Worry about concussions varies greatly among NHL players, but the majority of players who participated in a USA TODAY Sports survey had moderate to strong concerns about them.

In a survey of 29 top players at the Sept. 6-7 NHL Media Tour in Chicago, players were asked to rate their level of concern about concussions from zero to 10. Twenty-one said their concern was in the 5-to-10 range.

The most popular answer was 6. Seven players rated their concern as a 6. Four rated it a 7 and three were at 8. One player gave it a 10.

On the other end, one player said he had zero concern about concussions and another said he ranked his concern as a 1. Three pegged their concern at 2.

In other survey results:

►The majority of players chose the Capitals or Jets as the teams to beat in 2018-19. Eleven picked the Capitals, while seven chose the Jets. Four picked the Lightning. The Penguins, Predators and Maple Leafs received two votes each. The Blues got one vote.

►The Panthers were the top choice as a sleeper team. They received only five votes. The Blues, Stars and Sabres had four votes each. The Coyotes, Bruins and Avalanche had two votes each.

►Sixteen players believe an expansion team placed in Seattle would be able to duplicate what the Golden Knights accomplished in their first season in Las Vegas.

►Asked to choose among making the ice wider, making the nets bigger or shrinking goalie pads to increase scoring, 17 chose reducing the size of the pads. Five players advocated making the nets bigger and five said wider ice. Two chose not to answer.

►Twenty players said they don’t believe there will be a lockout in 2020-21. The NHLPA and the NHL can each exercise an opt-out in 2019 to end the current collective-bargaining agreement in 2020.

►Fourteen said escrow – in which the league holds a percentage of a player’s pay to ensure owners don’t exceed paying players more than spelled out in the collective-bargaining agreement – was the most important CBA issue to them. Nine listed Olympic participation and five chose hockey-related revenue. One did not answer.

The 29 players polled came from 26 different NHL teams.