from Emily Kaplan of ESPN,

Player X is having a hard time. "I never thought I would be doing an interview like this," he says. "But yeah, this season hasn't been easy."

Player X is still on his entry-level NHL contract. He plays for a United States-based team but is from another country and is unsure when he can see his family again. He is renting a condo and admits the decorations are a little sparse. During training camp, he began struggling to fall asleep and noticed himself getting irritated on FaceTime calls with his parents or girlfriend -- sometimes even letting calls go unanswered, which is unusual for him.

Going to the rink and being able to skate always felt awesome, he explains.

"But I started dreading going home, all that time alone," he says. He figured once the season got going, it would get better. It didn't. He thought his team's first road trip would be a distraction. It wasn't.

But Player X isn't the only NHL player dealing with mental health issues during this highly isolating 2020-21 NHL season. His agent first put us in touch with him, saying, "You should really talk to one of my guys. I think his experience is similar to what a lot of guys in the league are going through." Indeed, more than a dozen players interviewed by ESPN over the past six weeks describe experiencing more anxiety than usual and expressed an overwhelming sentiment of loneliness.

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