Hockey analyst Cam Charron joined hosts Matt Larkin and Tyler Yaremchuk on Thursday’s edition of “Daily Faceoff Live.” When asked whether Aleksander Barkov was an appropriate recipient of the NHLPA’s most underrated player award, Charron gave an interesting alternative choice. Given his lack of recognition in recent seasons, future Hall-of-Fame center Sidney Crosby was Charron’s pick.
Matt Larkin: Cam, I wanted to pivot and ask you about the NHLPA Player Poll that came out earlier this week. Aleksander Barkov was picked as the most underrated player in the NHL. This is a guy who was captain of the President’s Trophy winners last year, he’s got a Selke Trophy. What do you think of the idea of Barkov being “underrated?”
Cam Charron: I think it’s an awful thing that we just make the best player on a Sun Belt team the most underrated, I don’t think that’s how we should think about it at all. I don’t think any casual fan wouldn’t be able to tell you that Aleksander Barkov is a top-10, top-5 center in this league, and I think it really stretches the definition of what underrated means.
As you said this guy has been getting all these votes left and right. Generally, I’ve found that the underrated players linger in the Sun Belt then they wind up on the Canucks and then they aren’t very good. I think the player that’s actually the most underrated in the NHL right now is Sidney Crosby.
He’s probably dragging the Penguins to the playoffs right now. He’s really been the only consistent force for the Penguins in 5-on-5 hockey all season long. He’s just been maintaining that 55% on-ice goals-for percentage. Malkin isn’t having a great season at 5-on-5 and the depth has been atrocious, yet Pittsburgh is still right there with a big win over Colorado last night. That’s just been driven by Crosby completely. He’s 10th in scoring over the past three seasons, he’s barely sniffed any end-of-season awards ballots. Obviously, the Hart is going to McDavid this year, that’s no question, but I think that Crosby should show up as third, fourth, or fifth on a lot of ballots, and I don’t know if he’s getting a lot of buzz right now.
I just think at the end of Crosby’s career we’re going to look back, we’re going to say “oh, he only won two Hart Trophies.” That doesn’t seem like enough for Sidney Crosby, who’s one of the all-time greats.
Tyler Yaremchuk: Another point about Barkov, he finished third in the most complete player voting which would contradict that he’s underrated as well.
