Initial rosters for the 2023 Honda NHL All-Star Game will be announced Thursday on ESPN and Sportsnet during the first and second intermissions of the game between the Washington Capitals and Columbus Blue Jackets (7 pm ET).
The All-Star Game and NHL All-Star Skills will be held at FLA Live Arena, home of the Florida Panthers, in Sunrise, Florida, on Feb. 3-4.
Under a new format, the NHL department of hockey operations will select one player per NHL team in each division (including one goalie), making up the initial eight-man rosters for each division.
The three remaining players per division (two skaters, one goalie), will be selected as part of the 2023 Honda All-Star Fan Vote presented by Guaranteed Rate, which will begin at 9 pm Thursday and run through Jan. 17.
[Related: More 2023 NHL All-Star game coverage]
“Thanks to our passionate fans, the All-Star Fan Vote is one of the NHL’s top fan engagement programs,” NHL chief marketing officer Heidi Browning said. “Each season, we look for opportunities to evolve the program to maximize fan engagement and attract new fans to participate.
“After reviewing campaign data and fan feedback from recent All-Star Fan Vote campaigns, we noted that our fans want the opportunity to have more influence on our All-Star Roster selection. We expanded the number of players on the ballots and introduced social voting. opportunities for the 2023 Honda NHL All-Star Fan Vote presented by Guaranteed Rate.”
For the first time, the fan vote will feature a Twitter Vote, which begins Jan. 12, at 12:01 am ET and ends Jan. 14, at 11:59 p.m. ET.
Each fan tweet must include the complete hashtag “#NHLAllStarVote” followed by a player’s full name or a player’s Twitter handle. Only referencing a last name will not count. All twitter votes will be combined with online vote totals.
The three remaining players will be announced on Jan. 19.
The initial eight players for the Metropolitan and Atlantic Divisions will be announced during the first intermission Thursday, and the initial eight players for the Central and Pacific Divisions will be announced during the second intermission.
In previous seasons, fan-elected captains were voted before hockey operations chose the remaining rosters (not limited to one player per team) and fans chose a final player (Last Men In) for each team.
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