NHL first-, second- and third-team all-stars (1968-2023)

[Hockey Outsider]

2015-16 results

First centre: Sidney Crosby (4 first, 2 second, 2 third; 8 total)
Second centre: Joe Thornton (1 first, 3 second, 2 third; 6 total)
Third centre: Anze Kopitar (0 first, 0 second, 1 third; 1 total)

First LW: Jamie Benn (2 first, 1 second, 0 third; 3 total)
Second LW: Alexander Ovechkin (7 first (six LW, one RW), 3 second (two LW, one RW), 0 third; 10 total)
Third LW: Johnny Gaudreau (0 first, 0 second, 1 third; 1 total)

First RW: Patrick Kane (2 first, 0 second, 1 third; 3 total)
Second RW: Vladimir Tasarenko (0 first, 2 second, 0 third; 2 total)
Third RW: Joe Pavelski (0 first, 1 second, 1 third; 2 total)

First defense: Drew Doughty (1 first, 2 second, 1 third; 4 total)
First defense: Erik Karlsson (3 first, 0 second, 0 third; 3 total)
Second defense: Brent Burns (0 first, 1 second, 0 third; 1 total)
Second defense: Kris Letang (0 first, 2 second, 1 third; 3 total)
Third defense: Roman Josi (0 first, 0 second, 2 third; 2 total)
Third defense: John Klingberg (0 first, 0 second, 1 third; 1 total)

First goalie: Braden Holtby (1 first, 0 second, 0 third; 1 total)
Second goalie: Ben Bishop (0 first, 1 second, 1 third; 2 total)
Third goalie: Jonathan Quick (0 first, 1 second, 1 third; 2 total)

Observations

- Ovechkin has now been named an all-star in ten of the first eleven years of his career (though the record books show that he has eleven selections in eleven years thanks to the voting debacle in 2013 that resulted in him somehow being named to both the first and second team). The only players to match this are Gretzky (7-4-0 through his first eleven seasons), Bourque (7-4-0) and Bossy (5-3-1). Ovechkin is now the leader amongst wingers with ten selections, and behind only Gretzky among all forwards!

- At age 28, Sidney Crosby is already tied for third place - behind only Gretzky and Lemieux - with eight selections at centre.

- Patrick Kane was very close to being a unanimous selection in 2016. He was named to the first team on 144 of 146 ballots, and second place on the last two ballots. The last unanimous selection was Markus Naslund in 2003 (see note in post #7).

- Only five players made their first-ever appearance on the all-star team this year (a fairly low number).

- Joe Pavelski earned multiple votes at all three forward positions this year. None of the votes that were mis-cast at LW or centre materially affected the rankings for him or anyone else.

- Jagr was a distant 4th in all-star voting. Gordie Howe was a first team all-star at age 41, and Hasek was a a third team all-star at age 42. This must be the closest a player age 43+ has ever come to making an all-star team.

 

[Hawkey Town 18]

Ovechkin is now the leader amongst wingers with ten selections, and behind only Gretzky among all forwards!

Doesn't Gordie Howe have like 21 selections? Pretty sure the Rocket and Bobby Hull have more than 10 too.



EDIT: Or is this still only about first 11 seasons? It must be, this can be deleted.

 

[Hockey Outsider]

Doesn't Gordie Howe have like 21 selections? Pretty sure the Rocket and Bobby Hull have more than 10 too.



EDIT: Or is this still only about first 11 seasons? It must be, this can be deleted.

Sorry for the confusion, I meant from 1968-present. Howe, Richard and possibly a few others (I haven't checked Hull) would still be ahead of Ovechkin.

 

[Hawkey Town 18]

Sorry for the confusion, I meant from 1968-present. Howe, Richard and possibly a few others (I haven't checked Hull) would still be ahead of Ovechkin.

Thanks for the clarification. I think it's just those 3 ahead of him...

Howe: 21
Richard: 14
Hull: 12

 

[Hockey Outsider]

2016-17 results

First centre: Connor McDavid (1 first, 0 second, 0 third; 1 total)
Second centre: Sidney Crosby (4 first, 3 second, 2 third; 9 total)
Third centre: Nicklas Backstrom (0 first, 0 second, 1 third; 1 total)

First LW: Brad Marchand (1 first, 0 second, 0 third; 1 total)
Second LW: Artemi Panarin (0 first, 1 second, 0 third; 1 total)
Third LW: Alexander Ovechkin (7 first (six LW, one RW), 3 second (two LW, one RW), 1 third (one LW); 11 total)

First RW: Patrick Kane (3 first, 0 second, 1 third; 4 total)
Second RW: Nikita Kucherov (0 first, 1 second, 0 third; 1 total)
Third RW: Vladimir Tasarenko (0 first, 2 second, 1 third; 3 total)

First defense: Brent Burns (1 first, 1 second, 0 third; 2 total)
First defense: Erik Karlsson (4 first, 0 second, 0 third; 4 total)
Second defense: Victor Hedman (0 first, 1 second, 0 third; 1 total)
Second defense: Duncan Keith (2 first, 1 second, 1 third; 4 total)
Third defense: Ryan Suter (1 first, 0 second, 1 third; 2 total)
Third defense: Shea Weber (2 first, 2 second, 2 third; 6 total)

First goalie: Sergei Bobrovsky (2 first, 0 second, 0 third; 2 total)
Second goalie: Braden Holtby (1 first, 1 second, 0 third; 2 total)
Third goalie: Cam Talbot (0 first, 0 second, 1 third; 1 total)

Observations

- The voting results were fairly uninteresting this year. There were no close calls at any position. At the same time, nobody was close to a unanimous selection.

- Seven players earned their first spot on a year-end all-star team, which is a fairly typical number by historical standards.

- The Chicago Blackhawks became only the 12th team since 1990 to have three all-stars (Kate 1st team C, Panarin 2nd team RW, and Keith 2nd team D). Still I doubt any of them are too happy with how the season ended...

- Sidney Crosby earned a spot on the second team. He's now tied for second place with Mario Lemieux for most post-expansion all-star selections for a centre (though Le Magnifique has a more favourable breakdown between first-, second- and third-team selections).

- Alexander Ovechkin now has eleven all-star nominations in the first twelve years of his career (7-3-1). Post-expansion, the only players with better records through twleve years are Gretzky (8-4-0) and Bourque (8-4-0).

- Shea Weber now has six years with a spot on the first, second, or third all-star team. Every defenseman who's accomplished that is in the Hall of Fame. (Most five-timers are too, but there are two exceptions - Wilson and Gonchar).

- Nicklas Backstrom was probably getting fairly high up on the list of "best players to never finish top three in all-star voting". Anyway, he earns a third-team spot this year.

 

[Hockey Outsider]

This thread has been updated after the data migration on HFBoards. Let me know if you see any errors/problems.

 

[Hockey Outsider]

2017-18 results

First centre: Connor McDavid (2 first, 0 second, 0 third; 2 total)
Second centre: Nathan MacKinnon (0 first, 1 second, 0 third; 1 total)
Third centre: Anze Kopitar (0 first, 0 second, 2 third; 2 total)

First LW: Taylor Hall (1 first, 1 second, 0 third; 2 total)
Second LW: Claude Giroux (0 first, 1 second, 2 third; 3 total)
Third LW: Alexander Ovechkin (7 first (six LW, one RW), 3 second (two LW, one RW), 2 third (two LW); 12 total)

First RW: Nikita Kucherov (1 first, 1 second, 0 third; 2 total)
Second RW: Blake Wheeler (0 first, 1 second, 0 third; 1 total)
Third RW: Phil Kessel (0 first, 0 second, 2 third; 2 total)

First defense: Victor Hedman (1 first, 1 second, 0 third; 2 total)
First defense: Drew Doughty (2 first, 2 second, 1 third; 5 total)
Second defense: P.K. Subban (2 first, 1 second, 0 third; 3 total)
Second defense: Seth Jones (0 first, 1 second, 0 third; 1 total)
Third defense: John Carlson (0 first, 0 second, 1 third; 1 total)
Third defense: John Klingberg (0 first, 0 second, 2 third; 2 total)

First goalie: Pekka Rinne (1 first, 1 second, 2 third; 4 total)
Second goalie: Connor Hellebuyck (0 first, 1 second, 0 third; 1 total)
Third goalie: Andrei Vasilevskiy (0 first, 0 second, 1 third; 1 total)

Observations

• This is a very new group of all-stars. Thirteen of these eighteen players are making their first or second appearance on the year-end all-star teams (including seven of the nine forwards).
• Alexander Ovechkin now has twelve all-star nominations in the first thirteen years of his career (7-3-2). Post-expansion, the only players with better records through twelve years are Bourque (9-4-0) and Gretzky (8-4-1).
• Drew Doughty now has five seasons placing in the top five in all-star votes. Six other defensemen have done that - four are in the Hall, and two aren't. I'm sure Doughty will make it thanks to a strong playoff and international resume.
• There were no unusually close races. Some players received votes at multiple positions (Giroux get votes at all three forward positions), but nothing that seriously skews the results.
• As I mentioned above, Pekka Rinne is now one of only 11 goalies with four seasons as an all-star. Eight of those goalies are in the Hall. The other two are Barrasso (who probably deserves to be in, but was unfriendly with the media) and Luongo (who probably deserves to be in as well). I don't think Rinne is worth yet. Will he have time to meaningfully add to his resume given that he'll be 36 next year?

 

[Plural]

As much as I like him, I don't really think of Hall of Fame when I think of Rinne. I still believe Kipper was the better Finnish goalie and he's not getting in. I don't think Rinne should either. I will retract this statement if he repeats this season next year with better playoffs.

 

[vadim sharifijanov]

what’s the lowest in hart voting the 1st team all-star center has ever finished?

what’s the highest number of other centers to finish above him in hart voting?

 

[quoipourquoi]

what’s the lowest in hart voting the 1st team all-star center has ever finished?

On the five-man ballot, I believe it’s Peter Forsberg in 1997-98 (0-0-0-7-5). Though he was a strong 1st Team All-Star (32-9-8 on 53 ballots), three other Centers received top-3 Hart support. A major factor was that despite finishing 2nd in scoring, he was injured down the stretch - though if it happened at the beginning of the season, the Avalanche’s 1-7 record during that injury might have worked heavily in his favor as it did Paul Kariya the year before.

 

[vadim sharifijanov]

On the five-man ballot, I believe it’s Peter Forsberg in 1997-98 (0-0-0-7-5). Though he was a strong 1st Team All-Star (32-9-8 on 53 ballots), three other Centers received top-3 Hart support. A major factor was that despite finishing 2nd in scoring, he was injured down the stretch - though if it happened at the beginning of the season, the Avalanche’s 1-7 record during that injury might have worked heavily in his favor as it did Paul Kariya the year before.

thanks. i guess mcdavid isn’t so unprecedented after all.

but re: the bolded, huh?

 

[vadim sharifijanov]

now that i think about it, that whole '97-'04 era between the end of mario's career and the beginning of crosby's was weak for centers. other than sakic and forsberg's respective MVP seasons, they basically just had to give the 1AST to someone. those are pretty

'98: forsberg was the 1AST center, 8th in hart voting behind another center in gretzky (5th)
'99: forsberg again, 7th in hart voting behind yashin (2nd) and lindros (6th)
'00: yzerman, 8th in hart voting, highest center
'02: sakic, 7th in hart voting, behind francis (6th)
'04: sakic again, 7th in hart voting, highest center

a far cry, though, from this year, where mcdavid ran away with the 1AST but finished behind 2.5 other centers who all got way more hart consideration than him, one who finished a close 2nd and two others who basically split the 3rd place vote. that's pretty unique, right?

but to answer my own question, there is another year where the 1AST was way down in hart voting and behind multiple other centers. that would be henrik sedin in 2011, who finished 10th in hart voting. he finished behind toews (6th) and his own teammate kesler (8th). it was a very exceptional situation, though, where the first and second team all-star centers (stamkos, 11th in hart voting) both were in symbiotic situations with their wingers and the winger got all the credit (daniel, 2nd, and MSL, 3rd). in henrik's case, that's because he got all the credit the year before. but other than 2011, since the 2005 lockout we haven't seen a dry spell at the center position like we did '98-'04 and have had multiple strong MVP-contending seasons at center every other year.

 

[quoipourquoi]

now that i think about it, that whole '97-'04 era between the end of mario's career and the beginning of crosby's was weak for centers. other than sakic and forsberg's respective MVP seasons, they basically just had to give the 1AST to someone.

I think that instead there was an increased reliance on the “valuable” part of the definition of the award. Otherwise you don’t have Yashin being a Hart runner-up but only a 2nd Team All-Star behind Peter Forsberg. Or Jose Theodore winning the Hart but finishing as a 2nd Team All-Star behind Patrick Roy. The same voters are acknowledging that one player is better but not more valuable.

I mean, they could have given a member of the Colorado Avalanche a Hart nomination just about every year of the Dead Puck Era, but when a team has three superstars, the valuable thing is going to work against them unless the season is ridiculous. And the only 1st Team selection at Center they dropped between 1998-2004 was when Sakic still led the position in scoring in 2000 in just 60 games.

 

[BlueBull]

This looks really good!
It's interesting to see some not-so well known players who have "3" All Star Teams.
Such as Mike Liut, Jim Neilson or John McKenzie.

 

[Hockey Outsider]

2018-19 results

First centre: Connor McDavid (3 first, 0 second, 0 third; 3 total)
Second centre: Sidney Crosby (4 first, 4 second, 2 third; 10 total)
Third centre: Nathan MacKinnon (0 first, 1 second, 1 third; 2 total)

First LW: Alexander Ovechkin (8 first (seven LW, one RW), 3 second (two LW, one RW), 2 third (two LW); 13 total)
Second LW: Brad Marchand (1 first, 1 second, 0 third; 2 total)
Third LW: Johnny Gaudreau (0 first, 0 second, 2 third; 2 total)

First RW: Nikita Kucherov (2 first, 1 second, 0 third; 3 total)
Second RW: Patrick Kane (3 first, 1 second, 1 third; 5 total)
Third RW: Mitch Marner (0 first, 0 second, 1 third; 1 total)

First defense: Mark Giordano (1 first, 0 second, 1 third; 2 total)
First defense: Brent Burns (2 first, 1 second, 0 third; 3 total)
Second defense: John Carlson (0 first, 1 second, 1 third; 2 total)
Second defense: Victor Hedman (1 first, 2 second, 0 third; 3 total)
Third defense: Morgan Reilly (0 first, 0 second, 1 third; 1 total)
Third defense: Kris Letang (0 first, 2 second, 2 third; 4 total)

First goalie: Andrei Vasilevskiy (1 first, 0 second, 1 third; 2 total)
Second goalie: Ben Bishop (0 first, 2 second, 1 third; 3 total)
Third goalie: Carey Price (1 first, 0 second, 1 third; 2 total)

Observations:

• This is a fairly experienced group of all-stars. Only two of the 18 players listed here - both Toronto Maple Leafs - finished in the top three in voting for the first time.
• Alexander Ovechkin now has thirteen all-star nominations in the first fourteen years of his career (8-3-2). (Note that, unlike the genius voters, I'm not double-counting his 2013 season). Post-expansion, the only players with better records through twelve years are Bourque (10-4-0) and Gretzky (8-4-1). Only Bourque, Gretzky and Lidstrom have more all-star selections, over the entire span of their careers, than Ovechkin does now.
• Crosby has his 10th all-star season at centre, passing Lemieux for 2nd place at that position (post-expansion).
• Patrick Kane now exactly matches Jarome Iginla's all-star record. How long until he passes him on the all-time ranking?
• There were some close calls. Only 2.9% separated Johnny Gaudreau (who makes the unofficial 3rd team) and Leon Draisaitl (4th place). Only 2.3% separated Carey Price (also on the unofficial 3rd team) and Robin Lehner (4th place). The closest was on D - Morgan Reilly officially gets nothing (I'm sure earning a spot on the unofficial third team will give him great solace). He finished 5th, but was just 2.6% out of 3rd place.
• We haven't had a unanimous selection since Markus Naslund in 2003. Nikita Kucherov was very close - he earned 167 out of 168 first-place votes, and was second to Patrick Kane on one ballot.

 

[Pominville Knows]

Did Draisaitl get any stray votes on C? I heard he played center when McDavid was out but i now see that it was for all of four games.
Still, these voters have been shown to miss positional changes in the past, or did they close that loophole?
Anyways i guess Gaudreau probably was worthy as well so no biggie even though the only 50 goal scorer in the top 14 in the scoring race feels missing, McDavid or not.

 

[Hawkey Town 18]

Did Draisaitl get any stray votes on C? I heard he played center when McDavid was out but i now see that it was for all of four games.
Still, these voters have been shown to miss positional changes in the past, or did they close that loophole?
Anyways i guess Gaudreau probably was worthy as well so no biggie even though the only 50 goal scorer in the top 14 in the scoring race feels missing, McDavid or not.

Draisaitl got 3 second place votes and 1 third place vote at Center (8th place)
He also got 1 second place vote and 1 third place vote at RW (8th place)

 

[Pominville Knows]

Draisaitl got 3 second place votes and 1 third place vote at Center (8th place)
He also got 1 second place vote and 1 third place vote at RW (8th place)

God damn! Luckily this was for the un-official team otherwise we might have had the next Ovechkin situation on our hands.

 

[ImporterExporter]

And people (@Midnight Judges ) think the league (voters) has some anti Ovechkin agenda going on, especially comparing him to Crosby.

Crosby gets a 2nd team nod behind a guy who didn't even sniff the playoffs (and finished lower in Hart voting) while Ovechkin gets a 1st team nod over a guy who had a more impressive offensive year, is an elite PK'er and actually has defensive value (Marchand). Ovechkin finished 4th in scoring among LW's, has little to no defensive value and yet cakewalks to a 1st team nod? Why? Goals. Literally, that's it. Thank God we have people that really know how to evaluate value among hockey players!

As I've been saying forever. The so called Crosby-bias never existed and still doesn't.

 

[BlueBull]

Can't wait for the 2020 Update.

 

[vadim sharifijanov]

Can't wait for the 2020 Update.

third team is ovechkin, mcdavid, kane, slavin, makar, vasi

ovie is at 14 (or 15, if you count the double year). still a long way to go to catch bourque's record.

 

[BigBadBruins7708]

third team is ovechkin, mcdavid, kane, slavin, makar, vasi

ovie is at 14 (or 15, if you count the double year). still a long way to go to catch bourque's record.

Ovechkin has 11 1st/2nd teams. Bourque has 19 of them.

3rd team doesnt count

 

[vadim sharifijanov]

Ovechkin has 11 1st/2nd teams. Bourque has 19 of them.

3rd team doesnt count

this is a thread about third team all-stars

 

[quoipourquoi]

I was excited thinking that Draisaitl joined the small list of multi-position All-Stars, and then I looked at last year’s LW results. 4th? Boo.

 

[Hockey Outsider]

2019-20 results

First centre: Leon Draisaitl (1 first, 0 second, 0 third; 1 total)
Second centre: Nathan MacKinnon (0 first, 2 second, 1 third; 3 total)
Third centre: Connor McDavid (3 first, 1 third; 4 total)

First LW: Artemi Panarin (1 first, 1 second, 0 third; 2 total)
Second LW: Brad Marchand (1 first, 2 second, 0 third; 3 total)
Third LW: Alexander Ovechkin (8 first (seven LW, one RW), 3 second (two LW, one RW), 3 third (three LW); 14 total)

First RW: David Pastrnak (1 first, 0 second, 0 third; 1 total)
Second RW: Nikita Kucherov (2 first, 2 second, 0 third; 4 total)
Third RW: Patrick Kane (3 first, 1 second, 2 third; 6 total)

First defense: Roman Josi (1 first, 0 second, 2 third; 3 total)
First defense: John Carlson (1 first, 1 second, 1 third; 3 total)
Second defense: Victor Hedman (1 first, 3 second, 0 third; 4 total)
Second defense: Alex Pietrangelo (0 first, 3 second, 0 third; 3 total)
Third defense: Jaccob Slavin (0 first, 0 second, 1 third; 1 total)
Third defense: Cale Makar (0 first, 0 second, 1 third; 1 total)

First goalie: Connor Hellebuyck (1 first, 1 second, 0 third; 2 total)
Second goalie: Tuukka Rask (1 first, 1 second, 0 third; 2 total)
Third goalie: Andrei Vasilevskiy (1 first, 0 second, 2 third; 3 total)

Observations

• I can't take credit for this observation, but I read somewhere that this is the first time in a very long time (70+ years?) that all six players on the first team are making their debuts on the first team.
• McDavid has now matched Peter Forsberg's all-star record (three first team selections, and one third team selection).
• Ovechkin earned a spot on the third team. He's now earned a top three all-star selection in fourteen of his fifteen seasons (technically he has fifteen selections, as he earned spots at both wings in 2013). Only Bourque, Gretzky and Lidstrom have more top three selections (1968 onwards).
• Kane now has as many top-three selections as Guy LaFleur.
• Victor Hedman now has four top-three selections. That's not quite HOF territory yet (Kris Letang did the same thing), but, through two games of the Stanley Cup finals, he's looking like a legit Conn Smythe candidate.
• Only four players (Draisaitl, Pastrnak, Slavin and Makar) earned their first finish in the top three this year.
• Pastrnak was pretty close to a unanimous selection. On 169 ballots, he received 166 firsts, 2 seconds, and 1 third.
• Rookie Cale Makar only finished 8th for the Norris trophy (technically 9th if you look at the tiebreakers), but finished 6th in all-star voting (enough to take a third-team spot from Shea Theodore).