2019 All-Star Game Rosters Announced

Thanks to the Last Man Vote that the NHL held for the final spots on each of the All-Star Game rosters, I've held out posting the complete list of players going to San Jose for the All-Star festivities.  I was also away from the computer quite a bit already this weekend, missing out on the final announcement on Friday, so I'm finally sitting down to it right now.

Of course, the on-going conversation is about all the "snubs" and the players that should be there, but it's the All-Star festivities, it really doesn't make any difference.  Now, if the hockey pool had the All-Star festivities as a mini-game, then we could talk at length about those players who should and shouldn't be in San Jose, but for now, we'll not worry about it.

	Forwards	NHL	Pool
	Connor McDavid	EDM	Tony
	Johnny Gaudreau	CAL	Wilton
	Clayton Keller	ARI	Brian
	Joe Pavelski	SAN	Clayton
	Elias Pettersson	VAN	Clayton
	Leon Draisaitl	EDM	Stacey C.
	Defense	NHL	Pool
	Brent Burns	SAN	Brenda
	Erik Karlsson	SAN	Clayton
	Drew Doughty	LOS	Benson
	Goalies	NHL	Pool
	Marc-Andre Fleury	VGK	Troy
	John Gibson	ANA	Kristy & Don

The Pacific Division starts off with no real surprises.  Connor McDavid of the Oilers is the captain of the squad and since the game is being played in San Jose, the team is loaded up on Sharks.  Leon Draisaitl was the player voted in as the last man, rounding out a very fast, incredibly skilled team.

	Forwards	NHL	Pool
	Nathan MacKinnon	COL	Stacey M.
	Patrick Kane	CHI	Stuart
	Ryan O'Reilly	STL	Steve
	Mikko Rantanen	COL	Ryan
	Mark Scheifele	WPG	Brian
	Blake Wheeler	WPG	Wes
	Gabriel Landeskog	COL	Jesse
	Defense	NHL	Pool
	Miro Heiskanen	DAL	Jesse
	Roman Josi	NAS	Stacey M.
	Goalies	NHL	Pool
	Pekka Rinne	NAS	John P.
	Devan Dubnyk	MIN	Wes

Next up is the Central Division, which will be led by Nathan MacKinnon of the Avalanche.  The Central is probably one of the hardest divisions to play against in the league, so they found a group of players incredibly tough to play against.  Gabriel Landeskog, MacKinnon's teammate in Colorado, was the last man voted in for this division.

	Forwards	NHL	Pool
	Auston Matthews	TOR	Benson
	Jack Eichel	BUF	Grant
	Nikita Kucherov	TAM	Grant
	David Pastrnak	BOS	Stacey M.
	Steven Stamkos	TAM	Ryan
	John Tavares	TOR	Neil
	Jeff Skinner	BUF	Stuart
	Defense	NHL	Pool
	Thomas Chabot	OTT	Kristy & Don
	Keith Yandle	FLA	Grant
	Goalies	NHL	Pool
	Carey Price (x)	MTL	Stacey M.
	Jimmy Howard	DET	Tony
	Andrei Vasilevskiy	TAM	Dale C.

The Atlantic Division is not going to be full of slouches, by any means.  Auston Matthews of the Maple Leafs gets the captaincy of this squad, which has goal scoring written all over it, from every aspect.  Jeff Skinner of the Sabres, one of the league leaders in goals, was voted as the last man in for the division, while Andrei Vasilevskiy of the Lightning will replace Carey Price of the Canadiens, who has opted to rest during the break.

	Forwards	NHL	Pool
	Alex Ovechkin (x)	WAS	Jesse
	Claude Giroux	PHI	Troy
	Sebastian Aho	CAR	Wilton
	Cam Atkinson	CBJ	Clayton
	Mathew Barzal	NYI	Grant
	Sidney Crosby	PIT	Eric
	Taylor Hall	NJD	Mike
	Defense	NHL	Pool
	Seth Jones	CBJ	Stuart
	John Carlson	WAS	John P.
	Kris Letang	PIT	Jeremy
	Goalies	NHL	Pool
	Braden Holtby	WAS	Stacey C.
	Henrik Lundqvist	NYR	Scott

And finally, the Metropolitan Division, where it was supposed to be Alex Ovechkin of the Capitals to be captaining the team, but he too opted to rest during the break, so we're thinking that Claude Giroux will take the leadership reins for the team this year.  Kris Letang of the Penguins was the last man in voted to the team for this squad, which certainly isn't short of play-making ability.

In terms of active players selected to go to the All-Star Game this year, Clayton and Grant lead the way with four selections each, while Stacey M. and Stuart each have three selections to play in the 3-on-3 tournament.

23 of 25 teams in the hockey pool have been represented in the selections, only Chelsea and Derek B. are without at least one player going to the mid-season tourney.  That can change over the next couple of weeks, there are some injury concerns still out there and players could be added and removed, as we draw closer to the event.  For now, this is what it will look like.