Last week, The Athletic used its army of beat writers to conduct its first annual player poll, with questions ranging from the best all-around player to the best goalie, from the best road city to the worst fans – but as usual when these types of polls are created, the most interesting answers came from the categories for the most underrated and the most overrated.



Based on answers collected from just under 200 NHL players, the five most underrated players were Aleksander Barkov, Nicklas Backstrom, Brayden Point, Jared Spurgeon and Mark Giordano while the most overrated were P.K. Subban, Patrik Laine, Aaron Ekblad, Dion Phaneuf and Erik Karlsson.



Players know what they’re talking about, they see these guys up close and personal, but not on a day-to-day basis. With a lot of focused energy placed on one’s own team, it’s hard to keep up with league-wide trends and where certain players sit in the collective hierarchy. A player’s perception...