NHL announces All-Star captains and reveals the identities of their 4 celebrity co-captains

The NHL announced the first batch of players representing all 32 teams before a fan vote finalized the final 12 skaters. The NHL ditched the divisional matchups and went with 4 separate teams, captained by a star player and a celebrity, that would then fill out it's roster through a fantasy draft.

The final 12 skaters were voted in last week with the Vancouver Canucks and Toronto Maple Leafs having a combined 7 players joining the original first-batch representatives. Following off of that, the league then announced that Auston Matthews, Connor McDavid, Nathan MacKinnon, and the Hughes brothers - Jack and Quinn - would be captaining their respective teams.

The celebrity pairing for Matthews is none other than Justin Bieber. Another Leafs super fan, Will Arnett, will join McDavid. Tate McRae will be co-captaining with MacKinnon, and lastly, Michael Buble will be joining the Hughes brothers. Additionally Morgan Rielly was named assistant captain for Team Matthews, Leon Draisaitl for Team McDavid, and Cale Makar for Team MacKinnon.

The skills competition got a complete overhaul as well, where rather than every player having a go for at least one event, there would only be 12 competitors who would be participating in 4 of the 6 events before a final face-off in round 7 where 8 of 12 will advance.

The NHL needed to change things up and this year's All-Star weekend has a chance to be eye-popping for a league that has remained rather stagnant in a time of change.