All-Stars: Jordan Staal makes most of opportunity

Jordan Staal of Minsk earned more votes than any other EURO League forward in all-star game voting.

An injury to teammate Nicklas Backstrom has turned into All-Star gold for Jordan Staal of Minsk. A second-line center while Backstrom is healthy, Staal has filled in on the Hussars’ first line often this season and he has drawn overwhelming recognition from general managers who voted for the rosters of the upcoming all-star game in Moscow.

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Staal has 59 points in 42 games, better than any other Northern Conference player and second only to Lisbon’s John Tavares in the league. He is also tied for second in the EURO in goals (21) and is first among forwards in hits with 84. He is one of 7 Minsk Hussars who will play in the All-Star Game.

No player will get tired in the game because to allow at least one representative of every team, the game will feature 5 forwards lines, 4 sets of defensemen and 3 goalies.

Goalie Henrik Lundquist and defensemen Victor Hedman and Dougie Hamilton will represent the top team in the league, Copenhagen, and the defending Cup champs in Belfast will have Matt Duchene, Ondrej Palat, Oliver Ekman-Larsson and goalie Jonathan Quick in the game for the North.

The Southern Conference is led by Paris defenseman Alex Pietrangelo and the league’s leading scorer, John Tavares of Lisbon. Paris, Bratislava and Athens each have 4 representatives in the game.

Overlooked?

A few players have to be wondering why GMs didn’t pick them to play in the game. Jan Kovar of St. Petersburg is one of the league’s top-scoring left wings in the EURO – in fact, only Berlin’s Andrey Bykov has more points – but Kovar received no votes. His brother, Jakub, plays goal for Edinburgh, is 6th in the league in save percentage, and narrowly missed a spot on the team. Ryan Nugent-Hopkins had lots of competition for a spot on the South squad, but he failed to make it despite being tied for third in scoring among centers in the conference. Corey Perry of Paris and Minsk’s Gustav Nyquist are the highest-scoring right wings left out of the game.

Coaches

League Commissioner Chuck Massaro has selected the coaches for this year’s game and neither will have far to travel. A coin flip the morning of the game will determine which teams Vladimir Vorobyov and Vadim Yepanchintsev will coach in the game. Both are current KHL coaches of Moscow teams – Vorobyov coaching Dynamo and Yepanchintsev coaching Spartak.