About This Quiz
Oct. 13, 1947, was the inaugural NHL All-Star game. For those first twenty-one years, the Stanley Cup champs would duke it out with a team of All-Stars from the rest of the league. After that the game became geographical, pitting the best of the Eastern Conference against the best of the Western. And now it's an elimination tournament between the four divisions. The only thing that has remained consistent since day one is the skill involved. These players are good at what they do. But in a league full of pros, the cream will rise to the top and other players who are still amazing just may not cut it. Imagine being part of the early '90s Pittsburgh Penguins trying to compete with Mario Lemieux and Jaromir Jagr. Or being on any team with Wayne Gretzky or Gordie Howe in their prime. Even the best player would pale in comparison and miss their shot at the All-Star game.
Chalk it up to a surplus of amazing talent, but not every great player gets to be ranked as an All-Star. It's time to test your knowledge of All-Stars past to see if you can guess who's been to the Big Game and who never quite made the grade.
Claude Lemieux was an amazing player and had some great showings in Stanley Cup games, but they never gave him the All-Star nod during his career. He helped take four of those Stanley Cups home, too, but the Devils sent Scot Stevens to the All-Stars rather than Lemieux.
Connor McDavid has had three All-Star game appearances so far starting in 2017 up to 2019. This is after his appearance on the NHL All-Rookie team in 2016 and making OHL Player of the Year in 2015.
Gordie Howe wasn't considered one of the greatest hockey players of all time for no reason. He made 23 All-Star appearances in his career, the first in 1948 and the last in 1980, spanning longer than most people even have careers in the NHL.
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Leon Draisaitl started playing hockey in Germany before being drafted by the Edmonton Oilers. He helped take the Oilers to the Stanley Cup finals and scored 16 points in the post-season as well. 2019 marks his first All-Star Game.
David Pastrnak was picked up for the 2019 All-Star Game after making a strong showing for himself first in 2016-2017 where he finished second on the team with 70 points and then improving it to 80 points by the next year.
Despite playing in 1318 games in the NHL, superstar center Guy Carbonneau, one of the most famous and popular Montreal Canadiens to ever strap on skates, somehow never made it to an All-Star Game
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Patrick Kane is well familiar with the All-Star Game, having played in eight of them in his career so far. His first appearance was 2009 and his last was 2019. In between, the only years he missed were 2010, 2013 and 2014.
Mike Ricci was a great player in an unlucky spot. While he could routinely score over 20 goals in a season and had a 78-point season once with the San Jose Sharks, the fact remains he was on a team with Mats Sundin and Joe Sakic, and third best doesn't get to be an All-Star.
Nathan MacKinnon was the youngest player in Avalanche history when he was drafted, just barely over 18 years old. He's made two appearances in the All-Star Game so far in 2017 and 2018. When he won the Calder Trophy, he was the youngest rookie to ever take the award.
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With over 1,000 points scored and three Hart trophies to his name, if you know Alex Ovechkin you know he's been to more than his share of All-Star games. He was the number one pick in the 2004 draft, and with good reason.
Despite being a solid all-around player, Geoff Courtnall never played in an All-Star Game. That's even with having multiple 70+ point seasons that just weren't enough to get him over the edge with the other players on his team. His brother Russ managed an All-Star Game though, so at least their parents got to see one son pull it off.
Bobby Hull was a powerhouse in his day and made every All-Star Game from the 1960s with the exception of 1966, and then the first three games of the '70s as well. You have to assume he just had the flu or some such back in '66.
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Marchand has a reputation for pushing people's buttons on the ice and he has the skill to back it up. He's appeared at the All-Star Game in both 2017 and 2018. In the 2016-2017 season alone he managed to score an impressive 39 goals.
Petr Nedved somehow never played at all in an All-Star Game, this despite scoring 45 goals and 99 points in the 1995-1996 season and 38 goals in 1992. His problem was he was up against the likes of Mario Lemieux and Jaromir Jagr, so his chances were limited at best.
Maurice Richard was no slouch. He showed up a solid 13 times at the All-Star Game, including every single one for the entire decade of the 1950s. He was known for being an unstoppable force on the ice and would skate over just about anyone in his way.
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John Tavares has had six All-Star games, including the last 5 years straight. He pulled down 47 goals in his 2018-2019 year and a total of 88 points overall and has had four seasons with an 80+ point total so far.
Bobby Bauer played in 1939 and 1947, Bob Goldham played in several games starting in 1947 and Bobby Hull played in numerous games. Only Bobby Essensa never made it all the way despite being a pretty solid goalie.
Washington Capitals defenseman John Carlson got his first call to the All-Star Game in 2019. In the 2017 and 2018 season, he led the team's defensemen in post-season with 5 goals and 15 assists after pulling in 68 points in the regular season.
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Corey Perry has made four appearances at the All-Star Game, his first in 2008 and his most recent in 2016. In his 2010-2011 season with the Anaheim Ducks, he managed an incredible 50 goals and 98 total points.
Despite being a solid goal scorer, Chris Drury never got the call to the big game. Part of that was bad timing, as one of his best seasons overall was in 2005 and the lockout made sure there wasn't going to be an All-Star Game that year.
Brayden Point has proven himself to be a great player in a very short period of time. In 2017 and 2018, he made it to the All-Star Game after a 66 point season. In 2018-2019 he actually managed to up his game to a 92 point season with 41 goals.
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Chris Chelios carved a niche for himself as a powerful defenseman in his NHL career and made 11 showings at All-Star games between 1985 and 2002. Chelios' career was marked by opponents hating him but teammates loving him and everyone respecting him.
Joe Mullen was the first American player to score over 500 goals and the first to crack 1,000 points. The only surprising thing about his All-Star appearances is that there weren't more of them. He made three showings at the All-Star Game in his career.
Nikita Kucherov has made it to three All-Star games, and one look at his stats can remove any question as to why. In the 2018-2019 season, he scored 41 goals and 128 points in total to place him third in the NHL overall.
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Calgary Flames goalie Cam Talbot hasn't made it to an All-Star Game while Bishop, Hextall and Patrick Roy all have. Roy actually showed up for 11 games in his career and Hextall made it in '88 while Bishop showed up in 2016.
Paul Coffey is a 14-time All-Star and arguably one of the greatest players of all time. This guy was a defenseman and still slaughtered when it came to goal scoring. In the 1985-1986 season, he scored 48 goals and 138 points.
Despite being a solid goalie, Hrudey never made it to an Al-Star Game, another player cursed by having teammates who were too good. His save percentage was routinely .900 and above but it just wasn't enough.
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John Marino hasn't proven himself as an Al-Star just yet, but the other players more than have. Letang has had 5 showings, while both Lemieux and Jagr had a nice round 10 each, mostly throughout the 1990s.
Despite being a Hall of Famer, Ed Olczyk never made it to an All-Star Game. He cracked 40 goals in the '87-88 season and had actually managed three 30+ seasons as well, but the competition was stiff at the height of his game.
Captain of the Montreal Canadiens and never an All-Star player, Max Pacioretty hasn't had his time in the sun yet despite routinely cracking the 30-goal mark and snagging the Bill Masterson trophy.
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Henrik Zetterberg was actually selected to play in the All-Star Game not once but twice. Despite that, he' s never been in an All-Star Game thanks to injuries keeping him sidelined on both occasions. Talk about your bad luck.
One of the best and brightest stars of the recent era in the NHL, Crosby was the youngest captain to ever win the Stanley Cup at age 21 with the Pittsburgh Penguins. He's also made four separate appearances in All-Star games.
Francois Beauchemin surprisingly never made it to an All-Star game despite being one of the best defenders in the league. He made the second team in 2013 but never actually got to put skates on the ice.
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Aaron Dell hasn't made an All-Star appearance yet, but many of his teammates have. Joe Thornton, for instance, has actually made it to the game six times as well as having earned a Hart Trophy and an Art Ross trophy.
Brock Boeser is the only All-Star on the list here, having made it to the game in 2018. He managed to score 25 goals in his first 44 games in the NHL and in the 2018-2019 season he joined the 30 goals in a season club.