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Kristen Shilton, ESPN NHL reporterNov 27, 2023, 07:00 PM ET
CloseKristen Shilton is a national NHL reporter for ESPN.
The NHL All-Star Weekend is returning to its roots — and bringing back an old favorite.
When the showcase lands in Toronto this February, it’ll be as an expanded three-day event with “NHL All-Star Thursday” added ahead of the usual Friday Skills Competition and Saturday All-Star Game. The highlight of its Thursday festivities will be the league’s first All-Star Player Draft in nearly a decade, with four All-Star captains — and their celebrity captain partners — drafting teams for Saturday’s contest live in front of fans at Scotiabank Arena.
Following the draft, which begins at 6 p.m. ET on Thursday, Feb. 1, the NHL will hold a tribute ceremony honoring members of the 1967 Toronto Maple Leafs and then stage a 3-on-3 event with the Professional Women’s Hockey League.
There is also a completely revamped skills format for Friday to come as well.
The NHL had been thinking about refreshing its All-Star Weekend for years. They have held three previous player drafts between 2011 and 2015 but in recent years have iced more traditional division-based tournaments.
This time around, the league’s host city of Toronto provided the perfect backdrop to finally roll out a few changes.
“It’s a hockey-crazed crowd up there that just wants more and more,” said Steve Mayer, the NHL’s Chief Content Officer. “We’d bantered around other ideas and just decided, ‘let’s see whether we can add an extra day.’ We held the player draft years ago and it was good, but we drifted away from it. And over the course of the last few years, we’ve talked about it returning just as an added piece to the weekend. And we have also heard from our players and our fans that, ‘hey, wouldn’t it be interesting if we brought it back?’ We think it just adds to the overall week of activities for All Star, and it’s something that if it works out, it’ll be here to stay.”
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Source link : https://www.espn.com/nhl/story/_/id/38993146/nhl-reinstalls-player-draft-upcoming-all-star-weekend
Author : Kristen Shilton
Publish date : 2023-11-28 00:01:41
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