This is why ESPN is a JOKE to Hockey Fans

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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[TwistedWristerHockey]

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!

[ponyboy]

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”

[rjcraig]

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.

[CSXIV]

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.

[AdamMCrawford]

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.

[SwogoKing]

Mahomes being 80 ahead of Mcdavid is INSANE!

[bradbradford]

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

[Raist]

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.

[bjornalm]

It's like looking at a list of musicians ranked by the Rolling Stone😂

[angelaa.]

That was my first thought—not a single goalie!

[pattaccone]

All Canadians just laughing right now 😂😂. Typical Espn list

[westonlewis]

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

[JaredLS]

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.

[jakez]

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.

[MrJayehawk]

The level of ESPN knowledge of hockey is laughable. We have always known this.

[andrewcarroll]

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.

[Khood]

ESPN is like the show the View now. Just a bunch of nonsense

[marner]

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

[nolanscripture]

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.

[angelaa.]

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.