McDavid helped NHL make major changes to All-Star Skills Competition

The NHL All-Star Skills Competition is going to look a bit different this time around, thanks to input from Edmonton Oilers superstar Connor McDavid.

On Tuesday, the league announced that it would be getting rid of the gimmicky events from the past few iterations and will instead shift back to a few classic fan-favourite events.

In all, the competition will involve eight events with a select 12 players competing for a $1 million prize. Eight of those players will be chosen by the NHL while the last four will be determined through a fan-vote.

The 2024 #NHLAllStar Skills presented by DraftKings Sportsbook to showcase 12 select players competing in eight events at 7 p.m. ET on Friday, Feb. 2 (@espn, @ESPNPlus, @Sportsnet & @TVASports).

Details on the new format, prize and more: https://t.co/f3OFB73vph pic.twitter.com/Oyx7YwzVqC

— NHL Public Relations (@PR_NHL) December 13, 2023

The skills that those 12 players will be tested in are as follows:

1. Fastest skater
2. Hardest shot
3. Stick-handling
4. One-timer competition
5. Passing
6. Accuracy shooting
7. Final eight advance to a shootout challenge
8. Final six compete in an obstacle course

According to reporting from ESPN’s Greg Wyshynski, these changes were partly inspired by feedback from McDavid.

“McDavid gave feedback on what the players wanted out of the events and helped the NHL create a skills competition that has more hockey skill testing,” Wyshynski wrote.

The changes are hoped to breathe life into a skills competition format that was starting to get dull with hockey fans. Gone are the long-winded, pre-recorded off-ice segments featured at previous competitions in Florida and Vegas. It is also, in many ways, a return to form for the competition as the focus will now be shifted to what the NHL’s best can do while on the ice.

The league also decided to narrow the number of participating players to 12. While this might limit the number of unique player interactions on the ice, it will put more of a spotlight on the league’s most skilled player, McDavid, being among them, although he has not officially been selected yet.

Wyshynski went on to say that McDavid provided input on the skills that he thought would most showcase player’s talents but also would be entertaining to the audience watching the competition.

“McDavid helped determine the skills that, in his opinion, make for a great all-around hockey player,” Wyshynski wrote. “McDavid, one of the NHL’s biggest generators of game highlights, also understood that the skills competition needed to be engaging.”

There is no doubt that the NHL All-Stars Skills Competition badly needed new life breathed into it. After a few years of waning fan interest, it will be interesting to see if this new format can recapture audiences’ interest in a way similar to events held a decade or so ago.

We’ll see if McDavid’s foray into event planning pays off when the NHL’s stars compete at the competition in Toronto on February 2.