Toronto Maple Leafs: Who will join Auston Matthews at the All-Star Game?
Auston Matthews was voted as one of the captains for the NHL All-Star Game in San Jose but it will be tough for the other members of the Toronto Maple Leafs to join him for the festivities.
The Toronto Maple Leafs guaranteed themselves at least one player going to the All-Star Game when it was announced that Auston Matthews was voted a captain for the festivities.
Now the question is who will join the Leafs centre in San Jose? This is not going to be an easy decision for the NHL operations department who will handle the rest of the rosters with fans selecting the captain.
There are many complications when it comes to putting together the teams especially with the Atlantic Division having many viable candidates. John Tavares, Mitch Marner, Morgan Rielly and Frederik Andersen are worthy choices given how much of an impact they’ve had this season but with the current roster structure for the All-Star Game, it is unlikely to expect them all to go.
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Looking at the Tampa Bay Lightning alone they are in a similar situation as the Leafs with many players who would be strong candidates to go. While Leafs fans could see either Marner or Tavares left off the team, the same could be said about Nikita Kucherov or Brayden Point.
If this is the case, there should be a big push to have Morgan Rielly or Frederik Andersen considering how instrumental they’ve been to the success of the Leafs this season. Rielly leads the league in points by a defenceman with 44 which is seven more than Thomas Chabot who’s in second place.
Andersen is tied with Marc-Andre Fleury atop the NHL with 20 wins which he has done in four fewer games. There is a case to be made for Andrei Vasilevskiy to be up there with him but the Lightning will probably have one of their forwards make it ahead of Andersen.
It could come down to Matthews, Rielly and Andersen being the representatives for the Leafs and while it would tough to see a particular player get picked over Tavares and Marner, it speaks more to the NHL’s desire to have a player from each team go. What fans should be proud about is the long list of talent to choose from which couldn’t be said in the past.
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What do you think about the All-Star Game selection process? Who on the Leafs should go to San Jose? Let us know in the comments below.