Portugal Colonial - NHL returns to player draft for All-Star Game

Two team captains will select squads from a pool of players chosen by the league and fans in an NHL All-Star Thursday draft on February 1 in Toronto followed by an NHL All-Star Skills competition the next night and the All-Star Game on February 3.

"We've decided to add a third night to an already vibrant weekend," NHL chief content officer Steve Mayer said. "We felt like this was a year to make some changes."

Captains had chosen players three times before in NHL history -- at Carolina in 2011, Ottawa in 2012 and, after two years without the event, Columbus in 2015.

"That was a really fun piece in past years," Mayer said.

The NHL will select 32 players for the NHL All-Star Game, one from each club, with a fan vote in January enabling fans to select 12 players to complete the rosters.

The NHL will select captains from the 44-player pool and those captains will pick the four team lineups from the remaining players for a tournament using the NHL's regular-season overtime format of three skaters and a goaltender for each club.

Two teams will meet in each semi-final match with the winners advancing to the final.

S.Caetano--PC