In terms of stats, Malkin has done what he has done playing with 3rd/4th liners on his flanks. Ovechkin has had Backstrom, Semin, Knuble, and even Green helping his statistics. Until the past year, the best linemate Malkin had was Jordan Staal as his center during their rookie season.
Malkin is also the better two-way player(he lead the league in takeaways for an entire season).
Malkin is having a great year and is the front runner for Hart Trophy, but career-wise Ovechkin in superior. Ovie was considered the best player in the league for quite some time (better than healthy Crosby) whereas Malkin has been considered the best only for a short period after his great playoff run and even then he was not the clear-cut option. After this season Malkin will probably be considered the best, but remember that Ovechkin was considered the best for a pretty long period.
To my understanding this poll is about who's had the better career and by that basis it's Ovechkin.
This is basically a combo of "better career so far?" and "who will better from here on out?"
In terms of career so far, I think Ovy is ahead of Malkin. If Ovy keeps playing this poorly, and Malkin keeps playing this well, it'll be Malkin within the next couple years, but so far Ovy has had the better career. Ovy has sucked this year, and wasn't great last year, but before that he was beastly, can't forget his 4 seasons with 50+ goals and 106+ points. Ovy also joined the league a year before Malkin, and has been much healthier, so he's played a lot more games so far.
I can definitely see the argument for Malkin's best being a bit better than Ovy's best, I just like Malkin's game more, controls the puck SO well and really makes his teammates better, while Ovy is more just a finisher, shooting like mad and bullrushing the net, needs to play on a fast paced team that goes all out offensively, while I think Malkin would work well in any system. I'd rather have 07/08, 08/09 and current Malkin over any version of Ovy, despite Ovy's insane goal totals.
There's no doubt that Malkin is playing much better than Ovy at the moment, and I do slightly prefer Malkin's best to Ovy's best, but in terms of careers, I think it's still Ovy right now, in no small part because he's played 520 regular season games, while Geno has played 391 (with 43 of those being at a pretty low level last year). Malkin's unbelievable dominance in the playoffs in 08/09 (on the way to his Conn Smythe) does narrow the gap decently, but still it's been Ovy in terms of career so far.
Going forward, if you can guarantee that both players will be healthy, I'd take Malkin. I just prefer his game in general, prefer his personality/commitment as well, plus he's currently playing better hockey and is roughly a year younger. But without guaranteeing that both players will be healthy, I'd be a little concerned about Malkin being injury prone, knees can be tricky.
So, Ovy by a bit so far, Malkin by a bit from here on out *IF HEALTHY*, with an overall preference for Malkin's game in general. Close to a toss up for me.
Ovechkin and Malkin, which happened to be the draft order in 2004. Penguins fans were devastated, because their last-place team had lost the lottery and the right to take Ovechkin.
Others saw a silver lining.
David Conte, highly respected scouting director for the New Jersey Devils, told me not to be stunned if Malkin turned out to be every bit as good as Ovechkin.
"He's an exceptional talent," Conte said of Malkin at the time. "And it's not unreasonable to think a guy who goes second could be better than the guy who goes first. The draft, you have to remember, is like going into the 10th grade and predicting who the best doctors will be."
I also remember Conti being quoted that he would have taken Malkin first if he had the pick. I used that quote extensively at the time when I argued Malkin would be as good as Ovechkin, and all things being equal you take the center every day of the week and twice on Sunday. I did not call that Malkin would be better though. Conti deserves some praise for going out on that limb.
IMO Washington would have already had multiple cups if they had Malkin in stead of Ovie.
Centre depth of Malkin - Backstrom - Laich - Steckel
Yikes
Now list their winger depth, also "yikes," basically just Semin and scrubs (though, in this situation, they'd obviously be using Mojo as the #3 C, and Laich on the wing).
Now list their winger depth, also "yikes," basically just Semin and scrubs (though, in this situation, they'd obviously be using Mojo as the #3 C, and Laich on the wing).
Until this year Malkin would have killed for the upgrade to scrubs on wing.
Malkin is having a great year and is the front runner for Hart Trophy, but career-wise Ovechkin in superior. Ovie was considered the best player in the league for quite some time (better than healthy Crosby) whereas Malkin has been considered the best only for a short period after his great playoff run and even then he was not the clear-cut option. After this season Malkin will probably be considered the best, but remember that Ovechkin was considered the best for a pretty long period.
To my understanding this poll is about who's had the better career and by that basis it's Ovechkin.
To be clear....this poll is about, who has had the better career so far, who is better right now and who will be better in the future.
The question is.....taking all that into account, you should have been taken 1st overall in 2004?
Pens fan here. hockey wise it's really close. but a team will always choose from an economical pov. Ovechkin sells way more jerseys than Malkin, so you'd have to take him.
Some people are so fickle an 'what have you done for me lately. Remember a bit more than a year ago when Malkin was having a down year (even before he got injured), and people were going on about how maybe he isn't an elite player and was no longer in the discussion for top player etc. All the sudden Ovechkin is having a down year and now Malkin is so much better. Career wise to this point Ovechkin has been much better than Malkin. Let's not all lose our minds around here.
Ovechkin and Malkin, which happened to be the draft order in 2004. Penguins fans were devastated, because their last-place team had lost the lottery and the right to take Ovechkin.
Others saw a silver lining.
David Conte, highly respected scouting director for the New Jersey Devils, told me not to be stunned if Malkin turned out to be every bit as good as Ovechkin.
"He's an exceptional talent," Conte said of Malkin at the time. "And it's not unreasonable to think a guy who goes second could be better than the guy who goes first. The draft, you have to remember, is like going into the 10th grade and predicting who the best doctors will be."
I also remember Conti being quoted that he would have taken Malkin first if he had the pick. I used that quote extensively at the time when I argued Malkin would be as good as Ovechkin, and all things being equal you take the center every day of the week and twice on Sunday. I did not call that Malkin would be better though. Conti deserves some praise for going out on that limb.
