Raleigh

While the Carolina Hurricanes are focusing their attention on the ever-tightening Eastern Conference playoff race, rookie phenom Jeff Skinner is finding more and more attention focused on him—most notably in this month's edition of ESPN The Magazine.

I cannot believe some of the articles I am reading about the National Hockey League fantasy draft.  Relax people.  Stop being hockey snobs and realize that what the NHL did last night was for you.

Welcome to the live blog for the 2011 NHL All-Star Game Draft, I am your host, Chris Minniti, a Featured Columnist of the Detroit Red Wings.

The wonderful people at Bleacher Report asked me to do a live blog for the ASG draft and I accepted.

The All-Star Game is slated to be held this Sunday, January 30 at 4:00pm in Raleigh, North Carolina.

A little background about tonight's draft:

This is the first time in NHL history that the draft will take place.

Hello out there! We are on the air with the All-Star Game draft tonight!

My name is Chris Minniti and I am a Featured Columnist for the Detroit Red Wings here on Bleacher Report and will be live blogging the goings on for the draft.

Some story lines heading into this game contain quite the drama.

As you all know, the two captains are Nicklas Lidstrom of the Detroit Red Wings, and Eric Staal of the Carolina Hurricanes, which is also where the All-Star Game is being held.

With all the talk about the NHL All Star Game and the Fantasy Draft and the new format, the SuperSkills is taking a back seat this year.

Amidst all the other change, the SuperSkills format has also improved for this year's All Star Weekend.

Let's take a look at the new format and some predictions for who will win each event.

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As the NHL prepares to test out the brand new All Star Game Fantasy Draft format, everyone is wondering who will be picked first? Who will be picked last?

Will Eric Staal pick his Hurricanes teammates Cam Ward and Jeff Skinner, or will Nicklas Lidstrom steal them away?

Will Staal pick his brother Marc Staal, or does he want to go against him and try to make him look bad?

Will Lidstrom's assistant captains, Patrick Kane and Martin St. Louis, convince him to pick their teammates Jonathan Toews and Steven Stamkos? Or do the assistants want to play against their friends?

With less than one week until the NHL All-Star Game, tensions and questions are growing.

Who will get the first pick? Who Will Staal choose? Who will Lidstrom choose? In general, what will Team Lidstrom and Team Staal look like?

We don't know yet, but we are getting closer to the answers.

First, a bit of background on our captains of the two teams, as voted by the players.

Eric Staal

A new era has been ushered in as the National Hockey League will introduce a new All-Star game format in time for this season's All-Star weekend.

The Carolina Hurricanes will host the NHL's elite on the weekend of January 28, 29 and 30, 2011 in Raleigh, North Carolina.

A new wrinkle, the All-Star fantasy draft will be held on Friday night, the SuperSkills competition will go on Saturday followed by the All-Star game on Sunday.

As the 2011 NHL All-Star Game in Raleigh, North Carolina, approaches, we are excited to see what comes of the team selection process.

It is an interesting wrinkle to the old system and the team selection process will be interesting.

This is how I laid out the All-Star mock draft:

I made Eric Staal the home team coach and Sidney Crosby the away team coach.

Each team made one selection per round, with the team that made the last pick in the previous round making the first pick in current round.

The shakeup ahead of the 2011 NHL All-Star Game is generating significant buzz around the hockey world whether through call-in shows, fan forums or chatter amongst players and media.  The NHL wants to make their annual showcase a more unique experience that will excite their present fanbase and possibly recruit new fans as some of the ideas mentioned would be groundbreaking for any All-Star Game format.