NHL All-Star Game
The National Hockey League All-Star Game is an exhibition ice hockey tournament that is traditionally held during the regular season of the National Hockey League, with many of the League's star players playing against each other. The games' proceeds benefit the pension fund of the players, and the winning team is awarded $1,000,000 towards a charity of their choice.
The NHL All-Star Game, held in late January or early February, marks the symbolic halfway point in the regular season, though not the mathematical halfway point which, for most seasons, is usually one or two weeks earlier. Between 2007 and 2020, it was held in late January. It was skipped in 2021 because of the COVID-19 pandemic, the 2022 to 2024 editions were held on the first Saturday of February.
Formats
From 1947 to 1968, the All-Star Game primarily saw the previous season's Stanley Cup champions take on a team of All-Stars from the other clubs. There were two exceptions during this period: The 1951 and 1952 games instead featured two teams of All-Star players, one consisting of players on American-based teams and the other with players on Canadian-based teams.Beginning in 1969, the format was geographic with the Wales/Eastern Conference All-Stars playing the Campbell/Western Conference All-Stars, with the "first team", or starting line, including the starting goaltender, voted in by fans, while the remainder of the teams' rosters are chosen by the NHL's Hockey Operations Department in consultation with the teams' general managers. Since 1996, the head coaches for the two All-Star teams have been the coaches of the two teams that are leading their respective conferences in point percentage. Previously, the two head coaches that appeared in the previous year's Stanley Cup Finals coached the All-Star teams.
The 1998 All-Star Game was held in the same year as the 1998 Winter Olympics, allowing the NHL to show off its players from all over the world. For this event, the NHL had the All-Star teams consist of a team of North Americans playing against a team of stars from the rest of the world. The North America vs. World All-Star format lasted through the 2002 Game, the same year as the 2002 Winter Olympics, before reverting to the Eastern vs. Western Conference format in 2003.
During the 2010–11 season, the NHL announced a change to the way the teams were selected, modeled after drafts in fantasy sports. The conference vs. conference approach was replaced by a player draft conducted by the All-Star players themselves to determine the rosters for each team. The captains for each team now select players from a combined pool of both fan balloting and the NHL Hockey Operations Department. The change in format was a joint effort by the League and the National Hockey League Players' Association. This format lasted through the 2015 game.
On November 18, 2015, the NHL announced significant changes to the All-Star Game format, starting with the 2016 game: instead of one game featuring two teams, there are four All-Star teams based on the league's four divisions, competing in a single-elimination tournament. The format of all three games in the tournament is three-on-three, with 10-minute halves each. If a tie remains after 20 minutes, then it directly goes to a three-round shootout plus extra rounds as needed to determine the winner; there is no standard overtime. The winners of the two semifinal games then meet in an All-Star Game Final. In 2017, the format was slightly changed: the division that wins the NHL All-Star Skills Competition during the previous night then gets to pick which team they will play first in the semifinals.
On November 27, 2023, the NHL announced that it would be combining the four-team, three-on-three format with the fantasy draft used in the previous system. The league selected the captains for each of the four teams from a combined pool of both fan balloting and the NHL Hockey Operations Department, and the players then conducted a draft to determine the rosters for each team.
Skills Competition
The All-Star Game is preceded by the NHL All-Star Skills Competition, a competition showing the various talents of both the all-stars. Beginning in 2007, the All-Star weekend also featured the NHL YoungStars Game, an exhibition game exclusively featuring rookies, playing under slightly modified rules. In 2011 this game was eliminated in favor of having the rookies compete in the skills competition.History
Benefit games
The first official All-Star Game was held during the 1947–48 NHL season. Prior to that, there have been several occasions when benefit games and All-Star Games were played.Hod Stuart Benefit All-Star Game
The first All-Star game in ice hockey predates the NHL. It was played on January 2, 1908, before 3,500 fans at the Montreal Arena between the Montreal Wanderers and a team of All-Stars players from the teams the Eastern Canada Amateur Hockey Association. It was held in memory of Wanderers player Hod Stuart, who had drowned three months after the Wanderers won the Stanley Cup in 1907. The proceeds of that game went to Stuart's family.Ace Bailey Benefit Game
On December 12, 1933, Toronto's King Clancy tripped Boston's Eddie Shore, and in retaliation, Shore hit the Leafs' Ace Bailey from behind, flipping him over backwards. Bailey hit his head on the ice so hard that a priest in attendance gave him last rites. Bailey lived for almost 60 more years, but his playing career was over. Shore was suspended for 16 games of a 48-game season for the hit.As a benefit for Bailey and his family, the NHL held its first ever All-Star game on February 14, 1934. The game was held at Maple Leaf Gardens in Toronto, during which Bailey's #6 uniform was retired by the Leafs. It was the first number to be retired in the NHL. The game saw the Leafs battle against an All-Star team made of players from the other seven teams, which the Leafs won 7–3. One of the more memorable moments before the game was when Bailey presented Shore with his All-Star jersey, showing to the public that Bailey had clearly forgiven him for his actions. Bailey also presented a trophy to NHL President Frank Calder before the game in the hope that the trophy would go to the winner of an annual All-Star Game for the benefit of injured players.
Howie Morenz Memorial Game
was one of the NHL's superstars of the 1930s. However, his career, and eventually life, ended in a game between his Montreal Canadiens and the Chicago Black Hawks on January 28, 1937, at the Montreal Forum. In that game, Morenz was checked by Chicago player Earl Seibert into the boards in what seemed like a normal hit. However, as the boards were made of wood at the time, Morenz's leg shattered in five separate locations above the ankle. He was carried off the ice on a stretcher to a hospital, where he would stay for four and a half weeks until his death from a heart attack. At one time, one visitor noted that it was as if a party was being held inside of Morenz's hospital room, complete with whiskey and beer. Morenz died on March 8 the same year, from, as teammate Aurele Joliat put it, "a broken heart". Morenz's #7 sweater, which had been hanging in its usual stall while he was in hospital, was finally retired for good.While Morenz was in the hospital, plans for a game for Morenz's benefit were already under way. However, the game was not as successful as Bailey's game, partially because it took place many months after Morenz's passing and partially because Morenz had not survived. The game saw two All-Star teams, the first being a team of stars from the Canadiens and the Montreal Maroons, the second being an All-Star team made of players from the other teams, with the latter team winning 6–5.
Babe Siebert Memorial Game
On August 25, 1939, Babe Siebert, a Montreal Canadien who had just retired from play and had been named head coach, drowned in Lake Huron. To benefit his family, the Canadiens and Montreal Maroons organized a benefit, held on October 29 at the Montreal Forum. Six thousand fans attended a game between the Canadiens and the "NHL All-Stars", raising for Siebert's family. The All-Stars won the game 5–2.Official games
Despite Bailey's hopes of an annual All-Star Game, it did not become an annual tradition until the 1947–48 NHL season. In 1966, the All-Star Game was moved from the start of the season to its current position in the middle of the season. In 1979, the Challenge Cup series replaced the game, in 1987, it was replaced with Rendez-vous '87, and in 2025 it was replaced with the 4 Nations Face-Off. Lockouts disrupted the NHL season in 1995, 2005, and 2013 and resulted in the cancelation of the game in those years. COVID-19 led to the cancelation of the 2021 game. As part of the NHL Collective Bargaining Agreement that expired in 2012, the NHL agreed with the NHLPA not to hold an All-Star Game during Winter Olympic years that they participated in, consequently, the contest was canceled in 2006, 2010 and 2014. In 2018, however, the contest was still played, as NHL players did not participate in that year's Winter Olympics, and in 2022, the contest was still played, with players originally going to the 2022 Winter Olympics after, but ultimately did not due to COVID-19 postponing many games.1940s
Both parts of Bailey's vision would, however, come true: The first game of the annual tradition, and the first official NHL All-Star Game, would be played in Maple Leaf Gardens, on October 13, 1947. The format of the All-Star Game, which remained the same, with two exceptions, until the 1967–68 NHL season, called for the defending Stanley Cup champions to play against a selection of players from the other five teams. For the first year, the All-Stars were a team composed of the First and Second NHL All-Star teams, as well as three players from the New York Rangers and one player each from the Detroit Red Wings and the Chicago Black Hawks.For the game, the Gardens facilities were upgraded to use glass on the boards, a point that fans complained about as the sounds of the checks were somewhat muted. In what would be another tradition, the defending Stanley Cup champions were presented before the game with various gifts that included sweater coats, golf balls, cigarette boxes, ties, cufflinks, pocket knives, watches and lifetime passes to Maple Leaf Gardens. All-in-all, the game was a success, with the All-Stars winning 4–3.
Although the All-Star Game called for the defending Cup champion to host it, the game was held in Chicago Stadium in its second year as a consequence of the negotiations that set up the first game. Also as a peculiarity as a result of the scheduling, the game was held not before the season started, but three weeks into the season. Like the year before, players from the First and Second NHL All-Star teams were automatically awarded spots on the All-Star Game rosters, with the rest of the all-stars being assembled so that each team was represented with at least three players on the All-Stars. As for the game itself, the All-Stars had won 3–1 with all scoring coming in the second period.