The biggest headlines story surrounding this year’s NHL All-Star Game have involved John Scott, veteran NHL enforcer/goon. Thanks to trolls hijacking the All-Star fan vote, the 33-year-old Scott — with only one point to his name this season, and 11 total through 285 career games at the NHL level — was not only voted into the game, he was awarded the captaincy of the Pacific division’s team as the leading vote-getter.
But then, in a move that reeked of collusion, the Arizona Coyotes traded Scott to the Montreal Canadiens, who then stashed him in the AHL, which seemingly made him ineligible for the ASG just two weeks before it was supposed to take place. The deal raised suspicions that the league, which asked Scott to bow out of the game and had that request denied, may have orchestrated the trade to forcefully remove him from the event.
Understandably, a lot of people were upset about the whole ordeal. After all, Scott and his family — currently expecting twins — were forced to uproot and move more than 4,000 miles away, possibly just because the NHL was embarrassed that its meaningless fan vote for a meaningless game got exposed for the joke it is.
But, after all the uproar, the league announced on Tuesday that Scott will in fact still hold on to his roster spot in the ASG. The announcement came in a press release from the NHL’s website:
John Scott will captain the Pacific Division team at the 2016 Honda NHL All-Star Weekend in Nashville, the National Hockey League announced today.
Scott, elected to the Pacific Division captaincy in fan voting while a member of the Arizona Coyotes, was traded Friday to the Montreal Canadiens of the Atlantic Division. The resultant change in division, and Scott’s subsequent assignment to the American Hockey League, created a unique circumstance that required review – the result of which was a determination to maintain the status quo for the All-Star weekend in order to preserve all parties’ pre-existing expectations, including Scott’s desire to participate.
It’s the right move by the NHL, but probably one that was just done to save face. This thing has been a disaster from start to finish, and we can probably expect some changes in the process next year.
