At 35 years old, Vegas Golden Knights goalie Marc-Andre Fleury is still considered one of the crease patrolers in the NHL among his peers.
Fleury placed third in the ‘best goalie’ category in the annual NHL Players Association Player Poll that released Tuesday. Fleury received 8.93 percent of the votes, behind Montreal Canadiens netminder Carey Price (41.55 percent) and Tampa Bay Lightning goaltender Andrei Vasilevskiy (17.09).
Florida Panthers goalie Sergei Bobrovsky received 5.63 percent of votes conducted by 600 NHL players.
Golden Knights forward Ryan Reaves placed third (11.05 percent) as the league’s best trash talker, behind Boston’s Brad Marchand (25.87) and Kings defenseman Drew Doughty (13.37). The top three did not change from last year, but Reaves received almost six percent more votes in 2020.
On the other side of the spectrum, Golden Knights forward Nick Cousins was considered one of the worst trash talkers, placing fourth at 5.61 percent behind Marchand, Doughty and Devils defenseman P.K. Subban.
The Golden Knights were heavily mentioned in the ‘arenas and teams’ category, taking second place of best visitors locker room at 26.47 percent. The Edmonton Oilers received 38.01 percent as having the best road team’s dressing rooms. Vegas tied with the Toronto Maple Leafs for the second best jersey (6.83 percent), but the Chicago Blackhawks led with a whopping 28.25 percent.
T-Mobile Arena is considered the fourth-best ice in the NHL, but according to the players, it’s the best ice in the United States. Vegas’ rink trailed Bell Centre (31.75), Rogers Place (16.75) and Bell MTS Place (11 percent) for the top honors.
Vegas forward Mark Stone also received love for his golf game, being considered one of the best golfers at 3.81 percent. Dallas Stars center Joe Pavelski ran away with that honor.
And for the second year in a row, Chance was not considered one of the best mascots in the NHL. The Gila Monster will surely not like such blasphemy.