To commemorate the first NHL meeting between Washington's Alexander Ovechkin and Calgary's Dion Phaneuf, Canadian Press posed the following question:

"If you had to choose between flashy Washington Capitals winger Alexander Ovechkin and the hard-driving Calgary Flames defenceman Dion Phaneuf, who would you pick?"

A tough choice indeed. Ovechkin is on course for a stellar career as arguably the best scoring forward of his generation, while Phaneuf will become the dominant defenseman.

It's a tough call, but Ovechkin has to compete with Sidney Crosby, Evgeny Malkin, Eric Staal and Ilya Kovalchuk for the title of the elite young forward of the league. Phaneuf is in a class by himself, having in his rookie season already established himself as arguably the best all-around defenseman in the game at only 21 years of age.

The league is full of high-quality star forwards, but there are few truly dominant defensemen like Phaneuf. If I were a GM, I'd take Phaneuf over Ovechkin, but I'd do so reluctantly since I'd love to have "Alexander the Great" powering my offensive attack.

Whom would you choose between Ovechkin and Phaneuf, gentle readers? Let me know what you think, and don't sidestep the question like Jeff Friesen did by claiming he'd pick both, and don't try to inject Crosby into this debate. It's between Ovechkin and Phaneuf.