No one at this point needs any convincing when it comes to David Pastrnak’s standing as one of the NHL’s best players at his position.
In fact, one could argue the Bruins winger is the very best in the entire sport, and a recent poll of people within the game produced that very consensus. ESPN.com on Tuesday revealed its poll results for the NHL’s best winger, and Pastrnak landed in the No. 1 spot by a relatively considerable margin.
Players, executives and coaches were surveyed for the ESPN poll, with each asked to rank the top players at the position 1 through 10. A vote for No. 1 earned a player 10 points and so on. Pastrnak earned the top spot with 161 points, with six first-place votes and appeared on every ballot. He was 20 clear of No. 2, Tampa Bay sniper Nikita Kucherov.
As noted in the piece, no right winger has scored more goals than Pastrnak over the last five seasons. That’s helped in large part by 41 tallies this season, seven short of a career high with a month and a half to go. The 41 goals are second in the NHL, and Pastrnak has added 36 assists for good measure. His career high of 95 points seems like it could fall, too, if he stays healthy.
And while a lot of Pastrnak’s success to this point is tied in large part to the luxury of riding shotgun with Patrice Bergeron and Brad Marchand, Pastrnak having the best season of his career alongside David Krejci and Pavel Zacha proves he can flourish away from Bergeron and Marchand.
“His one-on-one ability. His shot. This guy is just an elite scorer and can create,” a Western Conference executive told ESPN.com. “For so many years, it was Bergeron and Marchand with him. You are seeing even without those guys, he has the ability to create offense on his own. That is such a unique attribute and a player like that even at his age continues to develop.”
None of this is especially new to anyone who has watched Pastrnak this season and in the past, particularly the Bruins themselves. But it’s clear that Pastrnak is about to break the bank one way or another in the final year of his current contract. Boston has said all along it hopes to find common ground with the 26-year-old on a new deal, but that hasn’t materialized, at least not yet.
Pastrnak wasn’t the only Bruins winger to make the cut, either. Marchand ranked No. 6 on the list.
