Daily Faceoff Live: All-Star Game Snubs
Matt Larkin and Steven Ellis took a look at some All-Star game snubs in the latest episode of Daily Faceoff Live.
Matt Larkin: The All-Star fan vote came in last night and they got those extra selections added to each roster. Ilya Sorokin, Artemi Panarin, and Adam Fox in the Metro. Andrei Vasilevskiy, David Pastrnak, and Auston Matthews in the Atlantic. Connor Hellebuyck, Mikko Rantanen, and Nathan MacKinnon in the Central. Stuart Skinner, Leon Drasaitl, and Bo Horvat in the Pacific.
So now we know these full rosters we can have the real snub discussion. I want to know, who is your number one snub? Who are you looking at that got the shaft this time?
Steven Ellis: I’m going to go with Tim Stutzle out of Ottawa. A guy that when you look at the 2020 draft and you look at all of the talent there was and a lot of people had him to be the top prospect and right now he’s playing like the best player from that draft. He’s going to be on pace for 82 points this season. I think this is a guy that should be there.
At the same time, I’m also looking at Rasmus Dahlin as another guy who to me is one of the best defenseman in the league this year, very good for me in fantasy. Two guys that probably should be in the game. But I will say before you give your picks, why do the fans care so much. People got really upset about it and like if you’re a Habs fan or your a Sens fan and you’re tweeting who you want in the All-Star game, you’re probably not seeing other teams picks on Twitter because you’re following your own fanbase.
So I say you don’t have to care too much but that being said if I were putting two guys in there Stutzle and Rasmus Dahlin have been good enough that they should be there. But again when you have these small divisional teams you’re going to miss on a lot of quality talent. William Nylander is one of the top scorers in the league and he’s not there so it just happens that way.
Matt Larkin: Yeah, very well said especially I agree with the Dahlin logic. I want to look at Jake Oettinger in the Central but he’s not my official pick because he just got a tough draw, being in the same division as Connor Hellebuyck and Juuse Saros. He’s been fantastic, he’s taking over and I don’t think he’s even out of the Vezina discussion. He could still rally and win it and not even go to the All-Star game.
But my main pick for this one is Kyle Connor of the Winnipeg Jets. I think he’s been one of the most underrated scorers in the league for several seasons now. And he always had that pedigree, first round pick and all. I’ll never forget one of my scout buddies told me he had “jersey flapping speed” it always stuck with me. He really does have that mad dash rush and goal scoring ability.
He’s got 55 points in 46 games, a 98-point pace and he’s tied for 11th in the NHL in scoring and he’s not even going to the All-Star game? There’s not enough room for the 11th highest scorer in the league and this is an example again of that format hurting a really good player and I just can’t believe we’re not going to see Kyle Connor there because he’s such a special talent.
You can watch the rest of the episode here…