The NHL will host All-Star events this weekend in Las Vegas. With the league not participating in the 2022 Winger Olympics in Beijing, this is the only time this season where the league’s best will be on display for the world to see.
Here is everything you need to know about the upcoming 2022 All-Star Weekend.
All-Star player representatives
A fan vote was held to determine captains for each of the NHL’s four divisions. The voted captains were Auston Matthews (Atlantic Division), Alex Ovechkin (Metropolitan Division), Nathan MacKinnon (Central Division), and Connor McDavid (Pacific Division).
However, both Ovechkin and MacKinnon will not take part in the All-Star festivities due to Covid and injury respectively, so Claude Giroux will serve as the Metropolitan captain and Joe Pavelski as the Central captain.
As has been the case for a few years now, each team was required to have one representative in the all-star game. This resulted in quite the list of players omitted from selection. The NHL tries to make up for this by holding a vote to choose one final player for each division as the “last man in”.
Several players originally named to the All-Star rosters were unable to attend and have been replaced.
All-Star coaches were also determined by selecting the head coaches of each division leading team by points percentage through games on January 10th.
Final rosters are as follows:
Atlantic Division
Coach: Andre Brunette
Players: Matthews, Brady Tkachuk (replaced Drake Batherson), Patrice Bergeron, Jonathan Huberdeau, Dylan Larkin, Nick Suzuki, Steven Stamkos (voted last man in), Rasmus Dahlin, Victor Hedman, Jack Campbell, Andrei Vasilevskiy
Metropolitan Division
Coach: Rod Brind’Amour
Players: Giroux (replaced Ovechkin as captain), Sebastian Aho, Tom Wilson (replaced Ovechkin on the roster), Jake Guentzel (replaced Mika Zibanejad who was originally voted last man in), Jack Hughes, Chris Kreider, Evgeny Kuznetsov (replaced Adam Fox), Adam Pelech, Zach Werenski, Frederik Andersen, Tristan Jarry.
Central Division
Coach: Jared Bednar
Players: Kyle Connor, Alex DeBrincat, Kirill Kaprizov, Clayton Keller, Nazem Kadri (voted last man in), Jordan Kyrou, Pavelski (replaced MacKinnon as captain), Cale Makar, Roman Josi (replaced MacKinnon on the roster), Juuse Saros, Cam Talbot
Pacific Division
Coach: Pete DeBoer
Players: McDavid, Leon Draisaitl, Jordan Eberle, Johnny Gaudreau, Adrian Kempe, Timo Meier, Mark Stone, Jonathan Marchessault (added on February 2nd as a “just in case” measure, he does not replace anyone who was initially named to the roster), Troy Terry (voted last man in), Alex Peitrangelo, Thatcher Demko, John Gibson
Schedule of events
Festivities actually kicked off yesterday (February 3rd) with the first day of the 2022 Truly Hard Seltzer NHL Fan Fair™ at the Las Vegas Convention Center. The fan fair continues ever day through Sunday February 6th during the daytime. The fan fair includes the 2022 NHL Mascot Showdown™ presented by Upper Deck on the 3rd, 5th, and 6th. If you’re going to the fan fair in Vegas, more info can be found on the NHL website.
On Friday February 4th, the 2022 NHL All-Star Skills™ Presented by DraftKings Sportsbook will be held in the evening at T-Mobile Arena and on the strip from 4:30pm PST to 7:00pm PST.
On Saturday February 5th, the 2022 Honda NHL® All-Star Game will be held from 12:00pm PST to 3:00pm PST at T-Mobile Arena.
2022 NHL All-Star Skills™ Presented by DraftKings Sportsbook
The skills competition will be slightly different this year with the league adding two new events truly in the theme of Las Vegas. The individual winner of each event will receive $30,000. The events and participants are as follows:
Verizon NHL Fastest Skater™
Players must complete one full rink lap. The player with the shortest time wins the competition. In 2020, Mat Barzal upset McDavid by winning the competition with a time of 13.175 seconds to McDavid’s 13.215 seconds.
Participants: Kreider, Kempe, Connor, Kuznetsov, Kyrou, Larkin, Makar, McDavid
Dunkin’ NHL Save Streak™
Essentially, each goalie is competing to see how many consecutive saves they can make. They will each face shooters from another division, where the divisional captain shoots last and needs to score to end the shootout. If he does not score, everyone gets to shoot again, enabling he goalie to continue increasing their save streak. The final tiebreaker is a sudden death round of goalie goals.
Participants: Campbell, Andrei Vasilevskiy, Andersen, Jarry, Talbot, Saros, Demko, Gibson
Discover NHL Fountain Face-Off™
From NHL.com: “Competition takes place on the iconic Bellagio Fountains. Players will travel by boat to the “rink” and are required to successfully shoot pucks into five targets in the least amount of time. Qualifying players move to the head-to-head final. Fountain spray and the breeze off The Strip will add to the challenge of this unprecedented NHL All-Star Skills™ event.”
Participants: Huberdeau, Giroux, Eberle, Jocelyne Lamoureux-Davidson, Josi, Suzuki, Werenski, Stone
EA SPORTS NHL Hardest Shot™
Each player gets two attempts to take a slap shot into the empty net. The player with the hardest shot wins. Zdeno Chara set the record in 2012 with a 108.8 mph shot. In 2020, Shea Weber won with 106.5 mph.
Participants: Pelech, Meier, Hedman, Wilson
Adidas NHL Breakaway Challenge™
Players each take two shots that will be rated on a scale of 1-10 by a panel of judges. Standard NHL shootout rules do not apply and the player with the highest total score wins.
Goalies: Manon Rhéaume, Wyatt Russell
Participants: Kaprizov, Zegras, Hughes, DeBrincat, Pietrangelo
Las Vegas NHL 21 in ’22™
From NHL.com: “Shutting down part of Las Vegas Boulevard to hang a full deck of oversized cards on a rack puts a new twist on street hockey. 21 in ’22 is a game of chance, strategy, and skill. The object of the game is to achieve a hand of 21 without going bust, in the least number of shots. The player who wins two rounds is crowned Puck Shark.”
Participants: Kadri, Matthews, Pavelski, Stamkos, Tkachuk
Honda NHL Accuracy Shooting™
Each player needs to hit all four destructible Styrofoam targets placed in the for corners of the net. The player that hits all four targets in the fastest time wins the competition.
Participants: Draisaitl, Keller, Dahlin, Aho, Guentzel, Terry, Gaudreau, Bergeron, Marchessault
There will also be four passers that will include Lamoureux-Davidson.
2022 Honda NHL® All-Star Game
The format of the All-Star Game will be as it has been in the previous six years, a 3-on-3 single-elimination tournament between the four divisions.
The winning divisional team will win a $1 million prize pot that will be split evenly amongst the players. It is also expected that there will be a $100,000 team bonus for the players on the winning team, and a $250,000 prize for the most valuable player with a $50,000 bonus.
Prior to the tournament, the Canadian national anthem will be performed by Canadian singer Faouzia and the American national anthem will be performed by Blanco Brown. The second intermission entertainment will be headlined by platinum-selling recording artist Machine Gun Kelly.
The four teams will wear customized NHL branded jerseys during the All-Star Game. They will have their team’s crest on the left shoulder and the All-Star Game logo on the right shoulder.
They have a throwback feel to them, but TWC’s redesign is much better, in our biased opinion.
In its current format, the Pacific and Metropolitan divisions have alternated tournament wins. The Pacific won in 2016, 2018, and 2020; and the Metropolitan won in 2017 and 2019. The pattern suggests the Metropolitan will win in 2022, but the Atlantic is favoured in the East and Pacific favoured in the West according to BetUS.
You can watch the skills competition on ABC and the all-star game on ESPN in the USA, both events on Sportsnet in Canada in English, and both events on TVASports in Canada in French.
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