 ‘This is going to be some showcase’: NHL confirms rosters for Canada vs. USA women’s 3-on-3 at All-Star Game It’s official. Top Canadian and American women’s hockey players will face off in a 3-on-3 game at NHL All-Star weekend, the league announced Wednesday. The “Elite Women’s 3-on-3” will be presented by Adidas and will take place Jan. 24 during the Friday night All-Star Skills event. Twenty women — all from Hockey Canada and USA Hockey, and also the Professional Women’s Hockey Players’ Association — will participate in a 20-minute game. The teams will feature American all-stars and Canadian all-stars, tapping into the longstanding women’s hockey rivalry between the two countries. Each roster will have 10 players, consisting of one goalie and nine skaters. The rosters are as follows: Canadian all-stars (on the left) and American all-stars (on the right) F Meghan Agosta F Kendall Coyne Schofield F Sarah Nurse F Alex Carpenter F Mélodie Daoust F Hilary Knight F Blayre Turnbull F Brianna Decker F Natalie Spooner F Amanda Kessel F Marie-Philip Poulin F Annie Pankowski F Rebecca Johnston F Jocelyn Lamoureux-Davidson D Renata Fast D Lee Stecklein D Laura Fortino D Kacey Bellamy G Ann-Renée Desbiens G Alex Rigsby The players were selected by the NHL in consultation with Cassie Campbell-Pascall, Cammi Granato, Angela Ruggiero and Hayley Wickenheiser. Hockey Hall of Fame inductees Granato and Jayna Hefford, former U.S. and Canadian Olympians, respectively, will also act as coaches. The news of this event was first reported by “Hockey Night in Canada” on Saturday and confirmed by The Athletic on Monday with more details. Since then there has been speculation around whether the NHL was picking sides in the current battle over the future of the women’s game between the PWHPA and the U.S. based NWHL. In an interview on Wednesday night, Campbell-Pascall – who was consulted about the event as a whole, not just the rosters – said the decisions on players had nothing to do with picking sides. They just “went for the best players.” “Obviously, there is a lot of great players not there because of the numbers and the fact there is only 20, but that was my whole premise is, let’s pick the best teams,” she said. “And quite frankly, (the PWHPA) is where they play. “I think that any hidden messages beyond that weren’t part of the selection process. It was just a matter of getting the best players to be there.” This will be the third straight year that women will be included in the NHL’s All-Star weekend. In 2018, at the festivities in Tampa, the NHL invited Hilary Knight, Meghan Duggan and Amanda Kessel – who were training nearby for the PyeongChang Olympics – to demonstrate skills. Then in 2019, the league invited Coyne-Schofield, Renata Fast, Brianna Decker and Rebecca Johnston to do the same in San Jose. In a statement to The Athletic about the event, Steve Mayer, the NHL’s chief content officer and executive vice president of events and entertainment, said the NHL is thrilled to promote these elite women under the All-Star spotlight. “The intention here is to give these elite players the forum they’ve earned and they deserve,” he said. “This is a meaningful event — it’s on national television, not only are they going to be performing and playing in front of 20,000 people in the arena, but they are also playing in front of 40 of the greatest players in the NHL. We’re so confident that they will put on a great display.” At last year’s All-Star event, Coyne-Schofield — now famously — replaced Nathan MacKinnon in the fastest skater competition. In a blazing 14.346 second lap, the U.S. Olympian changed the conversation around women’s hockey. Social media was also abuzz when a fan video appeared to have clocked Decker’s time in the accuracy passing event as faster than Edmonton’s Leon Draisaitl, who won the event and a $25,000 prize. A #PayDecker campaign was ignited online, and eventually hockey equipment company CCM announced it would pay Decker $25,000 for her performance. However, this year’s All-Star weekend is set up to give the players and the women’s game more exposure than in previous years. To start, there are more women involved than before with 20 players compared to three or four. And in other years, the women weren’t exactly front and centre – with the exception of Coyne Schofield – they were demonstrating. Decker’s impressive pass accuracy wasn’t televised. This year, the women are going to be under a bigger spotlight. The 3-on-3 is going to be within the skills day, not hours before or an afterthought later. And it is going to be nationally televised by Sportsnet and NBC in Canada and the U.S., respectively. For Sportsnet’s broadcast, Jim Hughson will be calling play-by-play while Campbell-Pascall – who is a colour commentator for the Calgary Flames regional games on the network and appears on “Hockey Night in Canada” – is going to be in studio and in the broadcast booth. “(The game) is not going to be a little highlight after commercial. It’s really going to be on air,” said Campbell-Pascall. “For (the NHL) to not just have it during the day when nobody is going to see it, but as part of the skills day and on prime time television networks on both sides of the border and the fact that they have taken the women’s hockey representation to another level, it’s huge. “It’s huge for our game. I mean you think of the publicity of what Kendall did last year and what that garnered … I think this will do even more.” The players in the game will be representing their countries as Canadian and American all-stars, but this won’t a Hockey Canada vs. USA Hockey matchup, although the rosters may indicate that. On Monday, a source told The Athletic that the players will not be wearing their national team uniforms, but instead something new from Adidas. Campbell-Pascall confirmed that the players will wear Adidas All-Star uniforms. “It’s full-on,” she said. “They are going to be treated just like the men, if you will.” The players are set to arrive in St. Louis on Thursday and will be fitted for their uniforms and equipment. They will have their own dressing rooms – which may seem small but doesn’t always happen in the women’s game. They will have practice ice on Friday morning. Walk the red carpet with the NHL stars. Do player appearances and get a private suite to watch the men’s game on Saturday. “The one thing that’s really impressed me is it didn’t take much pushing from the four of us (advisors) from behind the scenes for this,” said Campbell-Pascall. “(The NHL) had the ideas and they are including them in everything and that’s key and I think that is what is going to make this year extra special.” The 20 selected players were notified around two weeks ago. Four-time Canadian Olympian Meghan Agosta, she said she hasn’t stopped smiling since. “I remember just one day looking at my email and I literally had the biggest smile on my face,” she said in an interview Wednesday night. “Having the opportunity to be alongside my teammates representing Canada at the NHL skills competition, it’s such an amazing feeling. I’m really excited to be a part of such a great weekend.” With everything going on in the women’s game right now, Agosta, 32, is arguably in an even more peculiar position than the others. She has recently come back from maternity leave after having her first child (a daughter) last year. She also lives in Vancouver, which has been her permanent home since joining the Vancouver Police Department in 2014. It was a move she made because she was passionate about policing, but also because she knew she couldn’t make a living playing the game she loved. “It’s all about the legacy that us women leave behind. We might not ever play the game of hockey and be financially stable while playing, I mean that’s why I had to start my career and that’s the decision I made, and I would never change that decision for anything,” she said. “But it’s what we do now that is going to give the younger generation those opportunities.” There are no women’s leagues in British Columbia. Nor are there any PWHPA showcases. So, Agosta – who has three Olympic gold medals and one silver – trains alone or with the police hockey team or the RCMP teams. All while being a new mom and a police officer. That is all to say, this all-star nod means a lot to her. “Being a part of the NHL All-Star weekend is probably going to be one of the top highlights of my life,” she said. “I’m just so proud to say that I am going to be a part of it, and I am very, very thankful for the opportunity to be a part of this with my teammates. “It’s only the beginning stages for what I think will be a bright future for women’s hockey.” On Wednesday night, the NHL also announced that fans can vote on Twitter for one Canadian all-star and one American all-star from the 3-on-3 event to take part in the new NHL Shooting Stars event against the NHL All-Stars. Fans can vote from: American all-stars: Kacey Bellamy, Brianna Decker, Hilary Knight, Jocelyne Lamoureux-Davidson Canadian all-stars: Rebecca Johnston, Sarah Nurse, Marie-Philip Poulin, Natalie Spooner The officials in the game will also be women. Referees Kelly Cooke and Katie Guay and linespeople Kendall Hanley and Kirsten Welsh will officiate the game. All four officiated 2019 NHL rookie tournaments after attending the NHL Exposure Combine. Meanwhile, the NHL has announced that it will donate $100,000 to certain charitable organizations in support of girls and women’s hockey. “If you look at the youth level, there are so many young girls that are playing and an event like this is just another way to influence them, to show them that they can be on this stage someday,” said Meyer. “Whether it’s a woman or it’s a man, these are the greatest players in the world all on the greatest stage in the world, and you’ve got to know that young kids — boys, girls, it doesn’t matter — they’re all watching. “Having the women in the mix at All-Star weekend just feels right. It’s what we want to do, it’s what we want to continue to do, and this is going to be some showcase.”
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