The National Hockey League Players’ Association unveiled the results of its 2025-26 NHLPA Player Poll on April 17, putting Sidney Crosby and several of the league’s biggest names in the spotlight as the season heads toward the Stanley Cup Playoffs. The 11th edition of the anonymous survey asked players across all 32 clubs to weigh in on everything from training regimens and rivalries to fashion, golf and where the NHL might land its next franchise.
One of the poll’s questions asked which player would make the best coach after retirement, a nod to the kind of respect that often only shows up when players are judging one another from inside the dressing room. The NHLPA said players from each of the 32 clubs were surveyed during the first half of the season, and it paired the release with four unique T-shirt designs created by 500L to highlight the findings.
The shirts featured Pastrnak, Binnington, Nylander and Keller, giving the poll a visual hook at a time when the league’s attention is already shifting toward the playoffs. The full list of results was posted at NHLPA.com, where the annual survey again served as a snapshot of how players see the game, their rivals and themselves.
That mix of trivia and peer judgment is what has made the player poll endure into its 11th edition. It is light in tone, but the answers carry the weight of a league that still cares deeply about who is fast, who is stylish and who, one day, might be the best behind the bench.
For Crosby, whose name remains one of the most familiar in hockey, the poll release is another reminder that the sport’s biggest figures still help define its culture even when the questions go well beyond goals and assists. With the playoffs drawing closer, the poll lands at the point of the season when every detail around the league starts to feel more alive.
