The 12 biggest snubs from the 2018 NHL All-Star Game rosters

The 2018 NHL All-Star Game rosters have been announced, and that means there are 44 proud players representing the 31 teams right now. It also means there are a lot of worthy players being left out because the league can only invite so many to its annual weekend shindig.

There are snubs to the All-Star Game every year, and this year’s event in Tampa, Fla., is no different. The 3-on-3 tournament format means four teams of 11 players each were invited. Four of those were the captains determined by fan vote, while the remaining players were chosen by the league office.

So that’s where to direct your blame for your favorite player missing out on the festivities in his breakout season. Unless that player ends up being invited later as an injury replacement, in which case everything will be cool again.

A lot of great players weren’t invited to the 2018 NHL All-Star Game in Tampa Bay, which is set for Jan. 28, but these are our 12 biggest snubs.

Let’s just start this by saying the Flyers, a top-heavy team with a bunch of stars playing well, got robbed here. Claude Giroux shouldn’t be their only All-Star. Voracek is currently sixth in the NHL in points. He’s done that by posting the highest shots on goal per game rate of his career. You could argue he has a better case than several forwards who ultimately made the team.

Couturier was probably always going to be one of the odd men out in this format with superstars like Giroux and Voracek playing well on the same team as him, but it’s still a snub. He’s averaging a point per game with a plus-7.3 percent even strength Corsi relative despite taking more zone starts in the defensive end. He’s gone from 1.82 SOG per game to 3.05 this season, emerging as a two-way force. But still, not enough.

Gostisbehere is tied for fourth among NHL defensemen in points, but he also fell short of making the Metro roster. Part of the problem is likely that he’s only the Flyers’ No. 2 defenseman, and a 49.9 percent even strength Corsi in his role isn’t exactly amazing. But he’s a force on the power play and could’ve been really dangerous in the open ice of a 3-on-3 tournament.

Okay, Sidney Crosby is the best. We get that. Everybody gets that. But Kessel should’ve been the Penguins’ representative at this year’s All-Star Game. Not only does Kessel have more points than Crosby with 47 in 44 games, good for 11th in the league, but he’s the kind of unique personality events like this should seek to highlight. Crosby is one of the biggest names in hockey, and he’s nearly at a point-per-game pace himself, so the choice is understandable. Kessel got snubbed, though.

You could argue that only one Blue Jackets defenseman should make the room, and so Werenski or Seth Jones was inevitably going to miss out. If that was the case, then no matter what, the Metro was going to be missing one of its best defensemen. That pairing has been unreal for Columbus, and Werenski looks like the kind of defenseman who could compete for Norris Trophies in the near future. It’s okay — he’s only 20, so he’ll be back soon.

This one seems unfathomable to me. Bobrovsky is the reigning Vezina Trophy winner — given to the NHL’s best goalie! — and his numbers are better than Braden Holtby’s across the board. He has a better save percentage (.922 to .917) in more games (36 to 32) and a far superior GSAA (+15.73 to +3.29), per Corsica. Bobrovsky remains one of the NHL’s elite goaltenders, and he got beat out by a big name that’s not having his best season.

If there’s one Capital who should’ve made the list instead of Holtby, it’s Carlson. The defenseman is in the midst of a huge contract year with 34 points in 42 games. He’s playing a career-high 26:17 per game, fourth in the league, and showing he can be leaned on as a team’s clear No. 1 defenseman. That’s going to earn him a lot of money in free agency this summer, but it wasn’t enough to earn him an All-Star bid this season.

It seems like it came down to Huberdeau vs. Aleksander Barkov for the Panthers’ pick, and the league went with Barkov. That’s understandable because Barkov is a fantastic two-way center with 40 points in 41 games. He’s deserving. But Huberdeau has been a force with 43 points in 42 games for Florida and would’ve been just as worthy of a selection. It’s unfortunate that a numbers game meant Florida couldn’t send multiple players.

The biggest thing standing in Stone’s way to make the All-Star Game was always going to be Erik Karlsson. He’s just too good not to be the Senators’ All-Star, even in a down year for the defenseman, and that made it tough for Stone to find room as a second player from a bad Ottawa team. It’s too bad because Stone has been exceptional with 42 points in 41 games despite the problems around him.

One of the best pure scorers of this generation will not be in the All-Star Game. Full stop. That’s how good Tarasenko, one of the few players in the league who can reliably put up around 40 goals each year, is in his prime. It’s obviously been a great breakout year for teammate Brayden Schenn, who has matched Taranseko with 44 points in 46 games, but there’s little doubt about who the Blues’ best forward is. And he’s not going to be in Tampa Bay.

The NHL wanted to get Marc-Andre Fleury into the game. It makes sense. Vegas is an incredible story this season, and we need reasons to keep talking about them. But Fleury, while amazing, has only played in 12 games this season. Gibson, meanwhile, has a .923 save percentage in 33 games. He carried a beleaguered Ducks team through an injury-marred stretch and got beat out by a guy who was injured most of the time himself.

Going back to the NHL picking big names from Vegas, James Neal got the nod over Marchessault even though it’d be impossible to argue Neal has been the team’s best forward. Marchessault leads the Golden Knights with 40 points in 38 games, which helped earn him a recent six-year contract extension. Neal has 18 goals and 29 points in 41 games. Very good, yes, but not as good as Marchessault (or William Karlsson, for that matter).