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NHL.com

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The Pacific division goaltending vote is interesting in the sense that I had most people tell me that they had no idea who to pick, but then I had multiple people complain about it being Stuart Skinner. Crunch the numbers and see he is deserving, especially when you look at the rest of the Pacific Division netminders excluding already selected Logan Thompson. Calgary Flames goalie Jacob Markstrom has struggled this season, Seattle’s Martin Jones has been too inconsistent. The Kings have a tandem goalie system in which no one has shined, and I don't think we need to get into Anaheim, Vancouver or San Jose's goaltending. The choice here was Skinner, no doubt about it.

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Dahlin has been one of the league's best blueliners this year especially on offence, he is tied for second in goals (13) and is second in points (52) by a defenseman. While he's clearly deserving of an All-Star spot based on merit, when it comes to the particulars his case gets difficult. Firstly, when it comes to picking one player from the Buffalo Sabers you kind of have to go with genuine Hart candidate and one of the league's leading scorers in Tage Thompson. When it comes to the three players from the fan vote one has to be a goalie. The other two selected were David Pasternak, another Hart candidate and the guy leading the best team in the league in points by a wide margin. The other is Auston Matthews who is widely regarded as one of if not the game's best goal scorer. As deserving as Dahlin is, I get why he didn't make it.

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Ok I am not saying MacKinnon isn't an All-Star level player, he's easily in my opinion one of the best players in the league; a true franchise talent. But he has missed 11 of the Avs 44 games, the most of any all-star and 25% of the Avs contests. Yet in those 33 games he has 51 points putting him in a tie for 13th in the league. He's also a star and leader for the reigning Stanley Cup champions. However, it must be noted that the Avalanche didn't particularly struggle with him out of the lineup and teammates Cale Makar and Mikko Rantanen stepped up and earned All-Star spots which they most definitely deserve. Overall, I'm not upset that McKinnon got an All-Star nod partially due to how talented he really is, but I think he might have not been the best selection for the last spot in his division.

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A big part of the reason the above blurb ends the way it does is due to this player, Connor has been outstanding for the Jets this year and is one of the most underrated stars in the NHL. Connor is tied for ninth in scoring (55) and tenth in goals (23). The reigning Lady Byng winner is a truly outstanding player, I bet you if you asked who the top six goal scorers in the last five years are, very few people would include Connor, but he’s in there with 168 tallies. Connor also leads the Jets in points who are currently second-ranked in the Western Conference and thought by many to be a Stanley Cup contender, sounds like an all-star to me.

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