{"id":554896,"date":"2026-04-18T00:15:25","date_gmt":"2026-04-18T00:15:25","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/554896\/"},"modified":"2026-04-18T00:15:25","modified_gmt":"2026-04-18T00:15:25","slug":"nhlpa-poll-sidney-crosby-most-likely-to-become-head-coach","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/554896\/","title":{"rendered":"NHLPA poll: Sidney Crosby most likely to become head coach"},"content":{"rendered":"

TORONTO —Sidney Crosby<\/a> is seen by his peers as the NHL player most likely to become a head coach, according to the National Hockey League Players’ Association’s annual player poll released Friday.<\/p>\n

The 38-year-old Pittsburgh Penguins<\/a> captain topped the category with 10.3% of the vote, followed by Minnesota<\/a>‘s Nick Foligno<\/a> at 5% and Detroit<\/a>‘s David Perron<\/a>, Toronto<\/a>‘s John Tavares<\/a> and Calgary<\/a>‘s Ryan Strome<\/a> at 2.6% or lower.<\/p>\n

The 11th annual poll surveyed 348 players anonymously from all 32 teams during the first half of the season.<\/p>\n

Colorado Avalanche<\/a> center Nathan MacKinnon<\/a> was named the player with the most intense training regimen at 20.7%, followed by Edmonton<\/a>‘s Connor McDavid<\/a> at 5.5% and Pittsburgh<\/a>‘s Kris Letang<\/a> at 4%.<\/p>\n

Toronto Maple Leafs<\/a> forward William Nylander<\/a> led a pair of off-ice categories, ranking first as the most fashionable player at 32.9% and for the best social media presence at 17.4%.<\/p>\n

Nylander also featured among the league’s best nicknames with “Willy Styles,” but trailed Boston Bruins<\/a> forward David Pastrnak<\/a>, whose “Pasta” nickname topped the list at 13.5%. Other notable entries included Detroit’s Patrick Kane<\/a> (“Showtime”) and Nashville<\/a>‘s Ryan O’Reilly<\/a> (“Factor”).<\/p>\n

Florida<\/a>‘s Aleksander Barkov<\/a> topped forwards who could also excel as defensemen at 18%, and Colorado’s Cale Makar<\/a> led defensemen who could also excel as forwards at 36.3%.<\/p>\n

St. Louis Blues<\/a> goaltender Jordan Binnington<\/a> was voted the league’s best puck handler at 22.4%, ahead of theNew York Rangers<\/a>‘ Igor Shesterkin<\/a> at 14%.<\/p>\n

Utah Mammoth<\/a> captain Clayton Keller<\/a> was named the league’s best golfer at 15.9%, andMontreal<\/a>‘s Bell Centre was voted to have the league’s best ice at 46.8%. Detroit’s Little Caesars Arena topped the list for best visiting dressing room.<\/p>\n

Players pointed to Houston as the preferred expansion market at 34.3%, followed by Quebec City at 16.9%, and 68.1% opposed a switch to white jerseys at home.<\/p>\n

Copyright \u00a9 2026 ESPN Internet Ventures. All rights reserved.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"TORONTO —Sidney Crosby is seen by his peers as the NHL player most likely to become a head…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":554897,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[5106],"tags":[62728,233,48272,36948,95,96,144,45543,93,146,266,57,5,32143,62726,62723,62725,29626,20,5172,37712,35,40,4,62727,25,62724,100,20028,84,62722,66,31,5171,3154],"class_list":{"0":"post-554896","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-toronto-maple-leafs","8":"tag-62728","9":"tag-anaheim-ducks","10":"tag-barkov-aleksander","11":"tag-binnington-jordan","12":"tag-boston-bruins","13":"tag-chicago-blackhawks","14":"tag-colorado-avalanche","15":"tag-crosby-sidney","16":"tag-detroit-red-wings","17":"tag-edmonton-oilers","18":"tag-espn","19":"tag-florida-panthers","20":"tag-hockey","21":"tag-kane-patrick","22":"tag-keller-clayton","23":"tag-letang-kris","24":"tag-mackinnon-nathan","25":"tag-makar-cale","26":"tag-maple-leafs","27":"tag-mapleleafs","28":"tag-mcdavid-connor","29":"tag-new-york-rangers","30":"tag-news","31":"tag-nhl","32":"tag-nylander-william","33":"tag-ottawa-senators","34":"tag-pastrnak-david","35":"tag-pittsburgh-penguins","36":"tag-shesterkin-igor","37":"tag-st-louis-blues","38":"tag-tavares-john","39":"tag-toronto","40":"tag-toronto-maple-leafs","41":"tag-torontomapleleafs","42":"tag-utah-mammoth"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"","error":"Validation failed: Text character limit of 500 exceeded"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/554896","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=554896"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/554896\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/554897"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=554896"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=554896"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=554896"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}