The NHL All-Star Weekend will be taking place in a couple of weeks from now in the city of Las Vegas, Nevada. There have been several complaints about the 3 on 3 format with divisional teams. Some of the players are right that not every single team should have an all-star representative.
Some teams just flat out stink and they don’t even deserve all-stars. All-Stars should be celebrated and the ones that should be showing up are the people who are either the face of their respective hockey teams or the league or who are having great years. The fact that teams like the Philadelphia Flyers, the Seattle Kraken, the Arizona Coyotes, and other bottom feeders are sending people is just wrong.
The NHL should just go back to the best players from the Eastern Conference vs the best players from the Western Conference. If that was the case and the NHL should go back to it, what would both teams look like?
Eastern Conference:
Head Coach: Rod Brind’Amour (CAR)
Forwards: Steven Stamkos (TB), Auston Matthews (TOR), Sebastian Aho (CAR), Evgeny Kuznetsov (WSH), Jake Guentzel (PIT), Alex Ovechkin (WSH), Brad Marchand (BOS), Artemi Panarin (NYR), Chris Kreider (NYR), Jonathan Huberdeau (FLA), Aleksander Barkov (FLA), and Sidney Crosby (PIT).
Defenseman: Victor Hedman (TB), Adam Fox (NYR), Aaron Ekbald (FLA), Kris Letang (PIT), John Carlson (WSH), and Morgan Reilly (TOR).
Goalies: Igor Shesterkin (NYR), Tristan Jarry (PIT), and Andrei Vasilevskiy (TB).
Teams that didn’t have an all-star game representative: Columbus Blue Jackets, New Jersey Devils, Philadelphia Flyers, New York Islanders, Buffalo Sabres, Detroit Red Wings, Ottawa Senators, and Montreal Canadiens.
Western Conference:
Head Coach: John Hynes (NSH)
Forwards: Leon Draisaitl (EDM), Connor McDavid (EDM), Nathan MacKinnon (COL), Nazem Kadri (COL), Mikko Rantanen (COL), Timo Meier (SJS), Kirill Kaprizov (MIN), Johnny Gaudreau (CGY), Jordan Kyrou (STL), J.T. Miller (VAN), Gabriel Landeskog (COL), and Kyle Connor (WPG).
Defenseman: Roman Josi (NSH), Cale Makar (COL), Quinn Hughes (VAN), Brent Burns (SJS), Alex Pietrangelo (VGK), and Shea Theodore (VGK).
Goalies: Jacob Markstrom (CGY), Juuse Saros (NSH), and John Gibson (ANA).
Teams that didn’t have an all-star representative: Dallas Stars, Chicago Blackhawks, Arizona Coyotes, Los Angeles Kings, and Seattle Kraken.
This is what the NHL All-Star Game rosters should look like. It looks so much better than having a bunch of “all-star scrubs from each division that don’t even belong on it.” Also, do I have any snubs? If I do, comment below because I am sure I do.
-Glenn Kaplan, 12oz Sports Contributor, Live Monday’s at 3 p.m. ET & Thursday at 11 a.m. ET on 12oz Sports
Photo Credit: Twitter @penguins
