After a two-year hiatus from the NHL All-Star weekend, the league and the National Hockey League Players’ Association (NHLPA) announced the format for the next season’s event, which will take place on Feb. 5-6 on Long Island at UBS Arena.
It is no secret that two straight NHL seasons, briefly interrupted by international play, the Four Nations Tournament in 2025, and the Winter Olympics in 2026, created a ton of buzz around the sport. The 2027 Honda NHL All-Star Game is going to fully embrace that sentiment. The game, or rather tournament, will feature five different teams: Canada, Finland, Sweden, the USA, and the “World” team. The World team will consist of the best available players from outside the aforementioned four countries.
According to the NHL Public Relations Department, each roster will consist of 11 players: nine skaters and two goaltenders. The NHL and NHLPA will name 30 candidates for each participating team (150 total) for the 2027 NHL All-Star Fan Vote, which opens in December. Fans will then select eight players per team from that pool. The remaining three spots on each roster, one forward, one defenseman, and one goaltender, will be chosen jointly by the NHL and NHLPA.
The tournament will be three-on-three hockey. Each team will play four 5-minute round robin games, which will not have any overtime or shootouts. The point system in the round robin is: 2 points for a win, one for a tie, and zero for a loss. Once each team has completed their four games, the top two teams will advance to play a ten minute final with the winning team collecting a $2M prize.
In addition to the three-on-three tournament, there will be the skills competition which will spotlight ten of the league’s young stars ages 25 or younger to compete across eight events. All ten skaters will participate in the following: Fastest Skater, Hardest Shot, Passing Challenge, One Timers, Stick Handling and Accuracy Shooting. The top four players after these events will advance to a shootout. Thereafter, the two finalists will compete in an Obstacle Course Finale to decide the will. The skills competition champion will take home a $1M prize.
A third straight year of international best-on-best should make for a fantastic weekend on Long Island.
This article first appeared on Pro Hockey Rumors and was syndicated with permission.
