As part of the festivities at the 2024 NHL All-Star Weekend, the league has brought back the player draft!
The four teams — Team Matthews (captain Auston Matthews and assistant Morgan Rielly), Team McDavid (Connor McDavid, Leon Draisaitl), Team MacKinnon (Nathan MacKinnon, Cale Makar) and Team Hughes (co-captained by Quinn Hughes and Jack Hughes, assistant captain Elias Pettersson) — will select the remainder of their teams, playground style, on Thursday night (6 p.m. ET, ESPN2 and ESPN+).
For a preview of how the process could go, we assigned an ESPN reporter to each team for our first-ever NHL All-Star mock draft.
Who went first? Who went last? And which of their teams looks the strongest headed into Saturday’s All-Star Game? Read on.
Team Matthews
Drafted by: Kristen Shilton
Captain: Auston Matthews | Asst. captain: Morgan Rielly
Team Matthews
Why my team will win: Let’s be honest, the pure skill level of this group is unmatched. It’s just top-tier, high-scoring wingers and some of the best centers in the game — who also happen to be playing lights out right now.
These players will also capitalize on their familiarity by having Auston Matthews, William Nylander, Morgan Rielly and Mitchell Marner all together on the ice (in various combinations), torturing their peers just like they’ve been doing the past seven seasons in Toronto. Plus, we’ve got the best goalie in the game right now — Vancouver’s Thatcher Demko — backed up by one of the rising stars at the position in Jake Oettinger (for whom even a “down” season is better than most). Overall, it’s just a good mix.
Editor’s Picks
2 Related
My biggest concerns: Is there too much talent? Too many puck hogs? Too many guys who will either want to show off themselves or become too deferential to their teammates?
My goal was to take the best players who fell to me at each position. Every skater can make plays and put pucks in the net, but if there is any call for defensive efforts, well, that won’t be our bread and butter….
Source link : https://www.espn.com/nhl/insider/story/_/id/39421353/nhl-all-star-game-draft-mock-predictions-players-projections
Author : ESPN staff
Publish date : 2024-02-01 11:26:01
Copyright for syndicated content belongs to the linked Source.
