Crosby had the most hype of any player since Eric Lindros in 1991.
He was vastly over-hyped, in my opinion. He is one of the best players in the league, but nowhere close to being "the next Gretzky" or "the next Lemieux".
If people were really serious with Greztky/Lemieux yes, but for him to be the best of the mortal potential at #5 they could have been right, he was injured so soon in is career and lost a explosiveness and a step with that leg injury that it is a bit hard to judge what could he have been (same goes if it does not get stopped in that 2010-2011 era when he was arguably even better than before that first injury with all those heads/neck one), 120 point second season and leading the league in point when he get injured season 3.
Despite the injuries in is prime he look really good in the list of player with the most top 10 points (and 8 of those are being in the league top 3):
G. Howe* | 21 |
W. Gretzky* | 16 |
B. Hull* | 14 |
J. Beliveau* | 12 |
C. Denneny* | 12 |
J. Jagr | 11 |
A. Delvecchio* | 11 |
M. Richard* | 11 |
B. Cook* | 11 |
S. Crosby | 10 |
J. Sakic* | 10 |
M. Lemieux* | 10 |
P. Esposito* | 10 |
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There is 3 season where he was not too many games missing to make it, He could still finish equal to Jagr/M Richard if he pull a last one before the end, and at the same time he combined that regular season impressive track record with:
Has a shot to the top 3 in playoff points, should at least reach the highest non-Oilers dynastie in the league history, quite the track record.
One metric were Crosby look really impressive, the most top 3 finish in points in league history:
W. Gretzky* | 13 |
G. Howe* | 12 |
S. Crosby | 8 |
M. Lemieux* | 8 |
P. Esposito* | 8 |
J. Jagr | 7 |
S. Mikita* | 7 |
M. Richard* | 7 |
B. Hull* | 6 |
B. Orr* | 6 |
J. Beliveau* | 6 |
C. Denneny* | 6 |
M. Dionne* | 5 |
G. Lafleur* | 5 |
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Only Gordie Howe and Greztky did it more often