By: Justin Gincauskas
The NHL is taking a big step in the right direction with the announcement of a new format for the 2024 NHL All-Star Skills.
New All-Star Skills Format Explained
Instead of the usual format that aims to include representatives from each NHL team, the league will now only select eight players from the list of 44 All-Stars. In addition to the eight, there will be four more players chosen by the fans, giving us a total of 12 players for the competition.
There will be six events to start, which include the fastest skater, hardest shot, stick handling, one timers, passing challenge, and accuracy shooting. Each player must participate in four of these six events. For each challenge, five points will go to first place, four points to second place, three points for third place, two for fourth place, and one for fifth place.
The eight players with the most points after the six events will compete in the seventh challenge, the NHL Shoot Out. The field will narrow down once more, as only the top six players after the shoot out will move on to the final challenge.
In the final event, the six remaining players will compete for double the points in the NHL Obstacle Course. The challenge features all the skills and will decide who takes home the $1 million prize.
A Big Win For Fans
The NHL has struggled in recent years to get the All-Stars to take the skills competition seriously, as most are too afraid to make a fool of themselves. With so many players participating and no big incentive to do well, it made sense why most of them would not give their best effort.
That is why this new format change is a big win for the fans. Instead of keeping track of all the All-Stars participating in various events, fans now get to focus on 12 individuals fighting for a chance at $1 million. The players selected will be motivated by the possibility of winning a ton of money, while the fans get to see the best skills from these top players in the league.
With only 12 players participating, fans will get to know the personalities of these skaters as they go through the events, something we have not had when all the All-Stars are participating. I think we will see some personalities really shine in this event, and that will only help the sport grow even further.
As the NHL looks to make the All-Star Skills more competitive, I believe we will have a lot more interested fans tuned in when the event takes place on Feb. 2 at 7 p.m. ET.
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