Shanahan shares NHL All-Star Weekend memories ahead of Maple Leafs hosting festivities

TORONTO -- No one can speak about the 2024 NHL All-Star Weekend in Toronto quite like Brendan Shanahan.

He grew up in the Toronto area watching the NHL All-Star Game. He played in the All-Star Game eight times during his Hockey Hall of Fame career, including the last time it was in Toronto, in 2000.

As an NHL executive, he helped develop the format the League is using again, with captains selecting fellow players as if this were a pickup game. Now president of the Toronto Maple Leafs, he’s invested in everything happening Feb. 1-3.

“We want to be good hosts,” Shanahan said. “We want people to walk away from this weekend and say, ‘That was a great weekend. Toronto was a great host city.’”

Shanahan looked at All-Star Weekend from many angles and told some entertaining stories in a conversation with NHL.com.

What do you remember about watching the All-Star Game as a kid?

“I didn’t really care about the score. I don’t remember those details. I remember the introductions. I remember the spectacle. I remember seeing guys on the Montreal Canadiens on the same team as guys from the Boston Bruins. You’d see Guy Lafleur passing the puck to Bobby Orr, you know? And it just seemed really special.

“When Steve Yzerman played his first All-Star Game, it was 1984. He was an 18-year-old rookie. I had just turned 15. I remember Yzerman getting interviewed on TV, and the reporter said something like, ‘Did you have some fun last night with the guys?’ And he said something like, ‘No, I had a nice dinner with my family, and then I got to bed early, because I wanted to feel good today.’ And my dad said, ‘Did you hear that? That’s what it takes.’ It’s funny. I later became one of Steve’s dinner companions for most road trips when we played together for the Detroit Red Wings.”

Your first All-Star appearance was at Madison Square Garden in New York in 1994. You won Accuracy Shooting in the skills competition and had two goals in the game, each assisted by Wayne Gretzky. What did that mean to you then?

“It was my seventh season. I had 51 goals the year before and was on my way to 52 that year, but I didn’t make the team. Wendel Clark got hurt, and I was a late addition, so I felt a little bit like a guest and had to somehow prove I belonged. Yeah, I was certainly excited to be there and felt like it wasn’t just an exhibition game for me. I had to play well.

“The funny story in that one was, I had run out of sticks. I used to use an aluminum shaft with wooden blades, and I had broken all of my wooden blades. (Then-St. Louis Blues teammate) Garth Butcher and I had almost the exactly the same patterns, and so I played with Garth Butcher’s blades. I think I’ve got a stick somewhere as a memento, but it says ‘Butcher.’”

You shared the Accuracy Shooting win with Ray Bourque and Peter Forsberg in Vancouver in 1998. Put us in the players’ skates for something like the Cheetos NHL Accuracy Shooting at the NHL All-Star Skills at Scotiabank Arena on Feb. 2 (7 p.m. ET; SN, TVAS, ESPN, ESPN+).

“It’s not what we do. We’re used to performing in front of thousands of people in arenas and millions of people on TV in a team atmosphere. We’re not like tennis players or golfers, so to go do something like that takes guys a little bit out of their comfort zone, and it takes a little getting used to. I would say the majority of players might not admit it or show it, but they’re nervous.

“My first All-Star Game, because I was a late addition, I hadn’t had a lot of time to really think about it, so the whole thing was a bit of a blur. I had fun, but I definitely went into it a little bit like that whole Yzerman thing I had heard my dad point out to me. I can’t say I was in bed for curfew at all [for] the other All-Star Games, but for that first one, I treated it a little bit like my typical game-day prep.”

What do you think of this format for All-Star Skills? Twelve players will compete in multiple events for a $1 million prize, including Maple Leafs forwards Auston Matthews and Mitchell Marner.

“In the past, you’d sit on the bench for 45 minutes, you’d come on cold and do your one thing, and then you’d sit on the bench another 45 minutes, maybe do one more thing. These guys, they’re going to be involved, and they’re going to be warm. I’m intrigued to see how it goes.”

As someone who has played in the All-Star Game in his hometown, what do you think this will be like for Toronto-area natives like Marner and Edmonton Oilers center Connor McDavid?

“I know a lot of people say that players enjoy being in a warm-weather setting, and that is true. But I also think players enjoy being in a traditional hockey setting as well. Toronto and Montreal are the two longest-serving Canadian NHL cities, so I think those bring on a special importance. Me personally, I would take history over weather. When you play hockey, it’s supposed to be cold. My memories growing up here playing hockey was cold cars, cold rinks.”

What do you remember most from 2000?

“It was North America versus the World. About six minutes into the first period, Steve Yzerman and I had a 2-on-1 against our Red Wings teammate Nicklas Lidstrom. One of us tried to sauce the puck past Nick. We knew from games and practices that was kind of an impossible task. Only Nick could make it look so casual and easy, knocking it out of the air and transitioning the other way. Sure enough, Nick knocked it down, transitioned the other way and might even have looked back over his shoulder at us too, like, ‘You idiots.’ I think Steve and I got back to the bench, and we both said, ‘What were we thinking?’”

What’s it like to play against teammates? A few could face each other in the 3-on-3 tournament in the 2024 Honda (U.S.)/Rogers (Canada) NHL All-Star Game at Scotiabank Arena on Feb. 3 (3 p.m. ET; ABC, ESPN+, SN, CBC, TVAS), including Matthews, Marner, William Nylander and Morgan Rielly of the Maple Leafs.

“You probably go harder against your teammate than you go against the other guys, in a fun way. You’ll probably finish your check or steal a puck or backcheck on a teammate just for bragging rights in the dressing room more than you would on an opponent you don’t know as well. That should be fun if teammates do get split up. 

“I do think if for some reason Mitch Marner ends up on a 1-on-1 against Morgan Rielly, they are both going to do their best to have bragging rights not that day but for the rest of their time as teammates. It’s 24 years later, and I can’t remember a whole lot of plays from All-Star Games. But I remember Nick breaking up a 2-on-1, and I remember going back to the dressing room in Detroit and the Kris Drapers, the Kirk Maltbys and Darren McCartys of the world laughing at us for even trying it on a stage like that.”

Did your attitude toward the All-Star Game change as you got older? What was it like when you didn’t go?

“I remember being so excited to be in the All-Star Game, and then I remember there was a point where you start hearing guys say, ‘Oh, I could sure use the time off.’ I remember kind of being on the cusp one year and didn’t make it, and I might have even said to our coaching staff, ‘I don’t know if you guys could influence this in any way, but I’m a little beaten up. I could use a weekend off.’

“I remember going away, and then I saw the game on in my hotel room, and I had awful FOMO (fear of missing out). I just didn’t enjoy my time for the rest of the weekend. I remember thinking as I got into my mid- and late 30s, like, ‘To the extent that you’re invited, never, ever miss one of these, because they’re so special.’

“At the end of the day, All-Star Games weren’t really my kind of game. Chipping the puck deep was kind of frowned upon. Dangling people at the blue line was not really my thing. But I thought every single one of them was so much fun -- not just the fan-facing parts, but the behind-the-curtain parts. There was an opportunity to get to know people a little bit better and have conversations with people you didn’t know on other teams that was really, really special.”

Your last All-Star appearance came in Dallas in 2007. You were a captain, and your linemates were two guys making their first All-Star appearances at the time: Sidney Crosby and Alex Ovechkin.

“I was excited. They probably were not.”

Didn’t they help you celebrate your 38th birthday?

“They walked into the dressing room with a cake and candles. It’s on the internet.”

The All-Star rosters from 2007 are full of players who, like you, became coaches or executives in the NHL, including Lidstrom, Daniel Briere, Martin Brodeur, Bill Guerin, Roberto Luongo, Rick Nash, Joe Sakic and Martin St. Louis. Which players from the All-Star roster this year do you think will do the same someday?

“Almost any of them if they want to do it. People forget the amount of work and dedication that goes into being Sidney Crosby. There has to be a real love and passion to be that good -- not just to be born with God-given talent and skills, but then to hone it your whole life. Some want to get away from the game and do something different when they’re done playing. That’s one way to go. Others say, ‘I can’t play anymore, but I still want to be in the game and work in the game and be around the game.’ I think the ones that want to do it will do it.”

NHL Commissioner Gary Bettman asked you to work on the All-Star Game in 2010-11, when you were vice president of hockey and business development at the League. You helped come up with the fantasy draft, which the NHL used in Carolina in 2011, Ottawa in 2012 and Columbus in 2015. The NHL will bring back the concept with the Tim Hortons NHL All-Star Player Draft at Scotiabank Arena on Feb. 1 (6 p.m. ET; SN, ESPN) as part of NHL All-Star Thursday. Can any format make the All-Star Game more competitive? In the end, what is the All-Star Game supposed to be?

“I remember when Ray Bourque scored with 37.3 seconds left to put the East ahead 5-4 in Boston in 1996. Doug MacLean was our coach. He called a timeout and put me, Cam Neely and Craig MacTavish on the ice, and we were, like, slew-footing people, cross-checking people. We wanted Ray Bourque to finish with the game-winning goal so bad. We talked about, ‘This is how it needs to end.’ That’s just how the game went. Suddenly, you triggered a competitive spirit in all the guys.

“Whether the format is Campbell-Wales, World-North America, East-West, captains, we can make it fun and make it interesting, but we all just have to, like, relax on the game and accept that this is a showcase and an exhibition. It’s never going to feel like a real NHL game, so let’s stop beating ourselves up over that and just have some fun with it and have a good time celebrating hockey in one city over that weekend.”

When Drake performed in Ottawa in 2012, you joked with reporters that your dad didn’t like your music, either. Do you feel something similar now? The Glorious Sons, a rock band, and TALK, a viral instrumentalist, will headline the entertainment at All-Star Skills, and Chxrry22, a Canadian singer, and Dinah Jane, from the pop group Fifth Harmony, will sing the Canada and United States anthems, respectively. The All-Star jerseys were designed in collaboration with drew house, the fashion brand co-founded by Justin Bieber.

“I didn’t know Drake’s music at the time. I was surprised to see players who typically spend the intermission in the dressing room come out and sit on the bench to watch the performance. That shocked me, because players never do that. There are lots of different audiences watching this thing.

“I’m always reminded that a different generation sees these things with a different lens, the same way when I was growing up here in Toronto, my dad and probably older brothers had no time for the cartoon ‘Peter Puck.’ It was my favorite. As a kid, I couldn’t wait for ‘Peter Puck’ to come on in between periods.

“When the All-Star jerseys were unveiled, my 21-year-old son was with me. It was interesting to see his reaction. When he saw them, he wasn’t so sure he liked them. Five minutes later, when he saw the photos of Bieber and his friends wearing them and hanging out, he said, ‘Oh, this suddenly got cooler.’”

All-Star Weekend is intended to reach many demographics, right? All-Star Thursday will include the NHL Alumni Man of the Year announcement (SN) honoring the 1967 Maple Leafs, the last Toronto team to win the Stanley Cup, and the Canadian Tire PWHL 3-on-3 Showcase (SN, ESPN+), spotlighting women’s hockey. The 2024 Hyundai NHL Fan Fair will feature 300,000 square feet of attractions at the Toronto Metro Convention Center from Feb. 1-4.

“That is what an All-Star Game is. In a perfect world, the All-Star Game can attract all type of hockey fans, bring them all in, and there’s something for everyone. That’s what your goal is.”

Questions and answers were edited for clarity.