Three ways to improve the NHL All-Star Weekend

I know what you’re going to say. Who cares, right? It’s an All-Star Game, it’s meant for kids, not for the hardcore hockey fans. Why should we be worried about how to improve it?

This season’s iteration in Toronto felt like a step in the right direction for the first time in almost a decade, particularly with the revamped Skills Competition, and even the game itself was entertaining. Now that it feels like we’re so close to an actually presentable product, there’s no better time to be picky and improve it. We’re never going to recapture the magic of the infamous John Scott All-Star weekend, but we can certainly try.

So what are some ways to upgrade the experience? Consider these ideas.

Don’t pair teammates together or let players select teammates at the draft

When the league announced that they would be bringing back the draft to All-Star weekend, I was very excited. The draft was always one of the more entertaining aspects of previous weekends, giving players a chance to show their personalities and have fun, as well as give us the opportunity to watch some unique player combinations that we wouldn’t normally see.

And then the NHL announced the team captains and assistant captains. Connor McDavid with Leon Draisaitl, Nathan MacKinnon with Cale Makar and Auston Matthews with Morgan Rielly. Boooooooring. If I wanted to watch those players play together, I’d watch the Edmonton Oilers, Colorado Avalanche and Toronto Maple Leafs. Because, you know, they already play together on those teams. They at least had the right idea with the Hughes brothers, but Jack Hughes’ injury somehow managed to ruin that.

Then it got even worse at the draft. The Leafs pair immediately took William Nylander and Mitch Marner. The other four Vancouver Canucks (not including the recently acquired Elias Lindholm) basically weren’t allowed to be picked by anyone but team Hughes, and they also grabbed Jack’s Devils teammate Jesper Bratt. The Avs duo apparently told other teams to not pick Sidney Crosby so he could play with MacKinnon, and then right after they took their teammate Alexandar Georgiev. At least McDavid and Draisaitl didn’t have any other Oilers to choose from.

But where’s the fun in watching teammates play together again? No, we want to see them play against each other and create fun little rivalries for the weekend, and watch other superstars we wouldn’t normally see together, like McDavid and Makar or Matthews and Draisaitl.

That’s why my first suggestion is to put in a rule to not let teammates play together this weekend. With four different teams, it should be mostly avoidable outside of the fact that there were six total Canucks at the event. That way there’s an extra level of fun to it, and we don’t have to see line combinations that we’ve already watched for 40-50 games so far this season during the one occasion where we can see them play with other players around the league. Finally seeing prime McDavid and Matthews together feels like a longshot, but we can still do much better than what we got last weekend. If there’s anything that should be implemented in the future, it’s this.

Give some newcomers a chance to shine

While there was a lot of good to come out of last weekend’s All-Star event, one of the biggest storylines wasn’t exactly a positive one, as Nikita Kucherov caught some flak for his lack of effort during the Skills Competition. Whether he actually just didn’t want to be there, he was committing to a poorly received joke, legitimately sucked early on and then gave up, or he had a bit too much fun the night prior, it wasn’t exactly the best look for the league.

With that in mind, it might be the best idea to not always push the top players at the forefront of the weekend. After all, some of these players end up there every year instead of getting an opportunity to take an actual vacation during their time off, and I don’t blame them for getting a bit tired of coming out every year.

In terms of the Skills Competition, maybe try and see if the player actually wants to participate. If Kucherov really didn’t, maybe you consider some of the other players invited to the weekend. Look at Mat Barzal. He was a last minute addition to the Skills Competition and he wanted to prove himself against the league’s best, and ended up at the final event! Wouldn’t it be more entertaining to lean on guys like that on top of the superstars that actually want to be there?

And they also will probably get more interest from the players if they aren’t forced to come there every year. Again, I get that you want to have the league’s leading scorer there, but if Kucherov really doesn’t want to be there, isn’t it better to give it to someone else on the team like Brayden Point, who has only been to one prior event when it was in Tampa Bay and may actually be invested in it? Maybe have the selection for each team be picked by the players on that team, someone that they think has earned it this year.

This is a tricky one to navigate because at the end of the day, you want your most marketable players there. It’s why people make fun of the fact that Nick Suzuki keeps getting named to these events, but you also don’t want to make your players get sick of playing at these events. Perhaps having the next couple years away from the event while we have the Four Nations Tournament in 2025 and the Olympics in 2026 may help in that regard, albeit the NHL expects to have an All-Star Game in 2026 prior to the Winter Games.

Incorporate the celebrities/women players into the events more

With women’s hockey starting to see a bigger surge in popularity now that they finally have a collaborative league that has financial backing and features the sport’s best players, it’s time to see them get involved a bit more in the event down the road. They did get a 3-on-3 showcase in Toronto this year, and Sarah Nurse and Blayre Turnbull helped out at the Skills Competition, but considering that the sport might be even bigger in 2-3 years time when we’re set to have the next All-Star Weekend, I’d love to see them be included even more.

So why not use this weekend as their own All-Star weekend event as well? Obviously the PWHL isn’t too far into their season, so it doesn’t make complete logistical sense to have their All-Star event at that point of the season. But, wouldn’t be cool to have a bunch of their players join the weekend, be part of the draft pool for each team, and then compete alongside NHL players at the skills competition and the game?

Going off one of my previous points about having cool new player combinations, getting a chance to see Marie-Philip Poulin set up Sidney Crosby or Taylor Heise and Auston Matthews having a goal-scoring duel would be something that we couldn’t see anywhere else. Sure, you may have the concern of the men showing up the women or not even trying so that they make the women look better, but we have seen the women outperform the men at some events in the past, like Brianna Decker putting up the best time in the premier passer skill at the 2019 All-Star Skills Competition.

And to add an extra layer to this: why not include the celebrity captains? What better way to show off how talented these NHL players are than by putting an ordinary person (at least in terms of athleticism) next to them for comparison?

The four celebs could have their own little skills competition, as well as join the All-Star Game and play alongside the players. It’s not like they’re trying anyways. Just imagine this year how much fun Justin Bieber would have probably enjoyed playing with his buddy Matthews (he already put skates on for the anthem), or some of the players having fun with Will Arnett or Michael Buble and try to set them up for a goal, while the goalies tried their hardest to not let that happen.

The NHL sort of tried this in Los Angeles in 2017 with the Celebrity Shootout with celebrities (including the Biebs) and NHL alumni, but it wasn’t quite the hit, so this could be a fun way to revamp that aspect. Of course, this one might be trickier since the celebrities probably don’t want to get hurt in the midst of filming something or being on a world tour, but I’m sure at least some of them would sign up for it.

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