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Fantasy sports fans, pay attention this Friday to the NHL, as the idea of a fantasy draft will be brought from the realm of fantasy into reality.
For the first time ever, the NHL All-Star Game is breaking away from the traditional East vs. West style of gameplay. Instead, the NHL will select two players to be captains of a team and the two captains will pick the rest of their team from a pool of players selected by fans and the NHL Operations Department.
Sound confusing? It seems to make no sense at first glance, but when it is simplified, it provides what should be a very entertaining and unique all-star weekend. Breaking it down step by step provides a better look at how this weekend will play out.
The first step in the process is the NHL players voting for the two captains who will select each team. The players have voted and the captains were released earlier this month. Eric Staal, captain of the All-Star Game host Carolina Hurricanes, will be in charge of one team, while veteran defenseman Nicklas Lidstrom of the Detroit Red Wings will select the other team.
With the first step out of the way, the NHL Operations Department selected alternate captains to assist the two captains in picking teams. Ryan Kessler of the Vancouver Canucks and Mike Green of the Washington Capitals will be Team Staal’s alternate captains, while Patrick Kane of the Chicago Blackhawks and Martin St. Louis of the Tampa Bay Lightning will be alternate captains for Team Lidstrom.
Surely there is a reader out there wondering why the fans aren’t involved in this process anymore. Rest assured, they are still very much involved. The fans were allowed to vote for the top six all-stars in the entire NHL, and these players were the first six to be placed into the pool of 42 players. The rest of the players were selected by the NHL Operations Department. After selecting the captains and four more alternate captains, the pool of players to be selected for the game is down to 36.
Now that the NHL has selected the captains and alternate captains of each team, the fun will begin Friday at 8 p.m. when each captain will pick his team from the pool of 36 remaining players. The mock draft will be broadcast on Versus and will provide an interesting look at a real life NHL fantasy draft conducted by the NHL players themselves. The only rule for the draft is that each team consists of three goalies, 12 forwards and six defensemen, which is a given considering those are the numbers needed to form a full team.
The team captains are also responsible for selecting which players from a pool of 12 rookies will participate in the SuperSkills Competition. The skills competition will take place Saturday at 7 p.m. and will be broadcast on Versus. The events of the competition will include a speed skating competition, the break-away challenge, a shooting accuracy challenge, a skills relay, and, of course, the fan-favorite hardest shot contest.
The All-Star Game itself will be played Sunday at 8 p.m. and will be broadcast on Versus. It will provide a unique look at players from all across the NHL and may provide some interesting match-ups between players of the same teams and even two brothers, Eric and Marc Staal.
While the new format of the NHL All-Star Game may throw fans and viewers off initially, it seems to be an idea that will provide a great deal of entertainment. It offers fans an inside look into the minds of NHL players and how those players would pick their own fantasy teams, while still allowing the fans to pick some of their favorite players to participate.
The NHL has struck gold with this idea. At the very least, it will be the first time that two fantasy or mock draft teams will ever play a real game, and for fantasy sports players out there, that should be reason enough to tune in and see how it plays out.
Bangor Daily News