Bobby Orr gives his take on where Crosby ranks amongst the all-time greats
Legendary Boston Bruins Bobby Orr, who is highly regarded as the best defenceman to ever play the game, had some very high praise for Pittsburgh Penguins captain Sidney Crosby, saying he should be considered as one of the top five players to ever play the game.
“Please, please,” Orr said to Josh Yohe, a reporter for The Athletic. “I want you to be very comfortable putting Sidney Crosby's name with the rest of us. Just trust me on that one. He's so, so special."
“First of all, if you ask those other guys on the list, I know they'll tell you the same thing I'm about to tell you. Sid belongs on that list. Sure, there's the talent that he has and the drive. But look at what he's been through. That tells me something. Look at the injuries he's dealt with, especially earlier in his career. He's been beat up, hurt, been through so, so much. And through it all, look at what he's accomplished."
“He's won all those Cups. He's won the Olympics. Scored the goal to win it, in fact. The World Cups he's won. The numbers he's put up. Everything he's done. He's one of the greatest hockey players of all time.”
The injuries Orr is mainly referring to of course, were concussions Crosby suffered earlier in his career. Those limited him to a combined 63 games in two seasons. Orr's high praise from Crosby certainly isn't unwarranted, as the Pens captain currently has 1263 points in just 984 regular season games. Those numbers give him a 1.28 points per game pace, which ranks him sixth all time.
The praise from Orr has to make Crosby feel extremely proud. As mentioned above, Orr is the best defenceman and one of the best players to ever play the game. Unfortunately, injuries limited him to just 657 regular season games, but he was still able to amass a ridiculous 270 goals and 915 points. Though Crosby may rank in the top 5, he would certainly still have a long ways to go to get to Orr's status.
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YESTERDAY
MAY 11, 2026
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| G | A | PTS | ||
| Martin Necas | - | 2 | 2 | |
| Ross Colton | 1 | - | 1 | |
| Nazem Kadri | 1 | - | 1 | |
| Parker Kelly | 1 | - | 1 | |
| Nathan MacKinnon | 1 | - | 1 | |
| Brock Nelson | 1 | - | 1 | |
| Nico Sturm | 1 | - | 1 | |
| Danila Yurov | 1 | - | 1 | |
| Jack Drury | - | 1 | 1 | |
| Brock Faber | - | 1 | 1 | |
| Quinn Hughes | - | 1 | 1 | |
| Nicolas Roy | - | 1 | 1 | |
| Vladimir Tarasenko | - | 1 | 1 | |
| Jack Ahcan | - | - | - | |
| Mackenzie Blackwood | - | - | - | |
| Zach Bogosian | - | - | - | |
| Matthew Boldy | - | - | - | |
| Brent Burns | - | - | - | |
| Marcus Foligno | - | - | - | |
| Nick Foligno | - | - | - | |
| COMPLETE STATS | ||||