The NHL announced its all-star teams Thursday, and the first all-star team had two elite players who were first all-star team members for the first time. One was Winnipeg Jets left winger Kyle Connor, and the other was Columbus Blue Jackets defenseman Zach Werenski. Both players were deserving of the honor, but some observers suggested Werenski should’ve been beaten out by Vancouver Canucks blueliner Quinn Hughes, who wound up on the league’s second all-star team..
While people can make a decent argument Hughes should’ve been on the first all-star team, we’re inclined to suggest the voters got it right by putting Werenski ahead of Hughes. As we’ll explain below, Hughes had another terrific year, but there were issues that affected him, and Werenski had a better season.
This is not to denigrate Hughes, who was on the league’s first all-star team in 2023-24. The 25-year-old Hughes posted 60 assists and 76 points in 68 games with the Canucks – numbers most NHLers would kill for. But missing out on 14 games due to injury opened the door for other players to surpass him in all-star team voting this season.
Werenski was the guy who walked through that door and earned his first career first all-star team accolade. Werenski ratcheted up his game in a major way this season, putting up a career-high 59 assists and 82 points in 81 games, which was three more goals and 13 more assists than his previous career-highs. Werenski was one of the key reasons the Blue Jackets competed for a playoff spot, and at 27 years old, he’s clearly in his prime. Most oppositions couldn’t contain Werenski, and Columbus had the eighth-best offense in the league (averaging 3.26 goals-for per-game) in no small part because of him.
Sometimes voters seem to pick players based on reputation, and that would’ve been the case had Hughes got the first all-star team honor over Werenski this season. And again, we’re not here to tell you Werenski is better than Hughes. Indeed, if you polled NHL GMs as to which player they’d choose between Hughes and Werenski, we’d bet the majority of them would select Hughes. Both blueliners are dynamic puck-movers and puck-possessors, but the way the hockey gods allowed the current season to play out, Werenski did more than Hughes, even though Hughes couldn’t produce as much by no fault of his own.
Making one of the two all-star teams is a serious honor, as it basically identifies which players were the most productive in an all-around sense. This season, superstars like Colorado Avalanche icons Nathan MacKinnon and Cale Makar made the first all-star team once again, while Nikita Kucherov of the Tampa Bay Lightning and Connor Hellebuyck of the Winnipeg Jets were on the first all-star team also in a repeat capacity.
On the second all-star team, Lightning stars Victor Hedman, Andrei Vasilevskiy and Brandon Hagel made it, as did Edmonton Oilers superstar center Leon Draisaitl, Boston Bruins right winger David Pastrnak and Hughes. All of those players could play on our team any day.
That said, if we’re splitting hairs – and really, that’s what we’re doing by delineating between first and second all-star teams – we have to go with the players who stood out the most this year. And the truth is that Werenski stood out just a little bit more than Hughes did.
At this time next year, the opposite could be true, but for now, you have to give Werenski his due. He was brilliant for the Jackets this season, and even better days may be ahead for him. This probably won’t be the last time he’s a first all-star team player, and the same goes for Hughes. But this year, Werenski did a little bit more than Hughes did, and that’s why he earned the first all-star team nod.
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