All-Stars Fan Vote: Pick Your Captain
It’s the most important election of 2016–for hockey, anyway.
The All-Star Fan Vote has started. From today, Dec. 1, fans have one month to cast ballots for one player in each division–the winner of which captain his team in the NHL All-Star three-on-three tourney Jan. 31.
“Fans will be permitted to select as few as one player and a maximum of four players per ballot,” according to an NHL media release.
The ballots do, however, limit voters to one selection, regardless of position, per division.
This is a very big change from last year, when fans were given freedom to choose three forwards, two defensemen, and one goalie based on popularity alone. Fans then gave the All-Star weekend five Chicago Blackhawks—Jonathan Toews, Patrick Kane, Duncan Keith, Brent Seabrook, and Corey Crawford–and Buffalo Sabre Zemgus Girgensons, whose home country of Latvia rocked the vote with 1,574,896 ballots in the six-week period. His voter turnout brought the outside-of-the-U.S. votes up 7,000 percent from the previous year.
As for changes this year, the NHL is boasting more high-tech options.
“The ballot will include enhanced interactive features, all designed to simplify the player search options for fans, including filtering and sorting by real-time statistics, position, team, and a player’s trending status.”
There’s also a fan sweepstakes–where eligible participants in the U.S. and Canada can win a trip to the 2016 Honda All-Star festivities in Nashville.
To join the fun, visit: NHL.com/vote
- For broadband and tablets: NHL.com/vote features interactive content in English and French accessible worldwide.
- Mobile: Also worldwide, mobile users can cast ballots using NHL.com/vote with any mobile carrier or using the official NHL app on iOS or Android.
- Social media: After visiting NHL.com/vote, users can share their selections and invite other users to join via Facebook and Twitter. They can also join the All-Star conversation with #NHLAllStar
Each user may vote 10 times daily until 11:59:59 p.m. ET Jan. 1, 2016.
The remaining 40 All-Stars will be chosen by NHL Hockey Operations, with at least one player per team, according to a prior media release. The winningest coaches (based on points) in each division on Jan. 9 will lead each team for the game.
Live television coverage of the Honda NHL All-Star Skills Competition starts at 6 p.m. CT Saturday, Jan. 30 and the Honda NHL All-Star Tournament starts at 5 p.m. CT Sunday, Jan. 31 on NBCSN in the U.S. and Sportsnet and TVA Sports in Canada.
Don’t forget to vote–NHL.com/vote.
