At this juncture, everyone knows how good Sidney Crosby is and has been for the entirety of his 19-year NHL career.
In 2024-25, Crosby will be vying for his record-breaking 20th consecutive point-per-game season, and that stat will be the one to watch and make headlines. But there are several other statistical areas where the future Hall of Famer will be pushing records and defying age.
Here are five random Crosby stats that are certainly worthy of mention.
Crosby has never had a shooting percentage below 10 percent
According to Statmuse, Crosby’s season-by-season shooting percentage has never fallen below 10 percent.
This is something that not even Mario Lemieux or Wayne Gretzky managed to accomplish. The only other NHL players within the top-20 all-time in scoring who never had a season shooting percentage below 10 percent are Mark Messier and Ron Francis.
Crosby’s best season for shooting percentage came during his career year in 2010-11, when he shot 19.9 percent before sustaining a season-ending concussion at the turn of the New Year in 2011.
Crosby has the second-most overtime goals in NHL history
Historically a clutch player, Crosby’s 21 overtime goals is good enough for second on the all-time list behind only Alexander Ovechkin’s 26.
In addition, his 90 regular season game-winning goals sit 23rd in NHL history, and he needs only nine more to enter the top-10 all-time. He has scored nine game-winning goals in three different seasons (2015-16, 2021-22, and 2022-23).
Crosby is set to become the all-time leader in FOW
Faceoffs Won, or FOW, accounts for the total number of faceoffs a player has won. Former Boston Bruin Patrice Bergeron holds the current NHL all-time record at 15,182, but Crosby, who won 1,090 out of 1,872 faceoffs last season, currently sits second all-time at 14,648 and should surpass Bergeron in 2024-25.
This is a very impressive feat for Crosby, and he is likely to run away with that record – even if he “cheats” on faceoffs, as Sharks center Logan Couture once infamously said:
Crosby’s skating speed gets better with age
This one is better to simply look at and marvel. Here is some year-by-year skating speed data from the past three seasons, courtesy of NHL Edge:
2021-22 (Age 34)
© NHL Edge
2022-23 (Age 35)
© NHL Edge
2023-24 (Age 36)
© NHL Edge
As the league becomes faster, so does Crosby. As Crosby grows older, his skating speed goes higher. At 36 years old, he cracked the 80th percentile for skating speed.
For normal athletes, this just doesn’t happen. But somehow, some way, Crosby is finding ways to defy Father Time and get faster and faster as he gets grayer and grayer.
Crosby is currently in the 94th percentile for shot location – and his accuracy is top-notch
By now, every hockey fan knows the legend of Crosby’s dryer. Heck, they even have a children’s book about it on Amazon:
© Screen Capture: Amazon
What started as a venture in Crosby’s basement resulted in an NHL superstar with sharpshooter accuracy. Nearing age 37, Crosby still averages in the 94th percentile for shot location, making him the oldest active player with as high a percentile.
His shot volume itself is in the 97th percentile – higher than Alex Ovechkin’s 96 – so the notion that he doesn’t shoot the puck enough probably speaks more to how much Crosby has the puck on his stick rather than his pure shot volume.
And his accuracy is remarkable, too. All you have to do is watch him blow the competition out of the water shooting targets in the 2017 All-Star Skills Competition, as well as all of the other ridiculous trick shots he performs with ease:
Related: 5 Unbreakable Mario Lemieux Penguins Records
Related: Analyzing Crosby’s Chance at 2,000 Points
Related: Five reasons to be optimistic about the Penguins in 2024-25
