Three members of the Vancouver Canucks will be showing off their skills at the 2024 NHL All-Star Skills Competition.
Canucks fans showed up in force for the fan vote to fill out the roster at the All-Star Game, voting in Thatcher Demko, Elias Pettersson, J.T. Miller, and Brock Boeser to join Quinn Hughes in Toronto at the beginning of February. But the fan vote wasn't done.
The revamped Skills Competition will see 12 All-Stars compete in a series of events, almost like a hockey decathlon. The NHL appointed ten of those All-Stars, including the Canucks' Elias Pettersson, which makes a lot of sense given Pettersson's well-rounded set of skills.
The remaining two competitors were left up to a fan vote and the Canucks fan voting bloc once again showed up in force, filling out both of the remaining two spots with Canucks players.
That's right, Pettersson will be one of three Canucks in the Skills Competition, as Quinn Hughes and J.T. Miller were voted in by the fans to join him.
That's an incredible showing by Canucks fans, out-voting the entire rest of the NHL to get Hughes and Miller into the contest, which features a million-dollar prize.
Not every competitor will take part in every event, however. Each player will compete in four of the first six events: Fastest Skater, Hardest Shot, Passing Challenge, One Timers, Stick Handling, and Accuracy Shooting.
Players will receive points based on how they finish in each event, then the top-eight players will move on to the seventh event: One-on-One. In this event, each player will face off against an All-Star goalie of their choosing, attempting to score goals with a set number of pucks.
The One-on-One event will narrow the field to six players, who will then compete in the Obstacle Course, which will test a variety of skills with a series of obstacles. Point totals will be doubled for the Obstacle Course event, meaning even the sixth-place player could have a chance to come from behind for the win.
Pettersson will be a likely favourite in the event given he's the reigning Hardest Shot champion, has a blistering and accurate one-timer, has competed in the Fastest Skater event before, has a laser-accurate wrist shot, does his dekes, and is a high-end playmaker. Given the series of events in the Skills Competition, Pettersson doesn't have a single weakness.
That said, Hughes and Miller also have well-rounded skill sets and could have a chance to make some noise in the event, depending on the events they choose among the first six events.
Will a Canuck come home with the million-dollar prize?
