Sportsnet is reporting that the NHL has named the first 16 selections from the Western Conference who will appear in the NHL All-Star Game that will take place February 3rd in Toronto.
The game will be held in Canada for the first time since 2012, when it was held in Ottawa. Toronto hasn’t hosted the game since 2000 and this year will be the first time that the NHL uses a four-team, three-on-three format in combination with the fantasy draft format that was used from 2011-2015. The league will name four captains, one for each team, who will take part in a draft to select their teams on February 1st.
The initial players named from the Western Conference are as follows:
Central Division
Arizona: LW Clayton Keller (4th appearance)
Chicago: C Connor Bedard (1st appearance)
Colorado: C Nathan MacKinnon (3rd appearance)
Dallas: G Jake Oettinger (1st appearance)
Minnesota: LW Kirill Kaprizov (3rd appearance)
Nashville: C Filip Forsberg (1st appearance)
St. Louis: C Robert Thomas (1st appearance)
Winnipeg: G Connor Hellebuyck (3rd appearance)
Pacific Division
Anaheim: LW Frank Vatrano (1st appearance)
Calgary: C Elias Lindholm (1st appearance)
Edmonton: C Connor McDavid (7th appearance)
Los Angeles: G Cam Talbot (1st appearance)
San Jose: C Tomas Hertl (1st appearance)
Seattle: RW Oliver Bjorkstrand (1st appearance)
Vancouver: D Quinn Hughes (1st appearance)
Vegas: C Jack Eichel (1st appearance)
The initial announcements of 32 players (one player to represent each team) tonight will be followed by the naming of the final 12 all-stars in the coming weeks. Those 12 players will be decided by a fan vote on NHL.com as well as several of the NHL’s social media platforms.
Fans should do the unnecessary vote again and get a 13th fw or 7th dman in. Hell vote in Samsonov or Campbell.
I voted for James Hamblin! Love the blue collar guys and he’s got a sneaky good set of hands! let’s get him in y’all!!
I am surprised to know Forsberg has never made the All Star team!
this is his 2nd one. they were wrong
That makes sense.
Claps to Frank “The Tank” Vatrano
I’m stoked he made it too!
While Clayton Keller underrated on a league wide basis and undoubtedly a great player, he is not a 4 time all star anywhere but in Arizona
That one kind of surprised me. Someone has to have been 1st time worthy of consideration the past 3 years. No doubting his talent, but just to get someone in there for their first time? No? Vehlmeka or however it’s spelt?
Vejmelka has a 3.01GAA and a .903 sv%
I said the past 3 years. Not just this year.
Well its supposed to be about this season, but lets go with the 3 years.
Last season Vejmelka had an .899% and a -8.1 GSAA.
The year before that it was .898% and -14.8 GSAA.
Career numbers of .899 sv% and 22.3 more goals given up than average (which is a team-neutral statistic). So the answer is no, he doesnt deserve to go based on his 3 seasons of work.
And Keller has 180 points in his last 186 games played in the same timeframe. He deserves to go.
It’s a good case study in how lacking the NHL is in true stars at the moment. Other than McDavid and MacKinnon I don’t think your average hockey fan would really call anyone here a true star.
This is also just the western conference. Crosby and Matthews are definitely in that conversation
Eichel is a stud and Forsberg/Hughes are absolutely stars.
Plus Oettinger and Hellebuyck are probably two of the top-five goalies in the NHL.
McDavid and Mackinnon could be called “superstars” if you’re trying to make a delineation, I suppose. But there have always been few NHL players that are truly household names.