The NHL released rosters for the 2019 NHL All-Star Game on Wednesday night, giving fans a look at the players that will be representing the league's four divisions during the event in San Jose, California, later this month.
The roster unveil comes one week after the four fan-voted captains -- Toronto's Auston Matthews (Atlantic), Washington's Alex Ovechkin (Metropolitan), Colorado's Nathan MacKinnon (Central) and Edmonton's Connor McDavid (Pacific) -- were announced. Ovechkin has since voluntary withdrawn from the event in order to rest for the second half.
While fans got to choose the four captains for each team, the league's hockey operations department selected most of the remaining 40 players (10 from each division) for the game. However, for the first time this year, fans will also get to choose the "last man in" on each team.
Here are the rosters for each division:
Atlantic
- Jack Eichel, Buffalo Sabres
- Nikita Kucherov, Tampa Bay Lightning
- Auston Matthews, Toronto Maple Leafs
- David Pastrnak, Boston Bruins
- Steven Stamkos, Tampa Bay Lightning
- John Tavares, Toronto Maple Leafs
- Thomas Chabot, Ottawa Senators
- Keith Yandle, Florida Panthers
- Jimmy Howard, Detroit Red Wings
- Carey Price, Montreal Canadiens
Metropolitan
- Sebastian Aho, Carolina Hurricanes
- Cam Atkinson, Columbus Blue Jackets
- Mathew Barzal, New York Islanders
- Sidney Crosby, Pittsburgh Penguins
- Claude Giroux, Philadelphia Flyers
- Taylor Hall, New Jersey Devils
- John Carlson, Washington Capitals
- Seth Jones, Columbus Blue Jackets
- Braden Holtby, Washington Capitals
- Henrik Lundqvist, New York Rangers
Central
- Patrick Kane, Chicago Blackhawks
- Nathan MacKinnon, Colorado Avalanche
- Ryan O'Reilly, St. Louis Blues
- Mikko Rantanen, Colorado Avalanche
- Mark Scheifele, Winnipeg Jets
- Blake Wheeler, Winnipeg Jets
- Miro Heiskanen, Dallas Stars
- Roman Josi, Nashville Predators
- Devan Dubnyk, Minnesota Wild
- Pekka Rinne, Nashville Predators
Pacific
- Johnny Gaudreau, Calgary Flames
- Clayton Keller, Arizona Coyotes
- Connor McDavid, Edmonton Oilers
- Joe Pavelski, San Jose Sharks
- Elias Pettersson, Vancouver Canucks
- Brent Burns, San Jose Sharks
- Drew Doughty, Los Angeles Kings
- Erik Karlsson, San Jose Sharks
- Marc-Andre Fleury, Vegas Golden Knights
- John Gibson, Anaheim Ducks
As is usually the case when All-Star rosters are released, there are some notable snubs absent from the list. The league does its best to reward all of the deserving candidates and there's certainly no shortage of talent right now, but the NHL has four key criteria points that it tries to meet with its selections and that often leaves some qualified players on the outside looking in.
That inclusion criteria is as follows:
- One representative from each of the league's 31 teams
- The top 10 to 15 league scorers at the time of selection
- As many marketed league "stars" as possible
- Multiple players from the host team/city
As has been the case over the past few years, the All-Star Game will be played in the format of a 3-on-3 tournament. The Metropolitan and Atlantic Division will play a 20-minute game, followed by a 20-minute game between the Central and Pacific Divisions. The winners of those two games will meet in a championship game (also 20 minutes) with the winning team splitting a $1 million cash prize.
The game is on Saturday, Jan. 26, at 8 p.m. ET and will be streaming on fuboTV (try for free).
