NEW YORK CITY — If you want to overhaul the NHL's skills competition, why not pick the brain of arguably the most skilled hockey player to lace 'em up?
When dreaming up a completely revised competitive format for All-Star Weekend's Friday night showcase, the league made a point to survey its star players and involve them in a creative process that led to a winner-take-all $1-million individual competition.
No player got more involved than Connor McDavid, as Steve Mayer, the NHL's chief content officer and executive VP, flew to Edmonton, sat down with McDavid, and pored over "every single inch of this to get his feedback" on the new streamlined skills format, debuting Feb. 2 at Toronto's Scotiabank Arena (and on Sportsnet and Sportsnet+).
"I think his endorsement, more than anybody's, was one of the reasons why we felt like we got something here," Mayer told Sportsnet Tuesday. "At the end of the day, we're trying to find out who is the most skilled player.
"You know, a million dollars is a big deal. These guys are going to compete hard."
Gone are the standalone events and lighthearted pre-taped contests of skills nights past. No more dunk tanks, hockey-golf hybrids, or oversized blackjack on the Vegas Strip.
Here's how the McDavid-approved 2024 All-Star Skills will work:
• Only 12 skaters will compete for the $1-million prize. The first eight contestants will be elite players selected from the larger pool of 44 all-stars announced on Jan. 4, by the league in conjunction with its broadcast partners and the Players' Association. Big names and big personalities will be targeted, as all players will be mic'd up throughout the competition. The NHL wants guys to compete hard.
• The final four contestants will be voted into the competition by fans, who must select from the remaining pool of 32 all-stars (sorry, John Scott). Winners of the fan vote will be unveiled Jan. 13.
• The 12 contestants then participate in four of six events — their choice — and gather points toward winning the whole shebang.
• Those six events mix in traditional favourites with some new skills-based contests (nothing too goofy): Fastest Skater, Hardest Shot, Stick Handling, One-Timers, Passing Challenge, and Accuracy Shooting.
• The top eight skaters, based on total points gathered, advance to the seventh event, the Shoot Out. With a twist.
The eighth-ranked skater gets first choice among the eight all-star goaltenders he'd like to face. That draft continues in reverse order, with the top-ranked skater drawing the last goalie remaining. Each player then has 45 seconds to score on as many breakaways as possible.
• Only the top six point-earners then advance to the eighth and final event, an Obstacle Course that incorporates multiple skills. Points are doubled in the final event to create opportunity for a dramatic comeback.
"The obstacle course will involve everything you've seen so far," Mayer says, "in one grand finale."
Prior to his joining the NHL, Mayer produced NBC's successful Battle of the Network Stars and ESPN's Battle of the Gridiron Stars. Applying that mini-Olympics approach to the NHL to determine a single-most skilled player will hopefully stir a larger buzz around Skills and draw out the real competitors.
"Those shows are for made for television, but I've always been impressed how an athlete responds to trying to win it all," Mayer says.
"We also recognize that not every player is totally into it, and some players don't go as hard as other players."
The league wasn't deaf to criticism surrounding Florida's All-Star Skills night in 2023, a three-hour event which broke up the flow of some events (Accuracy Shooting, Fastest Skater), mixed in pre-taped stunts, and left some fans confused.
"We felt like we need a change," Mayer says. "After last year's Skills, everybody felt the vibe in the building wasn't what we all want it to be. And we listened to fans [watching on TV]. We listened to the fans that were there. We listened to the players.
"The feedback, admittedly, wasn't as positive as we'd like it to be. And so, it just got the ball rolling.
"We're very excited about this. We think it's different. We think it's unique. We think it's a perfect place also, to do this in Toronto."
The NHL Skills will come on the heels of Feb. 1's much-anticipated return of the player draft to determine the four 3-on-3 all-star teams.
Provided the winner-take-all format is a success, the league plans to keep the format in place for future all-star weekends, honouring the defending champion but mixing in 11 fresh challengers.
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