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Crosby, McDavid, Gritty top 2019-20 NHLPA Player Poll

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The NHLPA delayed releasing the results of its 2019-20 player poll due to the league pause, but the answers finally arrived on Tuesday.

If you’ve ever wanted to know who makes up the NHL’s best bromance or who has the best fashion sense, as well as answers to the usual “best forward,” “most complete player,” and “worst trash talker” questions, today is your day.

First, the usual stuff. Nearly 600 players were polled before the league’s pause and they voted Connor McDavid (68.35%) the overwhelming “Best Forward.” Sidney Crosby (14.93%) was a distant second. Victor Hedman (37.88%) topped John Carlson (21.35%) as “Best Defenseman,” while Carey Price (41.55%) was tabbed “Best Goalie” over Andrei Vasilevskiy (17.09%).

Canada’s Marie-Philip Poulin (39.92%) was voted “Best Female Hockey Player in the World” over Hilary Knight (36.29%) and Kendall Coyne Schofield (15.52%) of the U.S.

Crosby (44.03%) did earn the “If you need to win one game, who is the one player (any position) you would want on your team?” award over McDavid (30.53%) and was also voted “Most Complete Player” with 45.56% of the vote over Patrice Bergeron (25.44%).

There were plenty of fun topics the players voted on, and Brad Marchand should be proud. For the second straight year the Bruins forward was voted the best and worst trash-talker in the NHL. He beat out Drew Doughty and Patrick Maroon for “Best,” while topping Doughty again, as well as P.K. Subban and Nick Cousins for “Worst.”

Who has the “best bromance” in the league? Well, that was a tough one. David Perron and Ryan O’Reilly narrowly edged out the combos of Joe Thornton/Brent Burns, Auston Matthews/Mitch Marner, Jamie Benn/Tyler Seguin, and Patrice Bergeron/Brad Marchand. Some players had a funny sense of humor giving Matthew Tkachuk and Drew Doughty 3.67% of the vote.

The players also showed their desire to allow more personality in the game. Over 40% said they’d like to see custom skate designs and 73% are in favor of relaxing the NHL’s game-day dress code.

In a surprise to no one Gritty took 69.72% of the vote in the “Best Mascot” category. His closest competitors were Gnash (Predators), Howler (Coyotes), Bailey (Kings), and Youppi! (Canadiens), who received just under 3%.

You can check out the rest of the awards at the NHLPA website.

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Sean Leahy is a writer for Pro Hockey Talk on NBC Sports. Drop him a line at phtblog@nbcsports.com or follow him on Twitter @Sean_Leahy.