Cale Maker and William Nylander both look to win events in tonight’s NHL All-Star Skills Competition
The 2024 NHL Skills Competition takes place tonight in Toronto with 12 All-Stars competing in events to see who is the best at certain aspects of the game. Each of the players will take part in four of the first six events of the evening with the Fastest Skater, Hardest Shot, Stick Handling, One Timers, Passing Challenge and Accuracy Shooting.
Each player will look to assert themselves among the league’s elite and win their respective events but there can only be one winner and we look to predict who that will be. If you plan to watch tonight’s special event and want to win some cash while doing it, here are our picks for who will win some of tonight’s events.
All betting lines are from Bet365 and are subject to change. Please gamble responsibly.
Fastenal NHL Fastest Skater
Connor McDavid is the favourite for this one and for good reason. The Oilers captain is in the 99th percentile in 20-22 mph bursts of speed with 227 and in 22+ mph bursts with 43 on the season. His top speed was clocked at 24.05 mph according to NHL Edge, which is 0.52 mph ahead of the next closest contestant in Mathew Barzal.
The Islanders centre is the closest to McDavid when it comes to his skating numbers with a top speed of 23.53 mph, that lands him in the 97th percentile and 187 speed bursts of 20-22 mph that is in the 98th percentile. His numbers are impressive despite being far behind McDavid and should make him a close secondary choice as he’s won this event in 2020. You should ride with the favourite but also have a safe contingency plan with Barzal.
Pick: Connor McDavid (+120) or Mathew Barzal (+225)
Cheetos NHL Accuracy Shooting
You may expect the big names like McDavid or Matthews to be the best suited for this one but we should expect a two horse race with Nathan MacKinnon and William Nylander. These two have the highest shooting percentage on net out of all the contestants with only 36 per cent of their shots not landing on net.
The favourite David Pastrnak is close to these two as well with 37 per cent of his shots not hitting the net. However, MacKinnon has been dominant lately with 31 goals, that has him top five in the league entering the break. Nylander will have the boost of being the hometown hero playing for the Leafs. I expect him to come out of nowhere with everyone expecting Matthews to win it for the home crowd but it ends up being Nylander.
Pick: Nathan MacKinnon (+750) or William Nylander (+800)
Rogers NHL Hardest Shot
Elias Pettersson shocked hockey fans when he won this event in the last All-Star game with a staggering 103.2 mph shot that made him the fourth forward ever to win the competition. He comes into this year’s event now as the favourite and rightfully so with the highest top speed of any competitor with 97.67 mph on a shot that has him in the 91st percentile.
This is normally a defenseman’s event to lose however and Cale Makar should show fans why. Not only does the Avs’ defenseman have more shots between 80-90 mph (66) and 90-100 mph (17) than Pettersson but also has his top shot speed only 1.49 mph behind. He should establish himself as a sharpshooter and win this event at a great value.
Pick: Cale Makar (+350)