Comparing Claude Giroux and Sidney Crosby: Fair or not?

At this point, yes, I think it is fair to compare them. But you can’t compare their past, because Crosby has been better and gotten much more attention than G. They are both young and excellent scorers, and I look forward to the rest of the year and beyond as we see G, Crosby, Ovechkin (if he can start playing well again), and maybe some other guys compete for the best player in the league.

I love Giroux and he is my favorite player on the team, but he just isn’t in Crosby’s class right now. Which, by the way, is no slight to Giroux because Crosby is pretty much in a class of his own. In a few more years this may be a more lively debate but at this point I think it is difficult to compare them on even terms.

It’s tough to compare now, because Crosby’s probably reached his ceiling and Giroux may not have yet.

“Sidney Crosby and Claude Giroux are the best two players in the game right now.”

…Really, the argument is that Giroux is the 2nd best player in the game right now.

I’m not sure I would put him ahead of Toews, who I (begrudgingly, after the finals last year) think is phenomenal. But he’s certainly in the top 5 just now.

The fact that we can have this debate means he’s up there, even though we already knew that.

its not really comparable because like you said crosby was drafted onto a shitty team where he immediatly was supposed to carry the workload….this is girouxs first year of carrying the workload….so do i think giroux has the ability to be just as good as crosby…yes i absolutely do because hes showing us exactly how he handles his first year as the load carrier….id say hes playing just as well as crosby did his first year of load carrying, so what happens next year? i mean this debate can also go would crosby have as many points without top 5 pick in malkin and a top 5 pick in fleury really making sure he can not have to worry as much about playing super solid defense…giroux has a 40 year old jagr and hartnell with 2 average goaltenders behind the seem to let in some soft goals on a recognizable basis…so is giroux crosby now? no..is he crosby when crosby had his first year off load carrying yes, would a malkinesque linemate and fleuryesque goalie help him? absolutely

however i think its safe to say that had we drafted Bob Sanguinetti all our prayers wwould be answered

Giroux is a flyer => he rules.

Crosby is a penguin => he sucks.

Therefore G > Crosby

Cake.

Crosby’s got him, and it’s not even close. However, if G breaks 100 pts this year, the gap shortens

While Crosby’s talent is undeniable, there are a few things G has going for him. G’s cap hit is less then half of Cindy’s, while his production is much better then half of his. The team accomplishments are nice, but not really a good argument. It takes a lot more then one person to win a championship, and the whole this-player-is-better-then-that-player-because-he-has-a-ring mentality is screwed up.

Long story short, if asked to take either Crosby or Giroux without any cap considerations, I’d take Crosby. However, if asked to take either Crosby with a 8.7M cap hit or Giroux with a 3.75M cap hit, I’d take Giroux. And it’s not even close.

Crosby has a longer and better track record. Seems silly to compare the both of them when Giroux hasn’t been noticeable in the NHL until 2010 playoffs. Could he become in a league of his own? Sure.

Sorry Travis but two things that bugged me about this article

1) Giroux’s only received league-wide attention this season, now that he’s at the top of the point scoring race. It seems that as far as this debate is concerned, no-one would argue Giroux was better than Crosby in any year before this year, so I’m not sure how relevant it is to look at all of Crosby’s accolades and compare them to the 23rd overall pick in 2006. The debate’s really about whether right now Giroux is a better player than Crosby. Even then it’s not much of a debate sadly.

2) I think this really becomes a debate when you consider cap hit. You could have Giroux + another legitimate first liner for the same cost as Crosby. Which would you take? That’s an interesting debate.

Also another sort of unrelated note on Crosby’s early season amazing play. Facing the 9th toughest competition out of forwards on the Penguins, with a shooting % of over 14% (more than double that which guys like Malkin are getting, the only other guy with a shooting % above 10% on the Penguins is Asham), a PDO of 1073. 4.97 P/60 is freakishly good in anyone’s book (even if 1.24 of that are secondary assists), but Crosby’s play thus far has been unsustainable.

Giroux’s 10.95% save % is not far from his mean from last year, and his PDO is 1005 and until recently he’d been facing the toughest competition (since overtaken by Schenn, JVR, Briere and Jagr). A2/60 only makes up a negligible proportion of his P/60 (0.17 out of 2.76). I’m seeing that as more likely to be sustainable performance.

I pretty much agree with everything Travis said.

However, if we shift the question to that of skill I believe there’s no problem comparing the two. I mean Claude Giroux has made my jaw drop and my pants shorten more times than any Flyer. If you want to say Giroux and Crosby are the two most skilled players in the game, how many people still would have qualms about comparing them?

I think that Giroux is Giroux and Crosby is Crosby

Don’t watch the penguins at all, I could be wrong about this, but as far as I know Crosby is mostly offensive talent. Claude is a very good all around player, good on defense. That being said, I think Crosby is a better scorer, and therefore the better player.

The thing about Crosby is that, yes, he’s a very good player, but would he be such a standout player if he hadn’t gotten superstar treatment from day 0, if Gary Bettman weren’t already engraving his name on the Stanley Cup before he got drafted. The diving and the favoritism taint everything he does, and the one time he played outside of NHL control, in the Olympics, he was a useless dead weight on the Canadian team, easily their worst offensive player and the biggest defensive liability on the team.

Crosby’s the better player, but—and not that it really matters to anyone outside of the female base—G is way hotter. I mean, Crosby’s face looks like a duck’s ass.

I see Claude Giroux as turning into a player like Bob Clarke – excellent on both sides of the puck, high scoring totals, best all-around player on his team, one of the best in the league, and used in all situations, but not consistently among the league leaders in scoring or anything like that.

Assuming he stays healthy, I see Crosby being mentioned among the best of the best – Lemieux, Gretzky, Orr, Richard, Hull, Howe, and Mikita.

I think Giroux is probably more well-rounded than Crosby, but Crosby’s skill and vision are unparalleled in today’s game. It’s not a fair comparison at all.

If you recall, the Penguins trade Crosby to the Flyers for Jagr and Giroux sometime this month.