We've all been witness to the greatness of Pavel Datsyuk's sick moves when he's got the puck on his stick. But is he the best in the entire NHL? AOL hockey writer Adam Gretz appears to think so, as he compiled a list of the best stick-handlers in the NHL today.
↵The list is not ranked in any particular order, but that doesn't mean that Datsyuk wasn't number one on Gretz's mind. Gretz gave Datsyuk a pretty solid endorsement as the league's top dangler:
↵↵If Datsyuk isn't the best puck handler in the league right now, he's no worse than the second best. If there's a more lethal player in the league on a breakaway or in the shootout, I haven't seen him (he's 24-for-50 in his career on the shootout, or 48 percent. The NHL average this past season was just under 32 percent). How deceptive and wily is he with the puck? Just ask Mike Grier. And you have to love watching a guy that has the stones to stand behind the net and flip the puck over it in a playoff game, and then dominate possession for another 15 seconds after that. When Datsyuk has the puck and just a tiny bit of open space, opposing defenses and goalies look like District 5 before Gordan Bombay got his hands on them.
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