NHL Makes Its 32 All-Star Selections, Major Names Snubbed

Jim Parsons January 7, 2023 in Featured, NHL Tagged Auston Matthews, Leon Draisaitl, Top Story - 2 Minutes

The 2023 All-Star Game rosters were unveiled Thursday evening and like any selection process that requires one player for every team to be part of the first-selection team, there is some controversy and hard feelings among fans who have a hard time understanding how some names were omitted from the group.

The NHL rule is that at least one player from each of the 32 NHL clubs will be chosen first. From there, the rest of the selections will be up to the fans, who can now vote on NHL.com or other social media platforms for two more options. Those players with the most votes will get in, meaning names like Auston Matthews, David Pastrnak, and Leon Draisaitl could still make the team after all.

The 2023 NHL All-Star Game selections are HERE 👀 pic.twitter.com/1zGd9mcCQa
— ESPN (@espn) January 6, 2023

Ken Campbell writes, “Analyzing NHL All-Star Game selections and complaining about snubs is a complete waste of time. From a hockey standpoint, John Tortorella is exactly right about it.” What he means is that the game isn’t viewed in the same way it used to be and for many players, not going doesn’t matter. In fact, there are some who would prefer to sit out and fans don’t get as hyped about the weekend as they used to.

Part of that could be because the best players aren’t always there. Every All-Star game will have omissions that fans don’t agree with, but there are many teams that really shouldn’t have players going at all. Whether that be because those top stars aren’t up in the stats column with some who were left off, or because teams at the bottom of the NHL standings aren’t sending players the fans will get all that excited about.

If you want to vote for your favorites, the fan vote is on now and runs through Jan. 17 at midnight ET. That includes a Twitter component for the first time, beginning Jan. 12, at 12:01 a.m. ET and ending Jan. 14, at 11:59 p.m. ET. Each fan tweet must include the complete hashtag “#NHLAllStarVote” followed by a player’s full name or a player’s Twitter handle in order to count.

The NHL All-Star Game is at 3 p.m. ET on Feb. 4 at FLA LIVE Arena in Sunrise, home of the Florida Panthers. The skills competition will be Feb. 3 at 7 p.m. ET. ESPN will broadcast the skills competition and ABC the main game.