(Toronto) Auston Matthews has recruited some familiar faces as the NHL All-Star Game approaches.
In Thursday’s draft, ahead of Saturday’s classic, the Maple Leafs sniper first selected teammates William Nylander and Mitch Marner.
Matthews made those picks while being paired with Leafs defenseman Morgan Rielly and captain Justin Bieber from the celebrity department.
Saturday’s confrontations will pit four teams against each other.
Matthews’ team also includes Filip Forsberg (Nashville), Clayton Keller (Arizona), Mathew Barzal (Islanders), Vincent Trocheck (Rangers), Alex DeBrincat (Detroit), Jake Oettinger (Dallas) and Igor Shesterkin (Rangers).
Connor McDavid of the Oilers, with his teammate Leon Draisaitl and Will Arnett, celebrities, built a group including the captain of the Canadiens, Nick Suzuki.
This club is also made up of Sam Reinhart (Florida), Robert Thomas (St. Louis), Rasmus Dahlin (Buffalo), Boone Jenner (Columbus), Tomas Hertl (San Jose), David Pastrnak (Boston), Connor Hellebuyck (Winnipeg) and Sergei Bobrovsky (Florida).
Canucks defenseman Quinn Hughes, his Devils brother Jack and singer Michael Buble were drafted as follows: Brock Boeser (Vancouver), Brady Tkachuk (Ottawa), JT Miller (Vancouver), Elias Pettersson (Vancouver), Jesper Bratt (New Jersey), Frank Vatrano (Anaheim), Kyle Connor (Winnipeg), Nikita Kucherov (Tampa Bay), Thatcher Demko (Vancouver) and Cam Talbot (Los Angeles).
Finally, Avalanche center Nathan MacKinnon, Avalanche defenseman Cale Makar and singer Tate McRae set their sights on Sidney Crosby (Pittsburgh), Elias Lindholm (Canucks), Travis Konecny (Philadelphia), Sebastian Aho (Caroline ), Oliver Bjorkstrand (Seattle), Tom Wilson (Washington), Kirill Kaprizov (Minnesota), Jeremy Swayman (Boston) and Alexandar Georgiev (Colorado).