NHL Announces New All Star Weekend Format

The NHL is changing how it does All-Star Weekend, and it’s going to add some international bragging rights to the mix.

The league announced on Tuesday, just before the start of Game 1 of the Stanley Cup Final, that the 2027 version of the event at the New York Islanders' UBS Arena on February 5-6 will feature teams representing the United States, Canada, Finland, Sweden, and a “World” team of players from other countries, including Russia.

"We're extremely excited to bring this event to New York. We think the format we've created will be fun. It'll be entertaining. It'll be great for the players and the fans," NHL commissioner Gary Bettman said during his state of the league address. "We know there have been some fits and starts on this, but we think together we figured this out."

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This new format will be a 3-on-3 round robin tournament featuring the five aforementioned teams. Each team will play four games of five minutes in length. A win earns a team two points; a tie, one; a loss, zero.

Every team will consist of nine forwards and two goalies. Eight players from each team, from a pool of 30 for each team, will be selected via a fan vote that opens in December. The 15 remaining players—a goaltender, forward, and defenseman for each team—will be picked by the NHL and NHLPA.

NHL

In addition to the All-Star Game, the annual skills competition is also changing. 

Taking place on Friday, February 5, the event will feature 10 players, all 25 years old or younger. There will be eight events total. Players will have to participate in four of a group of six events, including a passing challenge, one timers, hardest shot, skating, accuracy shooting, and stick handling. Following the first six events, the top four will take part in a shootout against one of four All-Star goaltenders. Once it’s down to two, those players will face off in an obstacle course finale.

The winner of the Skills Competition will earn $1 million, while the winning team of the All-Star tournament will split $2 million.