Crosby captured his first Rocket Richard Trophy in 2009-10 when he had a career-best 51 goals. He joins Alex Ovechkin (4 times), Steven Stamkos, Jarome Iginla and Pavel Bure (all twice) as repeat winners of the award, which was first presented in 1998-99.
This marks the fifth major trophy Crosby has earned over the past 10 months. Last June, he won the Conn Smythe Trophy as the MVP of the playoffs while captaining the Penguins to the second Stanley Cup championship of his career. In September, Crosby was the MVP of the World Cup, leading the tournament in goals (7) and points (10) on the way to helping Canada sweep Team Europe en route to a title.
This season, Crosby finished with 89 points (44G-45A), which tied him with Patrick Kane for second place in the NHL scoring race behind league-leader Connor McDavid of the Edmonton Oilers. That marked the eighth time that Crosby has finished a season in the top-three in NHL scoring, tying Mario Lemieux, Stan Mikita and Phil Esposito for the third-most instances in league history behind only Wayne Gretzky (15 times) and Gordie Howe (12 times).
Crosby's banner year also included being named one of the NHL's 100 Greatest Players at the All-Star Game in Los Angeles as part of the league's Centennial Celebration.
Earlier in his career, Crosby won a pair of Art Ross Trophies, two Hart Trophies as the NHL's MVP and three Ted Lindsay Awards as the league's most outstanding player as voted by the players. He has also won two gold medals at the Olympics and is a member of the Triple Gold Club as a Stanley Cup champion, Olympic gold medalist and gold medalist at the World Championship.
