The 2015 NHL All-Star Game features the same draft format we’ve seen the last two editions of the showcase. This year, captains Jonathan Toews and Nick Foligno will divvy up the players to form two squads. It’s a fun format that began in 2011 and the live, televised fantasy draft adds an element that the basic East vs. West or North America vs. The World games didn’t have.
PROGRAMMING NOTE: Watch the 2015 NHL All-Star Fantasy Draft Friday on Sportsnet at 8 p.m. EST
As we’ve seen in the past, the NHL likes to switch things up at the All-Star Game every few years, so with that in mind here are some other formats the NHL should consider using in the future to make things more exciting.
Righties vs. Lefties
According to a Boston Globe article from a few months back, somewhere between 60-65 percent of hockey sticks sold worldwide are left-handed and the makeup of the NHL is reflective of that. There is approximately a 60-40 split between left-handed and right-handed players in the NHL
You could definitely compile two competitive rosters under this scenario and anyone who says you can’t put together an effective team with everyone shooting the same way, just look at the Detroit Red Wings: currently second in the Atlantic Division and they’ve got just one right-handed player in Luke Glendening.
This would add an interesting wrinkle to the game and it would be easy for fans to choose which team to cheer for. If you shoot right, you cheer for Team Righty. If you shoot left, you cheer for Team Lefty. It would be difficult for the righties to find goalies – Steve Mason is really the only notable goalie who catches right – but they’d probably just split six goalies up randomly between the two teams.
Here’s what the potential starting lineups could look like under this format.
Team Righty
Alex Ovechkin – Ryan Getzlaf – Steven Stamkos
P.K. Subban – Shea Weber
Steve Mason
Team Lefty
Rick Nash – Sidney Crosby – Patrick Kane
Mark Giordano – Duncan Keith
Carey Price
Road hockey style
Picking teams in a draft style is kind of cool, but when it gets down to the last few players it gets a bit depressing. So, just prior to warm-ups, every player throws his stick into a big pile at centre ice like they were kids on a street or pond. The NHL could designate two team captains or, better yet, bring in a special celebrity guest – a ceremonial stick thrower if you will – to randomly divide the one big pile into two piles. Then, the players would retrieve their sticks put on the correct colour jersey and finish the warm-up. Because it’s so spur-of-the-moment, the line combinations could get interesting. One team might have mostly centres, some defencemen might have to play forward and visa versa. Things could get quite interesting.
Veterans vs. Young Guns
Elliotte Friedman recently suggested getting all the best players aged 27 and up and pinning them against the youth of the league. This format would still allow for Crosby and Ovechkin to play on the same line and teammate vs. teammate situations would arise, while also increasing exposure for the next generation of stars. Who wouldn’t want to see a MacKinnon-McDavid-Stamkos line go up against a Jagr-Malkin-Perry trio?
Gigantic nets
Let’s be honest, fans don’t tune into the NHL All-Star Game to marvel at goalies making sound positional saves and displaying excellent rebound control. They want to see goals. Like, a lot of goals. So why not make it as difficult on the goalies as possible? NHL nets are six feet wide and four feet tall. The NHL could bring in a couple custom nets eight feet wide and five feet tall. That would be a whole pile of fun for everyone who isn’t a goalie. It wouldn’t even matter how you split up the teams. A 21-19 final score is far more appealing than 11-9, no?
A “back in the day” game
The All-Star Game is a spectacle to begin with so why not take things to another level? Split the teams up into East vs. West or something simple, but have the players dress up as if the game was being played “back in the day.” Make the players wear Cooperalls and mullet wigs and see how they would do using wooden sticks with no curves. All-Star weekend has a bit of a nostalgic feel to it anyways, so give the game a complete vintage makeover.