Who was the 2017 player of the year? Popular opinion appears to be evenly divided between Tampa Bay's Nikita Kucherov, Edmonton's Connor McDavid and Pittsburgh's Sidney Crosby.
In the regular season -- part of which was in 2016-17 and the remainder in 2017-18 -- Kucherov led in scoring with 52 goals and 106 points, and the Tampa Bay Lightning earned 110 points in the standings, which ranked second to the Washington Capitals, at 122.
While not enjoying the same level of team success, McDavid won the NHL scoring race, the Hart Trophy, was a first-team All-Star, finished second to Kucherov in regular season points in that span, with 102, and first when playoff points are included, with 111.
Of course, the Stanley Cup is the ultimate prize, and Crosby was the captain of the champion Pittsburgh Penguins, won the Conn Smythe Trophy, the Maurice Richard Trophy, and finished second to McDavid in combined scoring, with 110 points.
While some of these achievements can't have numbers placed on them, let's dive into some of the underlying stats and break down their impressive years, see if that will help clarify which one was best, and establish what we might expect from each of them in 2018.
Nikita Kucherov, RW, Tampa Bay Lightning
In 2017, the new year did not get off to a great start for Kucherov. He had just gotten back from missing several games with a lower-body injury, they were without their captain and top scorer Steven Stamkos, goalie Ben Bishop was struggling in nets (prior to being traded), and they were outside the playoff picture to stay.
On an individual level, Kucherov closed the 2016-17 season with great success. He was one of the five players to score at least 50 points in the 2017 portion of the 2016-17 season, and his 27 goals ranked second behind Boston's Brad Marchand, 29.
Those late-season results helped Kucherov lead the Lightning with 40 goals and 85 points, far more than Jonathan Drouin, who ranked second among the team's forwards with 21 goals and 53 points. Kucherov finished eighth in Hart voting, and was named to the second All-Star team, behind Chicago's Patrick Kane.
With a healthy Stamkos back in the lineup and serving as his center, Kucherov built on that success so far in the 2017-18 season. As 2017 came to a close, Kucherov led the NHL with 25 goals and 56 points, and the Lightning led the NHL with a record of 28-8-2.
Looking ahead: There's little question that Kucherov was the game's greatest offensive force in 2017, and there's little reason to suspect that his success was temporary, and won't carry forward into 2018.
Kucherov's scoring has consistently trended up from 50 points at age 21 in 2014, to 57, to 72, and 106 at age 24 last year. Kucherov scored on 17.8 percent of his shots, which ranked No. 12 among those to take 100 shots, but that's not necessarily far removed from his previous career average of 13.5. In terms of usage, the Lightning have players like Ondrej Palat handling the tough minutes, but Kucherov is hardly sheltered, and his favorable deployment is unlikely to change in 2018. So, it's reasonable to expect Kucherov to threaten the 100-point mark once again this calendar year.
Connor McDavid, C, Edmonton Oilers
Much has already been said and written about McDavid's amazing 2016-17 season. At age 20, he led the NHL scoring race with 100 points, won the Hart Trophy, was named to the first All-Star team and seemingly singlehandedly dragged the Oilers into the Stanley Cup playoffs for the first time since 2005-06, ending what was tied for the longest playoff drought in league history.
That team-level success seems to have been temporary, given that the Oilers closed 2017 tied for No. 25 in the NHL with a record of 17-19-3. Given his individual success, McDavid can no more be blamed for that than Kucherov for Tampa Bay's struggles earlier in 2017.
McDavid ranks ninth in the NHL with 45 points, which leads the Oilers by 13 points over Leon Draisaitl, 32. In terms of shot-based metrics, Edmonton has outshot its opponents 771-615 at 5-on-5 with McDavid on the ice, for a Corsi (or SAT) of plus-156 that ranks No. 10 in the NHL. In percentage terms, McDavid boosts the team's share of all on-ice shot attempts from 51.5 to 55.6 percent when he's on the ice, for a relative Corsi of plus-4.1 percent that's not dissimilar from last season's plus-4.7.
Most amazingly, McDavid's success is achieved without having the advantage of a hyper-skilled linemate like Stamkos. Recently, McDavid has been playing with 2017 first-rounder Jesse Puljujarvi, who is 19 and has 51 games of NHL experience, along with a gritty but offensively average veteran like Patrick Maroon or Milan Lucic.
Looking ahead: There's no limit to what McDavid could achieve on another team or in another situation, but given that he is yet to turn 21 until Jan. 13, his considerable success should continue to grow in 2018 no matter where or with whom he plays.
Sidney Crosby, C, Pittsburgh Penguins
The ultimate goal in hockey is to the win the Stanley Cup. Since the Penguins were the first team to do so in consecutive seasons since the Detroit Red Wings in 1997-98, and since the team's captain won the Conn Smythe as playoff MVP in consecutive seasons for the first time since Mario Lemieux in 1991-92, the onus is on others to disprove the argument that Crosby was the 2017 player of the year, not for it to be defended.
Crosby's Stanley Cup victory was the crowning achievement of an incredible run under coach Mike Sullivan. Since Sullivan was hired on Dec. 12, 2015, Crosby led the NHL with 74 goals and 155 points in the regular season, and another 46 points in the playoffs, which was tied for first with teammate Evgeni Malkin. He was runner-up for the Hart Trophy both seasons, and has now been named to either the first or second All-Star team for five consecutive seasons.
If there's any doubt about Crosby's year, then it's based on how it came to a close. As 2017 came to an end, Pittsburgh was outside the playoff picture with a 19-18-3 record, and its 41 standings points were tied with the Colorado Avalanche for No. 21 in the league. On an individual level, Crosby was tied for No. 30 in the NHL with 35 points, and only 21 players were below his minus-13.
Looking ahead: Both Crosby and the Penguins have proven their resilience in the past, and there are few doubts that they will bounce back in 2018.
Who was the best player of 2017?
With or without looking at the underlying numbers, deciding which of these three players had the best year is almost too close to call.
Each of them have equally impressive scoring totals, and their teams have experienced both highs and lows. Since Edmonton's and Pittsburgh's struggles have been more recent, our natural instincts are to place more emphasis on them. However, it's important to resist this recency bias, and consider all of 2017 on an equal basis.
For that reason, the failure to clearly establish an advantage for either Kucherov or McDavid means that the tie should favor he whose team won the ultimate prize, the Stanley Cup. It may not be the most scientific answer, but Kucherov and McDavid would have traded years with Crosby a lot more eagerly than the reverse.