The NHL All-Star Skills competition is set to undergo a major facelift in 2024 thanks to the input of Edmonton Oilers star Connor McDavid. The 2024 All-Star Game Skills competition is slated to take place on Friday, Feb. 2 at Scotiabank Arena in Toronto.
McDavid spoke with NHL senior vice president and chief content officer Steve Mayer about what he'd want the skills competition to be. According to ESPN's Greg Wyshynski, the Oilers forward revealed what players were looking for in the events and helped the league to create a more hockey-based competition.
The new format will showcase just 12 NHL players taking on one another in eight different events. Those players will earn points for where they finish in each event and the player that earns the most points throughout the night will win $1 million.
The first eight players are slated to be chosen by the NHL's hockey operation department and NHLPA. Fans will vote for the final four skaters involved in the skills competition. Only players who have been selected for the NHL All-Star Game will be eligible to participate in the skills competition.
The 2024 NHL All-Star Skills competition will consist of the following events:
- Fast skater
- Hardest shot
- Stick handling
- One-timers
- Passing challenge
- Accurary shooting
- NHL shootout (top eight players)
- NHL obstacle course (top six players)
Each player will participate in four of the first six events and will earn points for where they finish in those events. First place will receive five points, and each following place will earn one fewer point. Following sixth place, those players won't earn any points.
"You have to be very strategic in how you choose events and what you participate in," Mayer added. "Sometimes you'll get 10 people to do one event, but you'll only get a few people to do another event. Players will now realize that just participating gets you a point."
The four players with the lowest amount of points after six events will be eliminated from the All-Star skills competition. The eight remaining players will advance to the seventh event, which is a shootout. That will also feature all eight NHL All-Star Game goaltenders.
The skaters will actually choose what goaltender they want to shoot against. Mayers also told ESPN that there will be a prize for the top goaltender in the event.
The top six point scorers in the shootout will advance to the eighth and final event, which is an obstacle course. It will include parts of the previous seven events and will help crown a champion.
The points will be doubled during the obstacle course event.
The NHL wanted to rethink the All-Star skills competition after last season's All-Star Weekend in Florida. Mayer also added that barring "a complete failure," that this format will exist for several All-Star Weekends to come.
