TORONTO — Of course, Connor McDavid won the All-Star Skills Competition. He helped design it.
McDavid had a dominant performance Friday night at Scotiabank Arena, winning four of the eight challenges and clocking an incredible time of 40.606 seconds on the final obstacle course, earning him $1 million in prize money. I got a dollar.
The NHL conducted a complete overhaul of its skills competitions after the gimmicky events the league used to host seemed to be getting old.
McDavid played a pivotal role in the redesign of the event and revamped format that featured only 12 NHL players instead of all All-Stars.
McDavid won the fastest skater competition (13.408 seconds), stickhandling competition (25.755 seconds), precision shooting competition (9.158 seconds) and obstacle course.
“A lot of people have helped,” McDavid said, adding that he doesn’t know what will be done with the prize money. “Obviously, from the league side, [NHL’s Chief Content Officer and Executive Vice President] Steve Mayer. Everyone was involved in some way. I thought it was interesting. From a competitive standpoint, I think we’ve definitely become more competitive.
“I was just holding my breath. The players were trying really hard to put on a good show and I feel like we were able to do that. I’m really happy. In the end. It’s up to the fans, so I hope they enjoy it.”
Islanders forward Matthew Barzal chose Igor Shesterkin as his goaltender for the one-on-one challenge, saying he wanted to choose “a New York opponent.”
Shesterkin made eight saves for Barzal, who scored four goals as Russia’s netminder.
Former Rangers goalie and Avalanche All-Star Alexander Georgiev made nine saves against McDavid and won $100,000.
