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2015 NHL All Star Game: Check out our roster predictions

The first six players have already been named, via the fan vote- Patrick Kane, Jonathan Toews, Zemgus Girgensons, Duncan Keith, Brent Seabrook and Corey Crawford. The league will name the remaining players tomorrow, and in advance of that a few of us at The Cannon offer up our predictions of who will be named:

FORWARD

MIKE DAN JEFF ERIC MATT
Girgensons Girgensons Girgensons Girgensons Girgensons
Kane Kane Kane Kane Kane
Toews Toews Toews Toews Toews
Voracek Voracek Voracek Voracek Voracek
Foligno Foligno Foligno Foligno Foligno
Johansen Johansen Johansen Johansen Johansen
Nash Nash Nash Nash Nash
Crosby Crosby Crosby Crosby Crosby
Malkin Malkin Malkin Malkin Malkin
Giroux Giroux Giroux Giroux Giroux
Tavares Tavares Tavares Tavares Tavares
Ovechkin Ovechkin Ovechkin Ovechkin Ovechkin
Stamkos Stamkos Stamkos Kessel Stamkos
T. Johnson T. Johnson T. Johnson T. Johnson Kessel
Seguin Seguin Seguin Seguin Seguin
Getzlaf Getzlaf Getzlaf Getzlaf Getzlaf
Tarasenko Tarasenko Tarasenko Tarasenko Tarasenko
Zetterberg Forsberg Forsberg Forsberg Forsberg
Kessel Backstrom Hudler Backstrom Backstrom
Pavelski Pavelski Pavelski Pavelski Pavelski
Parise Zetterberg Gaudreau Datsyuk Datsyuk
D. Sedin Hudler D. Sedin D. Sedin D. Sedin
Kucherov Kucherov Little Pacioretty Pacioretty
Nugent-Hopkins van Riemsdyk Thornton Bergeron Bergeron

DEFENSE

MIKE DAN JEFF ERIC MATT
Keith Keith Keith Keith Keith
Seabrook Seabrook Seabrook Seabrook Seabrook
Subban Subban Subban Subban Subban
Karlsson Karlsson Karlsson Karlsson Karlsson
Weber Weber Letang Weber Weber
Chara Leddy Hamilton Brodie Chara
Doughty Doughty Franson Doughty Doughty
E. Johnson Barrie Carlson Carlson Josi
Giordano Giordano Giordano Giordano Giordano
Shattenkirk Shattenkirk Shattenkirk Shattenkirk Yandle
Burns Burns Burns Burns Burns
Yandle Yandle Vatanen Suter Vatanen

GOALIE

MIKE DAN JEFF ERIC MATT
Crawford Crawford Crawford Crawford Crawford
Rinne Rinne Rinne Rinne Halak
Price Price Price Price Price
Bobrovsky Howard Bobrovsky Bobrovsky Bobrovsky
Luongo Luongo Lundqvist Luongo Miller
Hutchinson C. Anderson Quick F. Andersen F. Andersen

I’ll speak for myself when I say I had a hard time including everybody I thought was worthy. I also found myself including players who may not have deserved an All Star Spot, but I couldn’t imagine a scenario where the league wouldn’t want him there. (Think hardest shot competition)

I tried to get representation from every team, and I did that with the exception of New Jersey and Carolina. The workaround for that is the inclusion of rookies into the skill events. Defenseman Damon Severson is having a solid rookie year, so there’s New Jersey’s rep. For Carolina….Victor Rask. Yeah, that’ll work.

Notable snubs from my picks include Nicklas Backstrom, Jiri Hudler, John Carlson and Marc-Andre Fleury. Backstrom was bumped by my inclusion of Ryan Nugent-Hopkins. The Oilers lack a defenseman or rookie that would qualify as a rep, and if I’m including every team Nuge is in there. Trust me, I’d rather see Backstrom or Hudler. John Carlson was a tough one. I have Chara in there over him, strictly because the big guy has the leading role in the hardest shot competition. I can’t wait to see he and Weber face off against each other in this event. Fleury was bumped because I wanted to include Michael Hutchinson. He’s such a great story this year, and his stats have earned him a trip to the big game. That, and somebody from Winnipeg had to go.

You also may have noticed that I didn’t have Filip Forsberg among my forwards. The rookie thing helped me make room for Zach Parise, the Minnesota rep. We tried our hand at rookies, but we were unsure of the format. For the sake of discussion, I chose twelve, non-goalie rookies. I’ve already mentioned Forsberg, Severson and Rask, my remaining nine are Johnny Gaudreau, Aaron Ekblad, Mike Hoffman, Mark Stone, Tanner Pearson, Jonathan Drouin, John Klingberg, Kevin Hayes and Linden Vey. Nine forwards, three defensemen.

Where did we go wrong? I’m sure there will be disagreement. Make sure your safety’s on and let us know in the comments!