AMSTERDAM – More than half of the general managers in the EURO League have voted to decide who will represent the Northern and Southern Conferences in this weekend’s All-Star Game.
Six members of the defending EURO Cup champion Berlin Smurfs will play in the game Sunday and goalie Chris Dreidger leads a contingent of four Paris Rouge Eiffels. He and defensemen Erik Karlsson and Ken Kuusk were all named to the starting lineup for the South and they will play with the Smurfs’ top forward line of Ryan Nugent-Hopkins, Vadim Shipachyov and Eliezer Sherbatov. The top line for the Bern Interrail – Mark Stone, Sebastian Aho and Mika Zibanejad – also made the squad, as did a pair of Zurich Lions defensemen Charlie McAvoy and Justin Faulk.
The North, which has dominated this game in the past, features four members of the Dublin Guinness Chuggers and four members of the Oslo Outlaws. Martin Jones of London gets the start in goal, and in front of him will be Nerius Alisauskas (Helsinki) and Hampus Lindholm (Dublin) on defense with a forward line made up of Auston Matthews (Copenhagen), William Nylander (Dublin) and legend Steven Stamkos who will be playing in his home arena in Amsterdam.
Many of the all-stars have been here before. For Karlsson, this will be All-Star Game number 11. Stamkos is making his ninth appearance. For others, it will be their debut. Gurkan Cetinkaya of Edinburgh has almost always gotten votes in all-star balloting, but this year, he finally made it and will be paired with Aaron Ekblad of Minsk, who will be in his third all-star game. Lisbon’s Mathew Barzal is a newcomer on the South side.
Speaking of Ekblad and Barzal, they are two of the six players who were not voted onto the team by GMs, but rather elevated by the commissioner in order to get every team represented. Also elevated were Max Pacioretty (Gothenburg), Mikko Lehtonen (Hanover), Zemgus Girgensons (Bratislava) and Tyler Myers (Athens). Special apologies to Brock Boeser of Helsinki, who the commissioner overlooked in compiling the ballots. Still, Boeser earned enough write-in votes to finish on the team at right wing, but was later removed to make way for a player from a team not represented in the game.
Amsterdam’s mayor, Femke Helsema, has been named honorary coach of the Northern Conference, while the Netherlands’ Prime Minister, Mark Rutte, will be on the South’s bench. Neither has experience coaching.
After the game, all general Managers have been invited to a dinner and reception at Amsterdam GM Ben Stuller’s home in Monnickendam, just northeast of the city. “Try not to fall into the canal,” he advised, looking at Madrid’s Tony B.
The annual Skills Competition will be held Saturday.
Here are the rosters for the Season 14 All-Star Game:
