While anticipation builds for the 4 Nations Face-Off, there’s still speculation about who would have represented the Western Conference’s two divisions if there was a 2025 All-Star Game. So, we thought it’d be cool to conduct this exercise and make up two teams from the Western Conference for the Central and Pacific Divisions.
That said, the lineups you’re about to see below will more-closely resemble the 2023 All-Star Game than 2024. We’ll take at least one player from each team to fill these 11-man rosters, plus a few extras. So, did your favorite player from your favorite team make the list?
Before I reveal the squads, let me share the rules I made for these two lineups:
- No more than three players from any of the 16 teams in the West is on a roster
- Each team must have two goalies and at least one defenseman
- There are no would-be substitutes for injured players
Picking the Central Division
Coach: Scott Arniel, Winnipeg Jets
- Nathan MacKinnon, Colorado Avalanche
- Kyle Connor, Winnipeg Jets
- Cale Makar, Colorado Avalanche
- Mark Scheifele, Winnipeg Jets
- Clayton Keller, Utah Hockey Club
- Kirill Kaprizov, Minnesota Wild
- Filip Forsberg, Nashville Predators
- Matt Duchene, Dallas Stars
- Connor Bedard, Chicago Blackhawks
- Connor Hellebuyck, Winnipeg Jets
- Jordan Binnington, St. Louis Blues
This one was challenging, mainly because of the discrepancy in talent from the best teams in the division to the blandest. That said, I needed to make plenty of omissions, like Juuse Saros, who lost to Jordan Binnington by default here.
But the players you see listed as skaters were the most productive on their teams, and if this were real life, the lineup you see above would likely be loaded with multiple Jets and Avalanche players, especially the Jets.
That said, the Pacific Division was more of a godsend, even if I had a few challenges there as well. Check it out below…
Pacific Division
Coach: Kris Knoblach, Edmonton Oilers
- Leon Draisaitl, Edmonton Oilers
- Connor McDavid, Edmonton Oilers
- Jack Eichel, Vegas Golden Knights
- Quinn Hughes, Vancouver Canucks
- Mikael Granlund, San Jose Sharks
- Anze Kopitar, Los Angeles Kings
- Shea Theodore, Vegas Golden Knights
- Adrian Kempe, Las Angeles Kings
- Troy Terry, Anaheim Ducks
- Dustin Wolf, Calgary Flames
- Joey Daccord, Seattle Kraken
While this one wasn’t as challenging, I did have to move some pieces around to make it work. There were some players, like Leon Draisaitl, Connor McDavid, Jack Eichel, and Quinn Hughes, who I already knew would be on the team.
Others, like Troy Terry and Dustin Wolf, were surprises. What made it even more of a challenge is that neither the Flames, Kraken, Ducks, Kings, nor Sharks had any skater who went above and beyond in production, so the Pacific Division might be the biggest mixed bag of the two teams listed here, and we can even throw in the Eastern Conference rosters for good measure.