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Hilarious and awkward moments for Canucks at All-Star player draft

Noah Strang
Noah Strang
|
Feb 2 2024, 12:41 am
Hilarious and awkward moments for Canucks at All-Star player draft
Sportsnet

NHL All-Star Weekend has officially kicked off with the player draft. It was an hour filled with awkward, funny, and strange moments.

The Vancouver Canucks are well represented at this year’s event, and there was some hope from fans that Team Hughes would unite all six players.

However, the team — led by Jack Hughes, Quinn Hughes, Elias Pettersson, and Michael Bublé — went in a different direction.

With the first overall selection, they took not Thatcher Demko, not Brock Boeser, not J.T. Miller, not Elias Lindholm, but… Nikita Kucherov?

 

It wasn’t a bad pick — Kucherov does lead the NHL in points — but just one that caught some people off guard, considering how many Canucks were in the player pool.

The pick had some fans wishfully thinking about a possible secret message.

Team Matthews — led by Auston Matthews and Morgan Rielly —  drafted their Toronto Maple Leafs teammates. Team MacKinnon — led by Nathan MacKinnon and Cale Makar — drafted their Colorado Avalanche teammates.

But Team Hughes continued to switch things up, drafting Kyle Connor before any of the available Canucks forwards were off the board.

Elias Lindholm, the newest Canuck, was eventually selected by Team MacKinnon, with Calgary Flames fan and celebrity captain Tate McRae making the pick.

He ended up being the only Canuck not selected to Team Hughes.

“Maybe we can chat over a beer tonight and talk it through,” joked the Swedish forward about being passed over by his new teammates. “No hard feelings.”

Perhaps the funniest and most awkward moment of the entire event came when Team Hughes tried to pick Boeser midway through the draft.

The sniper skated to join his new team before he was told to return to his seat as they were required to draft a goalie.

It was an awkward but funny moment that provided some laughs and caused great reactions online.

While there was a quick cut for commercials, Team Hughes would eventually get to pick Boeser with their next selection. This time, he was allowed to join his new team.

Bublé made sure that the American-born forward got some love as he made the selection official.

“I did my hair for three hours for this moment,” joked the celebrity singer.

Bublé had plenty of jokes all night including a poke at a recent report that someone in the Canucks organization wanted to move superstar defenceman Quinn to centre.

The singer might have had the most fun of anyone at the event with all of his jokes. Another reason why he was seemingly having such a good time was revealed after the draft.

“My buddy told me it was a microdose of mushrooms, he was lying,” the Burnaby native explained while chuckling. “I thought I was in Blades of Glory for most of the time I was out there, but then I realized ‘holy shit, I’m at the NHL All-Star Game'”

The team-leading scorer Miller was the last Canuck drafted and got a joking apology from Quinn as a result.

The ultra-competitive Miller was picked near the end of the draft, a fact that had some viewers, including Kelly Hrudey, surprised.

“They don’t want to get yelled at; it’s All-Star Weekend,” quipped back Kevin Bieksa, referencing Miller’s famously fiery nature.

While there were lots of fans looking forward to seeing which player would be drafted last, the NHL made sure that there was no embarrassing “Phil Kessel” moment this year.

The last four players available were randomly assigned to a team. However, fans were lucky enough to get one shot of the four players sitting together, looking like they’d rather be on a beach somewhere.

Team Hughes currently has five of the six Canucks in the event. You can find their full roster below.

There is still time for the captains to make trades and for Lindholm to be acquired to bring together all six teammates.

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