏒🏆👑
💯💯💯💯💯💯💯💯💯💯
ESPN Is Gutter Trash !!
Bloody absurd!! ESPN knows Sweet FA about hockey and probably always will. Another great Bettman achievement! ESPN's coverage is garbage!
I hear that aggravation. That is why I stopped with ESPN.
Ive never been a crosby fan but the fact he aint in the top 10 is disrespect on top of not including any goalies
It's criminal that Datsyuk isn't on this list. ESPN simply doesn't care about hockey. I feel like they added Ovi, Crosby, and McDavid just out of obligation so they could be like "see we included Hockey!"
As a Penguins fan, Ovechkin should not be anywhere this low. And especially not McDavid.