The 2024 NHL All-Star Game will be headed back to Canada, taking place at Scotiabank Arena from Feb. 2-3, 2024.
The league has announced that the Toronto Maple Leafs will hold the event next year for the first time since 2000. This will be the ninth time Toronto has hosted the event, second-most behind Montreal, which last hosted in 2009. The Ottawa Senators were the last Canadian team to host the game back in 2012.
The 2000 event was the 50th running, with Pavel Bure winning the MVP award in a 9-4 win for the World All-Stars.
Toronto hosted the PHF All-Star Game at the Mattamy Athletic Centre last week, the building formerly known as Maple Leafs Gardens. As a city, Toronto’s last major non-hockey All-Star Game was the 2016 NBA All-Star Game, with the Toronto FC hosting the MLS event in 2008.
The NHL has recently shifted to warmer climates during the All-Star festivities, with Los Angeles, Tampa Bay, San Jose, Vegas and Florida hosting five of the past six events. On Friday, during the NHL’s skills competition, Toronto was facing extremely cold temperatures that hit a wind chill low of minus-30.
It’s safe to say there won’t be any beach-related events in the Ontario capital next year.
The Toronto Maple Leafs currently sit second in the Atlantic, 13 points behind the Boston Bruins. The team holds a 31-13-8 record this year with a 5-4-1 run over the past 10 games. Toronto is looking to make it out of the first round of the Stanley Cup playoffs for the first time since the 2004 NHL lockout. The Leafs beat Ottawa 4-2 in a first-round series back in 2000, so perhaps hosting the 2024 event could spark the team’s fortunes.
There’s no word as to how the format could work, but the league has elected to go to a three-on-three, four-team divisional format in recent years.
