The Capitals center leads the team with 13 goals this season.
The Washington Capitals will see Tom Wilson represent their team at the 2024 NHL All-Star Game in Toronto, his second nomination in three years. And while the nomination is well-deserved, there are questions as to whether or not Dylan Strome should have earned his first nomination for the festivities up north.
Strome leads Washington with 13 goals this season and is on pace for his first-career 30-goal season. His 22 points rank second on the team behind captain Alex Ovechkin, who has a team-leading 24 points and is on pace for 55 this season.
Ovechkin also did not earn a nomination amid struggles to find twine earlier this season. He has just eight goals so far. Another potential candidate was Charlie Lindgren, but the netminder is dealing with an injury.
It would have marked the first All-Star Game selection for Strome, who went third overall in the 2015 NHL Draft. And for the 26-year-old, it would have been well deserved.
Strome helped carry the Capitals' struggling offense to open the season, making headlines with his goal-scoring as he worked to jumpstart his playmaking ability. For the majority of the year, he has been playing in the first-line center role alongside Ovechkin and Wilson, though of late, he has been playing on the second and third lines as the team experiments with changes up front.
While Strome has been impressive, Wilson's play has also spoken volumes. He has 11 goals and eight assists for 19 points in 36 games, while also becoming one of Washington's alternate captains with Nicklas Backstrom stepping away from the game. He also has 107 hits (good for seventh in the league) and 19 drawn penalties.
Though he was not one of the NHL's 32 initial All-Star selections, Strome can still make the cut through means of the fan vote. There are 12 more spots open for the NHL All-Star Weekend, which takes place Feb. 1-3 at Scotiabank Arena.