The National Hockey League (NHL) announced on Thursday the identities of the first players who will take part in the next All-Star Game.
On the Montreal Canadiens side, Nick Suzuki is the lucky one. The captain of the Montreal team will represent his team for the third consecutive year.
This year too, Suzuki takes first place in the Canadian rankings.
David Pastrnak (Boston), Rasmus Dahlin (Buffalo), Alex DeBrincat (Detroit), Sam Reinhart (Florida), Brady Tkachuk (Ottawa), Nikita Kucherov (Tampa Bay) and Auston Matthews (Toronto) are the other players selected for the Teams were selected from the Atlantic section.
As for the Metropolitan section, Sidney Crosby received an invitation to participate in the All-Star Game for the tenth time in his career.
The Pittsburgh Penguins captain will be joined by Sebastian Aho (Carolina), Boone Jenner (Columbus), Jack Hughes (New Jersey), Mathew Barzal (Islanders NY), Igor Shesterkin (Rangers NY), Travis Konecny (Philadelphia) and Tom Wilson (Washington).
In the West
After announcing the Eastern Association representatives for the next All-Star Game, the NHL announced the identities of the invited players playing in the West earlier in the evening.
In the central area, elected officials are Clayton Keller (Arizona), Connor Bedard (Chicago), Nathan MacKinnon (Colorado), Jake Oettinger (Dallas), Kirill Kaprizov (Minnesota), Filip Forsberg (Nashville), Robert Thomas (St. Louis) and Connor Hellebuyck (Winnipeg).
In the Pacific part, the guests are Frank Vatrano (Anaheim), Elias Lindholm (Calgary), Connor McDavid (Edmonton), Cam Talbot (Los Angeles), Tomas Hertl (San Jose), Oliver Bjorkstrand (Seattle), Quinn Hughes (Vancouver). ) and Jack Eichel (Las Vegas)
Twelve more skaters
A public vote on the NHL's official website and its social networks will begin soon to select the final 12 players (eight skaters, four goaltenders) who will be invited to the event. A fan vote will take place again from January 13th to 18th, during which four participants will be selected for the skills competition, which will be presented in a new version this year.
The return of the “draft”
The four most popular players will be named captains and will have the opportunity to select their respective teams through a draft system that will take place on Thursday. As a reminder, this formula was also used in 2011, 2012 and 2015.
The 2024 NHL All-Star Game will be presented the weekend of February 1-3 at the Scotiabank Arena in Toronto.