Shacks’ Take Jan 26, 2011 – The All-Star Draft

Five Days off for the all-star break? Really?  If it helps to rest the players on your favourite team for the stretch drive it's well worth it.  What about the hockey fan?

For the next five days there's the skills competition, which usually has about one interesting minute for every 15 you need to sit through, and the all-star game itself, which is about as close to a real hockey game as the Columbus Blue Jackets are close to a Stanley Cup.

Before the two NHL sponsored snoozefests and the real season resumes, we get the All-Star draft.  This made-for-tv, event has no relevance whatsoever. After the first pick all anyone wants to see is who's stuck until the end.  'I'm not picking the Maple Leaf 'til last' game was played last year, so how can they make this years event interesting past the first three minutes?

Easy. Daniel Alfredsson should not pick the Sedins until either his two last picks or leave the Sedins until the two very last picks. 

On the topic of Zdeno Chara being captain and drafting one of the teams, Milan Lucic said, "I'm pretty sure there won't be any Canucks on Z's team." Despite traditional rivalries with Montreal and New York, dating back to the original 6 and conference rivals like Philadelphia who Boston has met in the last two post-seasons, it's the Canucks rivalry that evokes the most hatred.

Well isn't that interesting? 

With three Canucks in the game there is the option to make him take a Canuck.  And how funny would that be?  The bizarre rules of the draft require that all defensemen must be drafted before the end so Alfredsson could pick his D-men early and leave Edler for Big Z to pick but that would kill the drama. 

I say Daniel Alfredsson should stay right away from the Sedins.  He should make them two of the last three players available.   Would Big Z really draft players like Milan Michalek and Jason Pominville just to keep a dastardly Canuck from being on Team Chara?  Could Alfredsson just wait until his last two picks to select two of the biggest talents in the game?  Even better, could he force Chara to pick which Sedin ends up on his team?

I love it. Really it's the only way to make anyone interested in this dog and pony show beyond the first pick — make the last pick interesting.  No one's going to care if the last pick is Jamie Benn or James Neal.  They will stay tuned to see how the Sedin saga plays out.