Maple Leafs' Auston Matthews snubbed from NHL All-Star teams

Toronto Maple Leafs center Auston Matthews.

The NHL announced their annual season-ending All-Star teams during Thursday night’s award festivities. The rosters, as voted on by Professional Hockey Writers’ Association members, are as follows.

First All-Star Team

LW: Artemi Panarin (Rangers)

C: Nathan MacKinnon (Avalanche)

RW: Nikita Kucherov (Lightning)

D: Quinn Hughes (Canucks)

D: Roman Josi (Predators)

G: Connor Hellebuyck (Jets)

Second All-Star Team

LW: Filip Forsberg (Predators)

C: Connor McDavid (Oilers)

RW: David Pastrňák (Bruins)

D: Adam Fox (Rangers)

D: Cale Makar (Avalanche)

G: Thatcher Demko (Canucks)

The First Team nod caps off quite a successful 24 hours for MacKinnon, who also swept both media-voted and player-voted MVP honors with the Hart Trophy and Ted Lindsay Award. It’s his third All-Star nod, although his two prior ones were both Second Team honors in 2018 and 2020. The 28-year-old pivot led the Avs in scoring 51 goals and 140 points this season and recorded a league-high 405 shots on goal.

Notably, the voting ledger (available in the league’s announcement) indicates Kucherov was the unanimous First Team selection at right wing. That’s the first time since 2002 when the Flames’ Jarome Iginla was the across-the-board pick after winning the Richard and Art Ross trophies. Like Iginla, Kucherov was crowned this year’s Art Ross winner after recording 144 points in 81 games. He tied with McDavid for a league-leading 100 assists, becoming the first winger in NHL history to hit the mark.

Maple Leafs superstar Auston Matthews is absent from either team, whose 69 goals this season were the most of anyone since Mario Lemieux in 1995-96. He also fell short of being a Hart Trophy finalist behind Kucherov, MacKinnon and McDavid. He was third in All-Star voting among centers, though, and did receive nine First Team and 55 Second Team votes out of 187 ballots. The only other center to receive consideration was the Penguins’ Sidney Crosby, who only appeared on four ballots.

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