The NHL will once again tweak its All-Star Game format by bringing back the player draft, stretching the festivities across three days, and prominently featuring players from the newly-formed PWHL, the league announced on Monday.
All-Star captains have not selected their teammates since 2015; this time, celebrities will be on hand to help them pick their team from a pool of the game’s brightest stars.
The Tim Hortons NHL All-Star Player Draft will take place on Feb. 1 from the Scotiabank Arena in Toronto as part of the NHL’s inaugural “All-Star Thursday.” Four league-selected captains will choose their All-Star lineups for a 3-on-3 tournament, which will wrap up the weekend on Saturday, Feb. 3.
All-Star Thursday will also feature 3-on-3 hockey from the players of the PWHL, a newly formed women’s hockey league featuring stars like Hilary Knight and Taylor Heise. The PWHL does not begin play until January and will get the opportunity to showcase the best the women’s game has to offer early in its inaugural season.
After Thursday’s draft, PWHL showdown, and a ceremony from the NHL Alumni Association honoring its Man of the Year (as well as the 1967 Stanley Cup Champion Toronto Maple Leafs), Friday’s All-Star Skills Competition and the 3-on-3 tournament will round out the weekend.
The latest shakeup of the NHL’s All-Star Weekend comes after a disjointed 2023 edition from South Florida rife with skits, bizarre Miami Vice allusions, and plenty of Roberto Luongo. If Monday’s announcement is anything to go on, the league is bringing out the big guns to ensure Toronto’s first All-Star Weekend since 2000 goes more smoothly.
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