Tampa Bay Lightning forward Nikita Kucherov and defenseman Victor Hedman are officially NHL All-Stars for the very first time.
The two were named to the Atlantic Division team when the full rosters were announced this afternoon.
Kucherov and Hedman are the Lightning’s top two scorers this season. Kucherov leads the team with 16 goals and 39 points in 35 games played; Hedman has seven goals and 37 points in 42 games. In a season fraught with injuries, Hedman is only one of three players to have played all 42 games (Tyler Johnson and Alex Killorn are the others).
All-Star weekend takes place Jan. 27-29 in Los Angeles. Festivities include the skills competition and the game, which played in the 3-on-3 format with four teams comprising of each division for the second straight year.
Sidney Crosby, Connor McDavid, P.K. Subban and Carey Price were the first All-Stars named through fan voting and each will serve as his division’s captain.
Check out the full rosters below:
Your 2017 NHL All-Stars pic.twitter.com/0krj6ztyU8
— Greg Wyshynski (@wyshynski) January 10, 2017
The four coaches will be behind the bench are: Michel Therrien (Atlantic), Bruce Boudreau (Central), John Tortorella (Metropolitan) and Peter DeBoer (Pacific). The coach in each division whose team had the highest points percentage (points earned divided by total possible points) were named.
