The NHL made massive changes to the All Star Game Skills Competition this year, coming up with a gauntlet of events meant to find the NHL’s most skilled player.
Rather than players specializing in a single event, they’ll be tasked with competing in four of six classic events to crown a skills competition champion.
It’s an awesome concept, but with 12 players participating (and only seven teams represented) there are a lot of teams left in the dark. The Rankings Boys are here to help with that.
Armed with data from Corey Sznajder’s All Three Zones project and NHL Edge data scraped by Puckalytics — we chose one player from each team who would best represent their franchise in an All-32 Skills Olympics.
Here’s who we picked, along with our usual flawless rankings.
You can find the methodology for how each player was chosen at the bottom of the rankings.
Last week: 2
Sean’s ranking: 1
Dom’s ranking: 1
Actual competitor
The Canucks will have three guys in the actual contest, a nice reward for their awesome season so far. Perhaps one of the more shocking revelations from this exercise, though, was how low all three scored relative to other players (Quinn Hughes was at 8.2, J.T. Miller was at 8.3). Like this season at large, it’s the data that is wrong.
A 5.8 passing score for Elias Pettersson? That feels false, but stems from a just-average scoring chance assist rate at five-on-five in each of the last two seasons. In an actual passing contest he’s probably fine — and can rely on a strong skill set in the other three events. A heavy, accurate shot makes him a strong contender in both shot competitions.
Last week: 1
Sean’s ranking: 2
Dom’s ranking: 3
There’s a reason we spend so much time complaining about Ehlers’ ice-time — he’s oozing with top-end skill. His speed and puck-handling ability as he darts through all three zones is apparent on a nightly basis and would make him a really strong threat in two events.
Last week: 3
Sean’s ranking: 3
Dom’s ranking: 4
Actual competitor
Just three players other than Pastrnak have 10.0 in multiple categories, and none of them stacked perfect scores in one-timers and shooting accuracy. He’ll have a chance to stack enough points in those two categories to advance. Easily.
Last week: 4
Sean’s ranking: 5
Dom’s ranking: 2
Actual competitor
Draisaitl has Connor McDavid beat by a nose here (literally 0.03 points separate the second and third highest scores), mainly on accuracy shooting. That’s Draisaitl’s forte, and McDavid is way down at 9.5. He stinks! Trade him! Plus his max speed is down 0.6 miles per hour from last season! Honestly, this graphic is a nice representation of how complete a player Draisaitl is; he doesn’t get a ton of velocity on his shot, ranking 357th league-wide, but .. who cares, really? He’s a favorite.
Last week: 5
Sean’s ranking: 4
Dom’s ranking: 5
Watch a Panthers game and odds are, you’ll see Verhaeghe’s skill pop a time or two. He’s fun, and he’d be a solid dark-horse pick in our fake competition. That passing score feels a little low, specifically, and he’d have a shot at being competitive in every event.
Last week: 6
Sean’s ranking: 6
Dom’s ranking: 6
Actual competitor
Both MacKinnon and Cale Makar will be part of the actual event, but our own arbitrary rules forced us to pick one here … and we’re going with Nate, whose 9.9 average has Makar beat by all of one-tenth of a point. How are we supposed to say no to watching MacKinnon compete in fastest skater? He’s got the top speed among the All-Stars and is third league-wide, behind Owen Tippett and Brayden Point. He knows how to shoot the puck too, apparently. Interesting.
Last week: 9
Sean’s ranking: 7
Dom’s ranking: 8
This is Necas’ season in a nutshell. The skillset is there, and it’s obvious — one of the league’s fastest players and hardest shots, with no real weak spot — but the production doesn’t quite line up. He’s got 30 points in 41…
This article was originally published by a theathletic.com . Read the Original article here. .