For the fourth time in his NHL career, Boston Bruins star winger David Pastrnak is headed to the NHL All-Star game.
Just prior to the Bruins hosting the Pittsburgh Penguins on Thursday night, the NHL announced the Eastern Conference representatives for the 2024 NHL All-Star Game that will be played on Feb. 3 at Scotiabank Arena in Toronto. For a second straight season, Pastrnak will be the Boston Bruins representative for the midseason classic for the NHL. Pastrnak was also on the 2019 and 2020 Eastern Conference teams and was named the MVP of the 2020 All-Star game that was held in St. Louis.
The 27-year-old winger entered NHL action Thursday with 22 goals and 28 assists in 36 games. Pastrnak was tied for sixth in goals, even-strength goals (15) and points (50). He was also tied for 13th in assists, 12th in powerplay goals (7), fifth in powerplay points (22), and 7th in points-per-game (1.39).
David Pastrnak had 323 goals and 344 assists for 667 points with a plus-127 rating in 628 NHL games. He ranks in the top 20 in Bruins’ franchise history in goals (8th), assists (15th), points (11th), and hat tricks (2nd, 15).
Pastrnak is in the first season of an eight-year, $90 million contract that carries a $11.2 million salary cap hit.
The Havirov, Czechia native was originally drafted by the Boston Bruins in the first round (25th overall) of the 2014 NHL Entry Draft.
The NHL will announce the Western Conference representatives on Friday and later will have a fan vote for one player from each team. The likely candidate for the fan vote from the Bruins would be goalie Jeremy Swayman. Swayman entered Thursday night’s game at 11-2-4 with a 2.22 GAA and a .928 save percentage.
If the Boston Bruins maintain the most points in the Eastern Conference by the time the All-Star head coaches are named, Bruins bench boss Jim Montgomery will get the nod for a second straight season.
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