The 2024 NHL All-Star Game is set to take place in Toronto next February.
The NHL All-Star Game will head north next season.
The Toronto Maple Leafs were selected to host the 2024 NHL all-star weekend, the NHL announced on Saturday before this year's game kicks off in South Florida. The skills competition is scheduled for Friday, Feb. 2, 2024, with the game marked for Feb. 3.
"We are thrilled to bring the Honda NHL All-Star Game back to Toronto for the ninth time, and to shine a spotlight on our current stars in a setting that evokes over a century of league history," NHL commissioner Gary Bettman said in a statement.
Toronto hosted the first unofficial All-Star Game in 1934 – it was the Ace Bailey All-Star Tribute Game which was a fundraiser for the Maple Leafs forward and his family after he suffered a career-ending injury in December 1933.
The Maple Leafs also hosted the first official NHL All-Star Game 13 years later, in 1947. That time, the Leafs were the defending Stanley Cup champions and faced a roster made up from the five other teams in the Original Six Era. The All-Stars beat Toronto 4-3.
Toronto last hosted the All-Star Game in 2000, and it's the first time a Canadian team will host the festivities since 2012 in Ottawa when Team Chara beat Team Alfredsson 12-9 and Patrick Kane pulled off the Superman move.
"We very much look forward to welcoming the game's biggest stars and treating our fans – and fans from around the world – to a premiere event that showcases all of what Toronto has to offer," said Leafs president and alternate governor Brendan Shanahan in a statement.
It will be worth staying tuned next season for the events planned for the skills competition. South Florida took advantage of the sunny weather this weekend, featuring the Splash Shot challenge with dunk tanks on the beach and a round of golf, hockey style.
Toronto is not known for beaches and golf in February, to say the least. Will the CN Tower come into play for an event, or perhaps as part of a lead-up video to a breakaway challenge attempt, like Mitch Marner's "Miami Vice" impression on Friday night? Could the Casa Loma be the backdrop for a new accuracy challenge like Splash Shot in Florida or the Fountain Faceoff in Las Vegas in 2021? Only time will tell.