2024 NHL All-Star mock draft: Predicting all four rosters

The NHL All-Star Weekend in 2024 will feature the return of the player draft.

The four teams — Team Matthews (captain Austin Matthews and assistant Morgan Rielly), Team McDavid (Connor McDavid and Leon Draisaitl), Team MacKinnon (Nathan MacKinnon and Cale Makar), and Team Hughes (co-captain Quinn Hughes and Jack Hughes, assistant captain Elias Pettersson) — will select the rest of their teams on Thursday night (6 p.m. ET, ESPN2 and ESPN+).

For our first NHL All-Star mock draft, we assigned an ESPN reporter to each team to get a sense of how the process would work.

Who went first? Who went last? And which of their teams appears to be the stronger entering Saturday’s All-Star Game? Read on.

Why my team will win: The group’s talent level is unrivaled. It’s just top-tier, high-scoring wingers and some of the finest centers in the game, who are also playing quite well right now.

The familiarity of Auston Matthews, William Nylander, Morgan Rielly, and Mitchell Marner on the ice will allow them to continue torturing their opponents, as they have done in Toronto for the last seven seasons. Vancouver’s Thatcher Demko is now the top goalie in the game, while Jake Oettinger is a budding star at the position. Even a “down” season is better than most. Overall, it’s a good mixture.

My main concern: is there too much talent? Are there too many puck hogs? Too many guys who wish to brag or are overly deferential to their teammates?

My goal was to take the top players who came to me in each position. Every skater can make plays and put pucks in the net, but if defensive efforts are required, that will not be our primary focus. Then again, who are we kidding? That is not what happens during an All-Star Game!

However, I’m concerned about the possibility of having too many cooks, which is common during All-Star Games. But hey, these are champagne issues, as another world-famous, good-at-everything human (aka Taylor Swift) would sing for us.

My team’s illness makes it unlikely for us to lose. We have the best player in the world (Connor McDavid), two legitimate MVP candidates (David Pastrnak, Sam Reinhart), two underrated NHL superstars (Leon Draisaitl, Kyle Connor), two absolute snipers (Brock Boeser, Alex DeBrincat), and the best faceoff guy in the league this season (Vincent Trocheck), who will win possession.

If everyone agrees to a little backchecking, we’ll be a dominant force. Even if they don’t, we’re likely to outperform everyone else.

My main concerns: I adore goalies. I chose Jeremy Swayman as the first goalie because of his charismatic personality and exceptional performance for Boston, a top team in the league. After going through the difficult arbitration procedure last summer, he is now receiving a big deal.

However, I should have changed my approach to pick goalies last and add a few more skilled players in the latter rounds. Goalies are irrelevant in All-Star games. But hey, at least Swayman will make the boys laugh back there; he’s always keeping it loose during games. One can only picture how he will appear at an event like this.

The potential of my squad, led by Nathan MacKinnon and Cale Makar, is why I believe we will win.Sidney Crosby and Jesper Bratt have the ability to drive the play.Rasmus Dahlin can play alongside Makar and help maintain possession.Filip Forsberg can work with anyone to create scoring opportunities, while Oliver Bjorkstrand, Elias Lindholm, and Tomas Hertl all offer a versatile presence.

The team’s goaltenders, Alexander Georgiev and Igor Shesterkin, have prior experience in handling high-risk situations.

My main concerns revolve around goalie. Georgiev and Shesterkin do not have the typical seasons that people are used to witnessing.

Georgiev’s.898 save % is significantly lower than the.918 he achieved previous season, when he won 40 games. Shesterkin’s.899 save % is also on track to be the lowest of his career. This might mean the difference between winning and being eliminated early and meeting Nino d’Aversa.

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