TORONTO — Of course Connor McDavid won the All-Star Skills Competition — he helped design it.
McDavid took home the $1 million prize after winning four of the eight challenges Friday night at Scotiabank Arena, including a dominant performance in the final competition, the obstacle course, by posting a staggering time of 40.606 seconds.
The NHL did a complete overhaul of the skills competition after the gimmicky events the league was putting on seemingly grew old.
McDavid played a pivotal role in the redesign of the events and the revamped format, which only featured 12 NHL players instead of every All-Star player.
McDavid won the fastest skater competition (13.408 seconds), the stick-handling competition (25.755 seconds), the accuracy shooting competition (9.158 seconds) and the obstacle course.
“There were a lot of guys that had input in it,” said McDavid, who noted that he doesn’t know what he’ll do with the prize money. “Obviously, from the league side, [NHL’s Chief Content Officer and Executive Vice President] Steve Mayer. Everybody was kind of involved. I thought it was entertaining. I know from a competitive side, definitely got competitive out there.
“I was huffing and puffing. Guys were working hard trying to put on a good show and I feel like we did that. We really feel good about it. Ultimately, it’s up to the fans and hopefully they enjoyed it.”
Islanders forward Mathew Barzal selected Igor Shesterkin as his goalie for the one-on-one challenge, saying he wanted to choose his “New York counterpart.”
Shesterkin made eight saves on Barzal, who scored four times on the Russian netminder.
Former Rangers goalie and Avalanche All-Star Alexandar Georgiev posted nine saves on McDavid to win the $100,000 prize.
