The NHL announced their All-Star rosters on Thursday night. While not directly related to fantasy, it gives us a good opportunity to talk about players across the league for the same reason other than, well, you know.

As a reminder, there must be one player selected from each NHL roster, and each division produces an 11-man roster. There are 10 announced from each division today, with the 11^th to be voted in by the fans. The Last Man In options can be viewed here.

Before showing the rosters, a few thoughts about the All-Star Game in general.

First, this is aimed at kids. While they want as big an audience as possible, this is targeted at kids who want to see their favourite players play with their other favourite players. With the NHL skipping the Olympics, this will be the only chance, for now, for them to see some quasi-best-on-best. Please just keep in mind that if you've hit puberty, you may have already aged out of the target audience here.

Second, while these don't really matter in the general scheme of things, a lot of players have All-Star bonuses built into their contract. There are a lot of millionaires among the elite players, but they won't all be as some rookies/young players inevitably (hopefully?) make it. To some players, this means nothing. To others, this could add 30% to their salary for the year. It does mean something to some of the guys, even beyond just the recognition.

For fantasy, I wonder if this adds trade value. The ol' "hey he's an all-star you know"-type deal. I don't think that's really how it works anymore in 2022 but each league is different and you never know what could tip the scales of a trade.

Regardless, this is supposed to be a fun thing and please, we all need a little bit of fun banter and discussion these days. With that said, here are the rosters, starting with the Atlantic:

The Atlantic Division includes 2x Stanley Cup champions Victor Hedman and Andrei Vasilevskiy, the two most recent Conn Smythe Trophy winners, as well as 2020-21 Maurice "Rocket" Richard winner Auston Matthews. #NHLAllStar #NHLStats

Captain: @AM34
Rosters: https://t.co/pNEaWOT2ut pic.twitter.com/29ROhJv2Rr

— NHL Public Relations (@PR_NHL) January 13, 2022

The one that really sticks out to me is Patrice Bergeron. No offence to the future Hall of Famer, but heading into Thursday night, teammate Brad Marchand was sitting at 1.4 points per game, on pace for over 110 in an 82-game season. While defence is part of it, Marchand is certainly no slouch defensively, and who wants defence at an All-Star Game? The fact that he's not a possibility for a fan vote, either, kind of has me suspicious that there are reasons other than on-ice performance for him not being considered in either regard.

I do find it funny that a team with Steven Stamkos, Nikita Kucherov, and Brayden Point is sending a defenceman and a goalie to the mid-season classic. It makes sense – they are elite and a big reason why the Bolts are a perennial juggernaut – it just struck me as funny.

Rasmus Dahlin getting the nod over Tage Thompson is interesting. It does make sense, as Dahlin is skating 24 minutes a night and could push for 50 points this year. Maybe its just my personal bias that thinks it would have been nice to see Thompson go from basically an afterthought in 2020 to an All Star in 2022. He's an All Star in my book! He's one of the options for a Last Man In vote.

We should give a mention to Drake Batherson here. The Sens do have quality options like Brady Tkachuk and Thomas Chabot, yet Batherson is here with 28 points in 24 games. It really has been hard to judge a lot of young players over the last two years because, well, you know. He has looked the future top-line scoring winger that young teams desperately need and getting this recognition has to feel good for him.

And now, the Metro division:

The Metropolitan Division will see young stars Jack Hughes (age 20) and Adam Fox (age 23) make their #NHLAllStar debut alongside veterans Alex Ovechkin (8th appearance) and Claude Giroux (7th appearance). #NHLAllStar #NHLStats

Captain: @ovi8
Rosters: https://t.co/pNEaWOT2ut pic.twitter.com/4J034QzYT7

— NHL Public Relations (@PR_NHL) January 13, 2022

This is the team where I had to sit down and think of an alternate roster. Surely, there had to be something better than sending Tristan Jarry from the Penguins and not sending Igor Shesterkin from the Rangers. So, here's my quick-thought Metro roster: Alex Ovechkin, Sebastian Aho, Jack Hughes, Adam Fox, Igor Shesterkin, Kris Letang, Mat Barzal, Zach Werenski, Claude Giroux, and Frederik Andersen. That makes 10 players, one to be voted in, with a 4-3-3 setup, and no Tristan Jarry or Adam Pelech, with all due respect to those guys. Someone get me on the All-Star committee.

For the picks themselves, Adam Pelech over Noah Dobson is just… I can't describe it. I like Pelech. I had him pegged as a potential defenceman for Team Canada had the NHL decided to go. But that's because he plays great defence. Again, like Bergeron, that's not exactly what we need here. Pelech has five points this year (heading into Thursday night). Five! Great defence, sure, but come on. Five points! There's a 22-year-old defenceman running the top power-play unit and pacing for over 40 points on his own team. Congrats to Pelech, he is a very good real-life defenceman, I just would have like to see the offensive-minded Dobson go.

*Edit: Pelech would go on to score about 90 minutes after I wrote this. The universe does have a good sense of humour.

Also, this would have been a super cool opportunity to have all of Sidney Crosby, Alex Ovechkin, and Claude Giroux on the same All-Star team. Those three guys have been going toe-to-toe for over a decade in some very memorable games. These guys are all aging, and it may be the last time we have a realistic shot to do something like this.

Working our way west to the Central:

The young stars have taken over the Central Division, with six players age 25 or younger – the most among all teams. It is also the highest-scoring division (119 combined goals). #NHLAllStar #NHLStats

Captain: @Mackinnon9
Rosters: https://t.co/pNEaWOT2ut pic.twitter.com/HubnoUWTQ4

— NHL Public Relations (@PR_NHL) January 13, 2022

Ok, now this is getting exciting. The marketing machinations aside, seeing Cale Makar, Alex DeBrincat, Kirill Kaprizov, and Jordan Kyrou share the ice on the same team is a pretty cool thing to see. Those guys will all be very important to their respective teams for years to come, so it'll be fun to see them skate together.

How about Joe Pavelski? He's over a point-per-game on the season at the age of 37, and on his way to the All-Star Game. I understand the clamouring for Jason Robertson instead here, and maybe with the rest of the young stars on the team it does make more sense, but this is probably Pavelski's last chance at one of these. Seeing a guy who has truly been one of the best scorers over the last decade get his flowers, as it were, is nice to see.

I'm going to be honest, all great players here, but I want to see Makar-MacKinnon-Kaprizov skate together at 3-on-3. That is one of those combinations that you put together playing NHL '22 and you start scoring at will. I imagine real life would be no different.

Finally, the Pacific division roster:

The Pacific Division boasts the most combined points by its skaters (278) and will see Alex Pietrangelo and Mark Stone represent the host @GoldenKnights alongside the NHL's top-two point producers. #NHLAllStar #NHLStats

Captain: @cmcdavid97
Rosters: https://t.co/pNEaWOT2ut pic.twitter.com/niQtJAq8D5

— NHL Public Relations (@PR_NHL) January 13, 2022

The biggest surprise here might be John Gibson from Anaheim. Realistically, he hasn't even been the best goalie on his own team this year, so seeing him with an All-Star nod is weird. Also, I can't help but feel that the NHL is really fumbling the bag by not letting Trevor Zegras, the guy with the most well-known NHL highlight this year and a Calder candidate, on the roster. He isn't even on the last man in ballot, as Troy Terry has his spot. Again, it just feels like there needs to be a way to get Zegras to the All-Star Game instead of his team's second-best goalie.

There really aren't other surprises than maybe Adrian Kempe. He is having a very good year with 16 goals in 36 games, but just 22 points, and Anze Kopitar is sitting right there. Kudos to Kempe on getting to the ASG, regardless. He has had a very good season and it's a just reward.

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Frank Seravalli over at Daily Faceoff broke news of the pending USA Olympic team that would be later announced on Thursday night. It looks as thus:

NEWS: Reporting with @chrismpeters, sources tell @DailyFaceoff these 25 players are expected to be named to Team USA 🇺🇸 for #Beijing2022 Olympics later today.

13 #NHL prospects. Three 1st rd picks. 1 returnee from 2018: O'Neill. 15 NCAA, 5 KHL, 2 SHL, 2 AHL, 1 DEL. pic.twitter.com/kbKY139kBx

— Frank Seravalli (@frank_seravalli) January 13, 2022

There is a mix of drafted NHL prospects like Matty Beniers, Matthew Knies, Brock Faber, and Jake Sanderson with former NHLers like Kenny Agostino, Nick Shore, Aaron Ness, and Steven Kampfer. That is what makes this team interesting; if some of the top-end prospects they have, particularly up front, find some chemistry, this looks like a fun team.

For selfish fantasy purposes, Matty Beniers is the guy I'll be watching. He was the second overall pick last year and that was a difficult draft to pin down, given all the shutdowns due to COVID. He has 26 points in 22 games at Michigan and our writers have mostly been high on him. I have also seen some support from him from prospect people I follow. I trust our writers and the people I follow so I drafted him in a dynasty cap league this past October. These Olympics will give us a chance to see him play against good competition, if not true NHLers. One tournament doesn't change a lot when it comes to perception, but it would be nice to see him have a good showing against professional hockey players, even if he's a teenager.

This could be a big tournament for Jake Sanderson as well. Also a teenager, the Ottawa Senators would love to see a nice performance from him, on top of his great production at North Datoka this year. There were questions about this selection at the time but he's had a great 2021-22 and now he's on the Olympic team. A good showing here, playing a steady presence for them, would quell some of the remaining questions as to his upside.

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Columbus absolutely steamrolled Carolina by a score of 6-0. Rookie goalie Jack LaFontaine got in net for Carolina in the third and allowed the final two goals after Frederik Andersen let in the first four. It just was not a good game from the Hurricanes who looked slow from puck drop.

Yegor Chinakhov scored twice for the Jackets and now has three goals in four games. He won't have fantasy value this year skating as few minutes as he does but it's nice to see the scoring flashes that are going to make him a long-term NHLer.

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David Pastrnak had a hat trick to lead Boston to a 3-2 win over Philadelphia. That gives him eight goals in five games and it's safe to say that regression finally hit, in a good way. Boston now looks to have two dangerous scoring lines again, which is bad news for the rest of the East.

Tuukka Rask was solid enough in his debut, saving 25 of 27 in the win.

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Nikita Kucherov had two assists and four shots on Thursday night in Tampa's 4-2 win over Vancouver. That gives him seven points in four games since returning from injury. It appears he's quite good.