Each NHL team gets one representative for the NHL all-star game, and there’s an almost-sure chance Toronto’s will be a rookie.
First-year players have led the way for the Maple Leafs in 2016-17, and Auston Matthews has been the best of the bunch with a team-high 21 goals and 35 points entering Saturday’s action.
There’s been some thought that Leafs GM Lou Lamoriello won’t allow his rookies to participate in the 2017 All-Star Game in Los Angeles as a means of shielding them from the public eye, though Sportsnet’s Hockey Night in Canada panel tampered those concerns on Saturday’s Headlines.
“As one source said, ‘Look. Everybody said no bonuses when [Lamoriello] came to Toronto? Mitch Marner got his bonuses, or half of them, and Auston Matthews got all of them,'” said Elliotte Friedman. “So I think what the reaction is, I would expect to see Matthews there, I just think that there was some question about whether or not they would be made available and the Leafs are like, ‘We’re not dignifying this with a response.'”
Lamoriello’s attempts to protect his young stars from the potentially draining demands of playing in Toronto are admirable, if a bit extraneous, though it does not appear as though the GM would actually go as far as to prevent a player from playing in such a marquee event.
“This is bigger than car deals or a local endorsement here, especially when you factor in the [centennial celebrations],” said Nick Kypreos. “Here’s the bottom line: Auston Matthews deserves to be an all-star, the fans deserve to see him, and this is much bigger – as I said – than something local.
“To Elliotte’s point, he has to go.”
