Who's Better? Ovechkin or Crosby REVISED

Who's Better? Ovechkin or Crosby

While the debate has been going on for years, I still think it is relevant in today’s game, and I will attempt to dissect the two players and let YOU decide who is better. Let’s start with goals. Ovechkin, in his career, has never dipped below thirty goals, has dipped below 40 only twice, and has hit 65 in one season. He led the league in goals twice in a row, with 65 and 56. He has 339 career goals in 553 career games, giving him a GPG of .613, placing him at number 6 all-time, and ahead of Wayne Gretzky. Crosby has dipped below thirty goals, albeit only twice, and both times he was injured for at least 29 games. He scored 51 goals in 2010, giving him that year’s scoring title. Crosby has scored 223 goals in 434 games, for a GPG of .513, making him 18th all-time. Now let’s move to assists. Ovechkin has only dipped below 40 assists one time, when he had 27 last year. He has never led the league in assists. He has 340 assists in 553 career games, giving him an APG of .614, 52nd all-time. Crosby has dipped below 40 assists twice, but he was injured for at least half of the season when these drops occurred. Crosby has hit 84 assists in one season, but has never led the league in assists. He has 386 assists in 434 career games for an APG of .889, good for 5th all time. Points wise, Ovechkin has broken the 100 point barrier 4 times in his career, his highest being a league-leading 112 points, the only time he has led the league in that category. He has 679 points in 553 career games for a PPG of 1.23, good for 13th all-time. Crosby has broken the 100 point barrier 4 times as well, his highest being 120 points, which led the league. This is the only time he has led the league in points. He has 609 points in 434 career games, giving him a PPG of 1.40, good for 4th all time. Given these statistics, it is hard to say who is the better player. While Ovechkin scores more goals than Crosby by a wide margin, Crosby also racks up more assists, by a wider margin, giving him a higher PPG than Ovechkin. But is that a clear indicator that Crosby is better? Let’s try another statistic. This one is called Goals Created. Goals created is a statistic calculated by adding goals  to 0.5 times assists, then multiplying by team goals divided by team goals plus 0.5 times team assists. It is a helpful tool in determining how valuable a player is to their team. When looking at these two players’ GC’s, we see that Ovechkin has led the league in Goals Created 3 years, all of them in a row, with 48, 45, and 43 goals created. He has 278 Goals Created in his career in 553 career games, giving him a GCPG of .503. Crosby has never led the league in goals created, and has 222 in his career in 434 games, for a GCPG of .511. Crosby has a slight edge over Ovechkin in this regard as well! In addition, Ovechkin has never won the Stanley Cup, while Crosby has (Although keep in mind it takes a whole team to win the Cup, not just one player!) Crosby has reached the Finals twice, while Ovechkin has not made it past the second round. Again, the same thing applies, it takes a whole team to win the Cup, not just one player. Let us now look at playoff performance from these two players. Ovechkin has 30 Goals in 51 Playoff games, for a Playoff GPG of .588, while Crosby boasts a .485 Playoff GPG. However, we see again that Crosby leads in APG and PPG even in the playoffs, with .838 and 1.32, respectively to Ovechkin’s .568 and 1.16, respectively.
There are a few final statistics we can utilize to see who is the better player. These are called Point Shares. There are Offensive, Defensive, and Total Point Shares. A Point Share is best described as an estimate of the number of points contributed by a player, due to their offense, defense, or both. Visit here to learn about how to calculate a point share. To make things quick, here are the Offensive, Defensive, and Total Point Shares for each player:
Ovechkin: OPS=75.8, DPS=14.5, PS=90.3
Crosby: OPS=61.2, DPS=12.6, PS=73.8
Here, we see that Ovechkin is better in all three categories!
So who is the the better player? That is for YOU to decide!