The NHL has announced the four rosters for the 2019 All-Star Game today, scheduled to be held on January 26th in San Jose. Earlier today, Alex Ovechkin, who was elected captain of Metropolitan Division squad, told the league that he wouldn’t be attending and will accept the punishment of missing one game either before or after the break. Connor McDavid, Nathan MacKinnon, and Auston Matthews will represent the Pacific, Central and Atlantic respectively, as the other captains. A replacement Metropolitan captain for Ovechkin has yet to be named.
The full rosters are as follows:
Pacific Division
G John Gibson (ANA)
G Marc-Andre Fleury (VGK)
D Erik Karlsson (SJS)
D Brent Burns (SJS)
D Drew Doughty (LAK)
F Connor McDavid (EDM)*
F Johnny Gaudreau (CGY)
F Joe Pavelski (SJS)
F Elias Pettersson (VAN)
F Clayton Keller (ARI)
Central Division
G Pekka Rinne (NSH)
G Devan Dubnyk (MIN)
D Roman Josi (NSH)
D Miro Heiskanen (DAL)
F Nathan MacKinnon (COL)*
F Mikko Rantanen (COL)
F Blake Wheeler (WPG)
F Patrick Kane (CHI)
F Mark Scheifele (WPG)
F Ryan O’Reilly (STL)
Atlantic Division
G Jimmy Howard (DET)
G Carey Price (MTL)
D Keith Yandle (FLA)
D Thomas Chabot (OTT)
F Auston Matthews (TOR)*
F Nikita Kucherov (TBL)
F Steven Stamkos (TBL)
F John Tavares (TOR)
F David Pastrnak (BOS)
F Jack Eichel (BUF)
Metropolitan Division
G Henrik Lundqvist (NYR)
G Braden Holtby (WAS)
D John Carlson (WSH)
D Seth Jones (CBJ)
F Sidney Crosby (PIT)
F Taylor Hall (NJD)
F Mathew Barzal (NYI)
F Claude Giroux (PHI)
F Cam Atkinson (CBJ)
F Sebastian Aho (CAR)
*Denotes team captain
One final skater spot on each roster has yet to be announced, as it will be determined by the “Last Man In” fan ballot, a concept borrowed from Major League Baseball. The format of the current All-Star Game, which requires one representative from each team on these smaller 3-on-tournament rosters, was bound to cause some confusion with the initial selections. Seven top-twenty scorers were not selected – Mitch Marner, Brayden Point, Leon Draisaitl, Sean Monahan, Matthew Tkachuk, Phil Kessel, and Gabriel Landeskog – and several will inevitably remain out of All-Star participation even after the fan ballot additions. Morgan Rielly, the league’s top-scoring defenseman, and Mark Giordano, enjoying an elite season on both sides of the puck, are two surprising omissions on the blue line. Several of the league’s top goalies are also going to miss out, ineligible for the fan ballot, including Ben Bishop, Frederik Andersen, and Andrei Vasilevskiy. The “Last Man In” will be an intriguing new addition to the All-Star process, with nominees to be named shortly, but more than a few notable names will be left out regardless. Meanwhile, the health of players like Price and Chabot for Team Atlantic and Hall for Team Metropolitan will bear watching, as those players may opt to skip the All-Star festivities, opening up more players to selection.
Seth Jones over Kris Letang? No.
Keith Yandle… there has to be other options haha
Pierre luc Dubois????
Agreed, unless people are looking for the “younger more exciting” player but how can you ignore Letang’s skill? It is an all-star team, right?
Love Letang but Reilly is ahead of him this year instead of Jones or if Chabot is injured.
Jimmy Howard??? Really??? WTH!!
Keith Handle??? Has to be some sort of joke!
But the best D man this year is left out in Rielly.
who else does Detroit send? can’t send a forward when the league is already leaving out top 6 offensive players?
People are missing the fact that you have to have at least one player from every team (stupid rule or not). You take out Seth Jones for Kris Letang, that means you have to take out Crosby or another player to squeeze in another player from Columbus. Want to squeeze in Rielly? Ok who do you take out from the Atlantic’s group? In every sport, there’s always going to be a snub for the All-Star Game and it honestly shouldn’t matter as much as some people consider it to be since most players probably don’t care about it unless their contract gives them a bonus for making the team.
From the rosters you can clearly tell that the NHL is choosing name recognition over actual production. Both are deserving but I’d argue that Point deserves to be in the All-Star game over Stamkos, but Stamkos gets the nod because he’s the more well-known player over Point. It also seems weird that the Pacific Division is the only group guaranteed to have at least 3 defensemen (although I guess you could make an argument that Karlsson and Burns are offensively skilled enough to “play forward”). Imo if the league wants to keep this 3-on-3 format, they need to add another spot or two to each division’s roster or just go back to the East vs West setup. They’re leaving out a lot of well-deserving players in favor of name recognition and to keep this shoddy format of an All-Star game.
Carey Price has no business being on an all star roster. His .904 sv% is good for 10th in the Atlantic and 43rd overall.
Send only the top players. If Detroit doesn’t have a top player then they shouldnt take up a spot that belongs to the best players in the league.