Over the past eight weeks, Thomas Drance and Harman Dayal – your intrepid hockey reporters at The Athletic Vancouver – contributed to The Athletic’s annual NHL Player Poll.



In all, we spoke to 17 Canucks players at length about a variety of pressing league topics. Players were granted anonymity – something they’d occasionally check on – and they were uncommonly thoughtful with their responses. Often players completed the survey with a teammate, calling out suggestions and bashing each other’s answers. “That was fun, actually,” one Canucks forward said when the survey was complete.



The full survey took a lot of time to complete but it was mostly a good time putting it together.



And then, once we’d finished with the ‘serious business’ of asking a player which referees they can’t stand and which fellow NHL player they think is underrated, we asked some lighter, sillier,...