Due to the new Collective Bargaining Agreement signed during the lockout season of 2004-05, the NHL does not put on an All-Star Game during seasons in which NHL players play in the Winter Olympics.
This decision is completely understandable for a couple of reasons: Olympic rosters are often comprised of All-Star talent, only separated into countries instead of conferences; additionally, the league is forced to go on a two-week hiatus, thus the season is already compacted before and after the Games so that the end of the regular season is not substantially pushed back; lastly, the Winter Olympics always occurs in mid-February, and the NHL All-Star Game is typically at the end of January, so the timing of the events is relatively similar.
So this season, instead of having a questionably-assembled Skills Competition and a run and gun All-Star Game, fans around the world are treated to the greatest hockey tournament on the planet. Not a bad trade-off for a fan, right? (Right Gary Bettman?!)
In the NBA, writers and fans alike particularly enjoy debating the selections and snubs of their mid-season fanfest. The truth is, they have more to debate about because the NBA rosters only have 12 players per conference, and theoretically do not have any restrictions on how they are comprised (aside from fans voting for the starters).
The NHL doesn?t give way to those kinds of debates. But who?s to say we can?t start? Therefore, I am choosing to put together All-Star rosters for this year, following current NHL rules and trends apart from voted-in starting lineups.
Rules:
1. Every team must have at least one player selected.
2. If a player withdraws due to injury, they do not have to be replaced by someone on their own team, even if that would leave their team with no representatives. (Seems weird, yes, but last season both Detroit All-Stars Pavel Datsyuk and Nicklas Lidstrom withdrew to heal some lingering injuries; neither of their replacements were Red Wings, and thus Detroit had no representative that weekend.)
3. Each conference must have 3 goalies, 6 defense, and 12 forwards (21 total players, for those who are mathematically challenged).
My additional rules:
4. While I will be using current stats in this article (as of the Olympic break), I will be back-dating the rosters to the last week of January, as that is when the All-Star Game usually is.
5. Because I am back-dating the rosters, February injuries to players like Getzlaf (ankle) and Gaborik (leg) will not be taken into account.
Stats listed for goalies will be: (Games, W-L-OTL, GAA, SV%, Shutouts)
Stats listed for skaters will be: (Games, G-A-P, +/-); rankings listed for defensemen indicate their ranking among defensemen, not among all skaters.
Eastern Conference
Atlanta Thrashers: Ilya Kovalchuk-F (55, 32-31-63, +1) 6th in Goals, 21 Power Play Points (PPP)
Boston Bruins: Zdeno Chara-D (60, 5-28-33, +6)
Buffalo Sabres: Ryan Miller-G (52, 30-14-7, 2.16, .930, 5) 2nd in GAA and SV%
Carolina Hurricanes: Eric Staal-F (49, 20-30-50, +2) 20 PPP
Florida Panthers: Tomas Vokoun-G (51, 19-21-10, 2.36, .931, 7) 1st in SV% and Shutouts
Montreal Canadiens: Tomas Plekanec-F (63, 17-43-60, +4) 10th in Assists, 24 PPP
New Jersey Devils: Martin Brodeur-G (58, 34-20-3, 2.32, .915, 7) 1st in Shutouts, 2nd in Wins, 9th in GAA
New York Islanders: Mark Streit-D (62, 8-23-31, -4)
New York Rangers: Marion Gaborik-F (58, 35-34-69, +10) 4th in Goals, 8th in Points, 23 PPP
Ottawa Senators: Daniel Alfredsson-F (52, 17-32-49, +5) 4 Short Handed Points
(SHP)
Philadelphia Flyers: Chris Pronger-D (60, 8-34-42, +22) 5th in Assists, 6th in Points, 21 PPP
Pittsburgh Penguins: Sidney Crosby-F (61, 42-36-78, +9) 1st in Goals, 3rd in Points, 23
PPP
Sergei Gonchar-D (46, 8-29-37, -1) 8th in Points, 21 PPP
Evgeni Malkin-F (55, 21-44-65, -2) 8th in Assists, 23 PPP
Tampa Bay Lightning: Steven Stamkos-F (61, 35-35-70, +4) 4th in Goals, 7th in Points, 1st
in PPP (30)
Martin St. Louis-F (61, 22-49-71, +2) 4th in Assists, 6th in Points, 28 PPP
Toronto Maple Leafs: Tomas Kaberle-D (61, 6-40-46, -10) 3rd in Assists, 3rd in Points, 24
PPP
Washington Capitals: Nicklas Backstrom-F (62, 26-50-76, +32) 3rd in Assists, 4th in
Points, 2nd in PPP (29)
Mike Green-D (57, 14-46-60, +28) 1st in Goals, Assists, Points, 29
PPP
Alexander Ovechkin-F (54, 42-47-89, +43) 1st in Goals, Points, +/,
5th in Assists, 28 PPP
Alexander Semin-F (53, 30-35-65, +25) 8th in Goals, 22 PPP
Injury notes: Zdeno Chara has been battling a serious finger injury all season and would likely choose to rest instead of attend the festivities. Tobias Enstrom (60, 6-36-42, +7) ? who has been better than Chara this year anyways ? would be the injury replacement.
G: Miller, Brodeur, Vokoun
D: Green, Kaberle
Pronger, Gonchar
Enstrom, Streit
F: Ovechkin, Backstrom, Semin
Kovalchuk, Crosby, Gaborik
Staal, Malkin, Stamkos
Alfredsson, Plekanec, St. Louis
Snubs: G ? Tuuka Rask (29, 14-7-4, 2.08, .928, 3); F ? Zach Parise (60, 28-33-61, +24), Jeff Carter (60, 27-25-52, +8), Tim Connolly (60, 14-41-55, +10, 24 PPP)
It?s incredibly difficult leaving Parise off of this list, especially with it leaving the Devils with one representative, but the crop of forwards in the East is incredibly deep this year. The major surprise is Tampa Bay with two, but how do you leave off anyone in the top-10 in scoring? You can?t. You also can?t leave out Semin just because Washington has 4 players; Semin has more goals, assists and points in less games. Any forward with less production than Parise but was still picked, is the only representative from their team.
Western Conference
Anaheim Ducks: Ryan Getzlaf-F (56, 17-44-61, +4) 8th in Assists, 21 PPP
Calgary Flames: Jarome Iginla-F (62, 27-30-57, +4)
Chicago Blackhawks: Patrick Kane-F (61, 25-42-67, +19) 9th in Points, 21 PPP
Duncan Keith-D (61, 11-42-53, +23) 2nd in Goals, Assists, Points, 4 SHP
Colorado Avalanche: Craig Anderson-G (53, 31-16-5, 2.42, .924, 6) 3rd in Shutouts, 5th in Wins. 7th in SV%
Columbus Blue Jackets: Rick Nash-F (63, 28-29-57, -8) 9th in Goals
Dallas Stars: Brad Richards-F (59, 17-49-66, -11) 4th in Assists, 28 PPP
Detroit Red Wings: Nicklas Lidstrom-D (61, 6-29-35, +20)
Edmonton Oilers: Lubomir Visnovsky-D (56, 10-22-32, -3) 7th in Goals, 17 PPP
Los Angeles Kings: Drew Doughty-D (61, 11-34-45, +17) 2nd in Goals, 4th in Points,
5th in Assists, 24 PPP
Anze Kopitar-F (61, 28-36-64, +10) 9th in Goals, 28 PPP
Minnesota Wild: Mikko Koivu-F (61, 16-40-56, -3) 24 PPP
Nashville Predators: Shea Webber-D (59, 11-24-35, +3) 2nd in Goals, 10th in Points, 17
PPP
Phoenix Coyotes: Ilya Bryzgalov-G (54, 32-17-4, 2.30, .920, 4) 4th in Wins, 6th in Shutouts, 8th in GAA, 10th in SV%
San Jose Sharks: Dany Heatley-F (62, 32-34-66, +16) 6th in Goals, 10th in Points, 23 PPP
Patrick Marleau-F (62, 38-26-64, +21) 3rd in Goals, 19 PPP, 3 SHP
Evgeni Nabokov-G (53, 34-9-9, 2.26, .928, 2) 2nd in Wins, 3rd in SV%, 5th in GAA
Joe Thornton-F (62, 16-59-75, +17) 1st in Assists, 5th in Points, 25 PPP, 3 SHP
St. Louis Blues: Erik Johnson-D (60, 6-23-29, 0)
Vancouver Canucks: Daniel Sedin-F (43, 16-38-54, +26)
Henrik Sedin-F (61, 25-55-80, +27) 2nd in Assists, Points, 20 PPP
Injury notes: None.
G: Nabokov, Bryzgalov, Anderson
D: Doughty, Webber
Lidstrom, Keith
Johnson, Visnovsky
F: Marleau, Thornton, Heatley
D. Sedein, H. Sedin, Kane
Nash, Richards, Kopitar
Koivu, Getzlaf, Iginla
Snubs: G ? Roberto Luongo (52, 31-17-2, 2.35, .919, 4), Mikka Kiprusoff (55, 27-19-9, 2.18, .925, 3), Jonathan Quick (55, 35-17-3, 2.53, .907, 2); D ? Dan Boyle (56, 11-34-45, +5); F ? Jonathan Toews (55, 19-30-49, +25), Corey Perry (62, 22-37-59, +3), Paul Stastny (61, 12-42-54, +9), Dustin Penner (61, 24-23-47, +2)
The Eastern squad was significantly more difficult to narrow down because there could be a number of combinations between any of the following players: Iginla, Kiprusoff, Boyle, Nabokov, Penner, Visnovsky, Koivu, Zidlicky, Stastny, Anderson, Luongo. But to me, this was the best way to fit the requirement of each team having one player.
Now I realize that Edmonton doesn?t even deserve to have a player, but rules are rules. And I know that Penner has been their best player, but that would force me to leave someone like Kane, Kopitar or Heatley off of the roster, and all of them have been too good this season to scratch; it?s also impossible not to take all three of the San Jose forwards.
As such, there is no room for Boyle, despite him being one of the top offensive defensemen this year. Of the above teams that have multiple players including a defenseman, both Keith and Doughty have been better all-around than Boyle this season, so I wasn?t taking either of them off to put him on.
The goalies were also very hard to eliminate, but 2 of the 3 chosen are the sole representatives from their teams, and the third (Nabokov) has been statistically better than those not chosen, though it was difficult.
I would be very interested to hear your rosters, so feel free to email them to me. If I get enough feedback, then I can post a results article that tabulated votes for each player. However, you must fit it within the roster rules above; that is the challenging part.
Nick can be reached at nickobergan@hotmail.com or on twitter at @nickobergan
NHL's Woulda-Been All-Star Rosters