NHL announces the 12 players voted into the NHL All-Star Game
By Jim Lynch
The NHL All-Star game is right around the corner. Tonight the NHL finalized the final 12 players that were voted into the game during a fan vote. Up to this point, every team had one player representing their organization, with the first 32 players being announced.
The final 12 players voted into the NHL All-Star Game
Atlantic Division
Auston Matthews, C – Toronto Maple Leafs
David Pastrnak, RW – Boston Bruins
Andrei Vasilevskiy, G – Tampa Bay Lightning
Metropolitan Division
Artemi Panarin, LW – New York Rangers
Adam Fox, D – New York Rangers
Ilya Sorokin, G – New York Islanders
Central Division
Mikko Rantanen, RW – Colorado Avalanche
Nathan MacKinnon, C – Colorado Avalanche
Connor Hellebuyck, G – Winnipeg Jets
Pacific Division
Leon Draisaitl, C – Edmonton Oilers
Bo Horvat, C – Vancouver Canucks
Stuart Skinner, G – Edmonton Oilers
So those are the 12 players added in. I do have to say this is a tough system. With every team getting one player added at the beginning, voting in three players per division does get complicated. There are a lot of snubs, but at the same time, everyone who did get voted in deserves to be there.
Rasmus Dahlin, Martin Necas, Roman Josi and Steven Stamkos are just a few of the names that I think could have also been included. Considering that the Atlantic Division already had Pastrnak and Matthews that needed to get voted in, there was no way that anyone else was going to take those spots.
The NHL All-Star game rosters are not as big as they used to be. Before the introduction of the three-on-three format, teams had more players, which meant more All-Stars. During the 2015 All-Star game, the two lineups were made up of 36 players on each team.
Now different players only played in the skill competition or eventually dropped out due to an injury, but the point being the NHL named 72 All-Stars a while back. This season we only have the 32 players the league already announced and the additional 12 we have now, which makes for only 44 All-Stars.
Considering the league makes sure every team has one player at the event, there are limited spots for actual star players in the league today. While I do think the right players were voted into the All-Star game tonight, I do think some changes need to be made to make this an actual All-Star game.