Our NHL player poll is back, and it’s bigger and better than a year ago.



The Athletic’s hockey reporters spent the past couple months polling players around the league to get answers to our most pressing NHL questions. When all was said and done, we spoke to players from all 31 teams and nearly 400 players in total — 392 to be exact. That’s more than half the entire league.



Before we get to the answers, note these results are not entirely scientific. Every player was granted anonymity but many still declined to answer some of the questions, were indifferent or just didn’t have an answer.



This piece isn’t the end of the player poll fun either. Over the next week or so, many of our local markets will have their own team-specific polls, so keep an eye out for those.



Now let’s get to the results.



1. Who is the best player in the game?



Last year, Sidney Crosby was the winner with 48 percent of...