Wasn't this supposed to be the prime of the Crosby-Ovechkin era?

Pittsburgh's Sidney Crosby won the NHL's MVP award at 19 years old in 2007, and Washington's Alex Ovechkin won the next two seasons at 22 and 23. The next decade seemed sure to be remembered for those two players' dominance.

Yet here we are, just a few years later, and there's a debate raging over who the best player in the league is, with neither of them prominently involved.

Crosby, 24, has been out for almost a year with a concussion, sustained in early January, and although reports say he's nearing a return and you have to figure he'll get back to the elite level at some point, how long that takes is anyone's guess.

Ovechkin, 26, meanwhile, has had seriously diminished production over the past two seasons. After averaging 106 points per season over his first five seasons, he scored 85 last season (not bad, but not superstar level) and is on pace for 68 this season. Maybe the worst sign: less confidence from the Caps' coaching staff. Ovechkin was benched in a key late-game situation this season, and his ice time is way down - 18:44 per game for a guy whose previous career low was 21:22.

Many believe the league has figured Ovechkin out, and he hasn't adjusted.

"Defensemen on teams, they start knowing top guys, what they do, and of course you have to adjust ... find a way to maybe do different things," Anaheim's Teemu Selanne told the Washington Times of Ovechkin.

Selanne's career is an interesting model for Ovechkin. His first six seasons were dominant offensively before a mid-career lull (including his time as a Shark), from which he has rebounded, enough to finish eighth in the league with 80 points last season as a 40-year-old.

Ovechkin could bounce back like that. If not, here are some of the players who are ready to take the torch:

Claude Giroux, Flyers: The current best-player debate started with Jaromir Jagr, who knows a thing or two about being the best player in the league, saying of Giroux, his linemate, "I think he's the top - I don't want to say he's the best right now in the league - but he's top three for sure."

"I love to play with him," Jagr told CSN Philly on Monday. "I never thought at the end of my career I was going to play with a guy like that."

Giroux is tied for third in the league with 23 points and tied for fourth with 11 goals, and the wing-turned-center is getting a lot of the credit for the Flyers' spot atop the Eastern Conference despite their trades of first- and second-line centers Mike Richards and Jeff Carter in the offseason.

Steven Stamkos, Lightning: The first overall pick in 2008 seems on his way to another 50-goal, 90-point season. He has become the league's dominant goal scorer; the question is how much credit goes to linemate Martin St. Louis, a guy who was a big part of the pre-Crosby-Ovechkin best-player debate and who has aged extremely well.

Jonathan Toews, Chicago: He'll probably never be more than a 90-point player - in large part because he's so defensively responsible - but he's got that Steve Yzerman/Mark Messier feel, where it seems likely he'll have a fistful of Stanley Cup rings by the end of his career.

Tim Thomas, Boston: Odd to put a 37-year-old goalie on this list, but last season was undeniably his, and he doesn't seem to be slowing down much, with a .927 save percentage and 2.09 goals-against average this season.

Anze Kopitar, Los Angeles: Hard to knock off the puck, killer shot, plays defense, and here's betting this becomes his first 100-point season.

Also considered

Vancouver's Daniel and Henrik Sedin are 100-point threats, but they'll have to stop coming off the ice every time the puck enters the defensive zone to be considered the best in the game. ... Before the season, any list of top players would have included Anaheim's Corey Perry (the reigning MVP) and Ryan Getzlaf (the thug/playmaker who made Perry MVP). But it's hard to give them too much credit when they're being thoroughly outperformed by Selanne. Perry and Getzlaf, and the Ducks, will probably heat up as the season progresses, as usual, but they continue their trend of ugly starts. ... Nashville's Big 3 - goalie Pekka Rinne and defensemen Ryan Suter and Shea Weber - are a dominant force, and if the Predators can keep it together, they have the core of a champion. That'll take some work, though. They took a big step as a franchise by signing Rinne long term, but Suter and Weber are both free agents at season's end.