The National Hockey League announced today that New York Rangers goaltender Henrik Lundqvist and defenseman Marc Staal have been selected to play in the 2011 NHL All-Star Game on January 30 at the RBC Center in Raleigh, North Carolina. Derek Stepan will join them as one of 12 rookies named to participate in the SuperSkills competition, to take place on January 29 at the RBC Center.
Lundqvist, 28, will be making the second NHL All-Star Game appearance of his career, having previously represented the Eastern Conference All-Stars in 2008-09. He has posted a record of 18-12-3, along with a 2.33 goals against average, a .923 save percentage and five shutouts in 33 games this season. He is tied for first in the NHL in shutouts, sixth in wins, ninth in goals against average, and ranks eighth in save percentage. He also leads the league with 12 road wins, ranks fifth with 904 saves and is tied for first with three assists.
Lundqvist recorded his second career 40-save shutout in a 3-0 win at Florida on November 26 (40 saves). With his first shutout of the season, a 36-save effort in a 2-0 win at Toronto on October 30, Lundqvist passed Mike Richter, Chuck Rayner and Lorne Worsley to move into fourth place on the Rangers' all-time regular season shutouts list with 25 career shutouts. Entering tonight's contest vs. Montreal, the six-year NHL veteran is five wins shy of 200 NHL wins and one shutout from 30 career regular season shutouts.
The three-time Vezina Trophy finalist was originally selected as the Rangers' seventh round choice, 205th overall, in the 2000 NHL Entry Draft.
HOW THE FANTASY DRAFT WORKS
The Jan. 28 NHL All-Star Player Fantasy Draft will be televised live nationwide on TSN and RDS in Canada and VERSUS in the U.S. at 8 p.m. ET.
A coin toss will decide first pick with the team captains, joined by their two alternate captains, alternately drafting the 36 remaining All-Stars through 18 rounds. Each team will consist of three goalies, six defensemen and 12 forwards total. For sake of fairness in the draft, the captain and alternate captains for each team will consist of two forwards and one defenseman. Also, to ensure that the final draft picks are true selections and not simply predetermined due to position requirements, each team’s three goalies must be picked by the end of Round 10 and each team’s six defensemen must be picked by the conclusion of Round 15.
The 12 Rookies participating in the NHL SuperSkills will be divided by the NHL into two groups of six. At the completion of the 15th round of the NHL All-Star Player Fantasy Draft, one NHL Rookie will be selected to choose which All-Star team his group will join for the skills competition.
http://rangers.nhl.com/club/news.htm?id=549095&navid=DL%7CNYR%7Chome
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