NHL All-Star teams: four award winners headline first team
The NHL All-Star Teams are the league's annual honor for the best player at each position. Think of it as the ultimate depth chart, voted by the Professional Hockey Writers' Association. One First Team and one Second Team per spot: left wing, center, right wing, two defensemen, and goalie.
The NHL All-Star Teams were announced recently, and here's what jumped off the page.
Four of the six First Team skaters also won major NHL awards.
Nikita Kucherov took the Hart Trophy as league MVP. Connor McDavid won a major player-voted award. Andrei Vasilevskiy grabbed the Vezina. And Zach Werenski walked away with the Norris Trophy as top defenseman.
That kind of hardware sweep by First Team players hasn't happened in years.
It tells you exactly who ran this season, and the voting wasn't close in most cases. Here's the full breakdown of who made it, why it matters. And which Second Team names are coming for those First Team spots next year.
How McDavid's selections tie legends
Six First Team selections at center. That's where Connor McDavid sits right now, tied with legends of the game. Only Wayne Gretzky has more.
McDavid is in his late twenties and he's already knocking on the door of the greatest record in the sport. He won a major scoring title this season with impressive offensive numbers, finishing ahead of Kucherov. The report confirmed those numbers upon the announcement. He also captured a major player-voted award as the most outstanding player in the league.
When the guys sharing the ice with you every night say you're the best, that means something no media ballot can touch.
Here's the part that should scare the rest of the NHL. If McDavid stays healthy and productive for another few seasons, he has a real shot at Gretzky's record of eight First Team selections. That's not a hot take. It's arithmetic. He's averaging roughly one First Team nod every two seasons of his career.
At that pace, he gets there by his early thirties.
The guy isn't just the best player in the world right now.
He's tracking toward being the best center anyone has ever seen. And the All-Star voting confirms it year after year.
Why Tampa Bay landed two players on first team again
The Lightning placed two skaters on the NHL All-Star First Team for the second time in three years. If you've watched this club since their recent Cup runs, neither selection catches you off guard.
Kucherov earned another First Team nod at right wing with impressive offensive numbers.
He's now tied with a legendary player for fifth all-time at right wing on the First Team list. That's the company Kucherov keeps now, and he's not slowing down.
Vasilevskiy earned another First Team selection with a strong record and solid statistics in goal.
That ties him for the most First Team selections among active goalies. The Big Cat keeps churning out elite seasons like it's routine, because for him it apparently is.
And nobody in Tampa wants to hear this part, but the window isn't closing. The Lightning have two of the best players in the world at their positions. Both are still in their prime. Both are producing at rates that would make most front offices sick with envy. Anyone writing Tampa's obituary hasn't been paying attention since their recent successes.
What Werenski's Norris Trophy win means for Columbus
Zach Werenski didn't just win the Norris Trophy.
He won it in a walkover. His voting points and first-place votes crushed the competition. That margin is a landslide by any standard you want to apply.
Werenski had a standout season, becoming the first player from Columbus to win the Norris and earn First Team honors in the same season. For a franchise that spent years looking for a defining superstar, the Jackets finally have one. The voters didn't just say he's good. They said he was the best defenseman on the planet this year, and the numbers back it up.
Another player rounded out the First Team at left wing with impressive offensive numbers, earning a selection after a previous season.
His selection caps a bounce-back year that locks in Dallas's offensive identity for the foreseeable future.
Which second-team all-stars are ready to climb
The NHL All-Star Second Team tells a completely different story. Several of the selections are first-time honorees, which means the next generation is arriving whether the old guard likes it or not.
The headliner is Cole Caufield of Montreal, who had a remarkable goal-scoring season. He earned a selection for the first time. And a significant goal-scoring season from a young player in Montreal tells you everything about where the Canadiens are headed.
Evan Bouchard of Edmonton and Logan Thompson of Washington also picked up their first All-Star nods.
Bouchard's offensive production from the blue line in the playoffs was already turning heads. And Thompson had a strong season.
But the player most ready for a First Team jump might be Rasmus Dahlin of Buffalo. He quarterbacks the power play, kills penalties, and logs significant minutes against top lines. If any Second Team defenseman forces his way onto the First Team next year, my money's on him. The Sabres have been rebuilding for a while, and Dahlin is the proof that the process is actually producing something real.
Key takeaways from the NHL All-Star Teams
- Four First Team skaters swept the major NHL award winners: Kucherov (Hart), McDavid (Lindsay), Vasilevskiy (Vezina), Werenski (Norris). That kind of clean sweep is rare and tells you how dominant this group was. - McDavid tied with legends with his sixth First Team selection at center. Only Gretzky has more, and McDavid is in his late twenties. - Werenski's Norris win is the first for Columbus in franchise history. He took home First Team honors the same season, making it a landmark year for the Blue Jackets. - The Second Team features several first-time NHL All-Stars, headlined by Caufield's impressive campaign. The next wave of stars is already producing at elite levels. - Tampa Bay keeps churning with two First Team players still in their prime. The Lightning aren't fading anytime soon, and counting them out has been a losing bet since their recent successes.
The Stanley Cup Final is still ongoing.
Once that wraps, the offseason shifts to roster moves and free agency. But the juiciest storyline flying under the radar is Columbus, since they now have a Norris Trophy winner as their franchise cornerstone. What general manager Don Waddell does next with Werenski locked in could reshape the Metropolitan Division for the next several years. And I'll be watching every move.