Toronto will host the 2024 NHL All-Star Weekend

For the first time since 2000, Toronto hosted the annual National Hockey League (NHL) All-Star Weekend from February 1-3. This year features celebrity coaches like Justin Bieber and Tate McRae, a revamped skills competition, a player draft and even the first Professional Women's Hockey League (PWHL) showcase.

Star Thursday

The All-Star weekend began on Thursday, February 1 With the first player draft since 2015. In the draft, each of the four teams selected 11 players from the available All-Stars. Tampa Bay Lightning forward Nikita Kucherov was selected first The Hughes team, led by Vancouver Canucks defenseman Quinn Hughes and his brother, New Jersey Devils forward Jack Hughes. Meanwhile, Nathan McKinnon and Sidney Crosby, both natives of Coal Harbour, NS, have reunited. Thomas Gertl, Oliver Bjorkstrand, Frank Vatrano and Vincent Trocheck, the final four players in the draft, were presented with an envelope by Hall of Famer Dave Keon along with their teams for Saturday's game.

On February 1, the PWHL All-Star Showcase was held, where the best players met in a 3-on-3 game. During the game, New York's PWHL defenseman Ella Shelton scored the first goal of the event, as was the first PWHL game between Toronto and New York. However, the game belonged to Savannah Harmon as she scored a hat trick and accounted for every one of her team's goals to help her team win 5-3.

“It gets better every year,” Kendall Coyne Schofield, a PWHL forward from Minnesota, said of being on the same stage as the NHL. Coyne Schofield made history in 2019 when she became the first woman to compete in the NHL All-Star Skills Competition.

“Here we are today presenting the league we've always dreamed of… It was surreal to walk into this full house,” Coyne Schofield said at a news conference.

Plus, All-Star Thursday gave us a potential buzzer for the weekend. Michael Bublé had some fun with the media after the player's draft, as the five-time Grammy winner joked that he microdosed on mushrooms during the event. Bublé served as the famous captain of the Hughes team.

“My friend told me it was a microdose of mushrooms, and he lied,” Bublé said. “I thought I was in Faces of glory I was there most of the time.”

Skill Challenge and Star Game

On Friday, the skills competition was held in an updated format. Usually, each event involves certain players. This year, the NHL selected ten players and then held a fan vote to determine the remaining 12 players to participate. Each participant earns points based on their performance in each event, and the top eight advance to the next round. From there, the top six will advance to the finals, where they will face off in an obstacle course.

In the end, Connor McDavid won the skills competition, scoring twenty-five total points and placing first in fastest skate, marksmanship, pole vault, and hurdles. McDavid also received a $1 million prize.

The actual All-Star games took place on Saturday. In the first game, McDavid's team defeated McKinnon's team 4-3, thanks to Boston Bruins forward David Pastrnak's goal against his teammate Jeremy Swayman.

In the second game, Team Matthews defeated Team Hughes 6-5 in a shootout. However, thanks to the performances of Clayton Keller and Auston Matthews on the weekend, the team finished 7-4 with Matthews in the finals. Former USA National Team Development Program teammates scored six points and Matthews was named MVP.

“The whole weekend was special for all of us, especially the host city and hometown guys,” Matthews said after Saturday's game.

“I'm happy to finish with a win. Everyone goes home happy.”

Dobson was left out

At every All-Star Game, there is always a debate about the players who are left out of the event. One notable absence from the festivities this year was New York Islanders defenseman Noah Dobson. Statistically, the Summerside, PEI product is having a career year as Dobson has six goals and forty-six assists before the All-Star break, good enough for the leading scorer on the island, third among defenders by the number of points, and tied for second place in assists.