Shanahan, Mayer help bring back player draft at 2024 NHL All-Star Weekend

The first time Steve Mayer worked with the NHL, he and Brendan Shanahan produced a fantasy draft for the 2011 NHL All-Star Game. It was a novel concept, having players pick the teams for a 3-on-3 tournament and letting the fans watch the process.

Mayer was an executive at IMG who had done TV shows like "The World's Strongest Man" and "Battle of the Network Stars." Shanahan was an executive at the NHL who had appeared in the NHL All-Star Game eight times during a 19-year Hockey Hall of Fame playing career.

"I had never met Brendan Shanahan before in my life," Mayer said. "I, of course, knew of Brendan Shanahan and thought he was one heck of a player. It was like, 'Hi, Brendan, I'm Steve,' and, 'Oh, hi, nice to meet you.' And we just sat in a room and figured it out together."

It's no coincidence the concept is returning with the Tim Hortons NHL All-Star Player Draft on Feb. 1. Mayer is chief content officer at the NHL, and Shanahan is president of the Toronto Maple Leafs. The 2024 NHL All-Star Weekend is at Scotiabank Arena in Toronto.

"I'll always be grateful for my first ever experience at the NHL, and it was working hand in hand with Brendan, who now is in Toronto and was one of the early proponents of bringing this draft back," Mayer said. "His push certainly helped us get to where we are today."

Shanahan won't take credit for the original draft or this one, but he loves the idea.

"I always thought that if it was done the right way and the players enjoyed it, it could be a fun thing," Shanahan said. "You're peeking in on how they would construct the teams if it was left up to them, even if it was just for a fun game of pickup."

The NHL All-Star Game has had several different formats since the first official one at Maple Leaf Gardens in Toronto in 1947. The League was looking to improve the event in 2010-11, when Shanahan was vice president of hockey and business development.

Shanahan remembered working on it with Rob Blake, a hockey operations manager at the NHL at the time. Blake had appeared in the NHL All-Star Game seven times during a 20-year Hockey Hall of Fame playing career. He is now general manager of the Los Angeles Kings.

"I think the idea may have even been Rob's," Shanahan said. "It just sort of grew from there."

They went back to the roots of shinny and street hockey, when kids throw sticks in a pile and pick teams. The thought was the players would become more engaged and competitive, that would bring out their personalities, and that would be entertaining.

"The rest was really up to Steve," Shanahan said. "We didn't know how to put on a show. We didn't know how to shoot it or any of that. Really, for us, it was just the concept of letting the players pick the teams, and we're used to doing that growing up."

Shanahan laughed.

"We all remember the fun slash anxiety of getting picked," he said, "and sometimes that led to motivation to beat the guy who didn't pick you."

The NHL used the fantasy draft three times -- at Carolina in 2011, Ottawa in 2012 and Columbus in 2015 -- and it generated many memorable moments. Other leagues have copied the general concept since.

The problem with any draft is that someone must be picked last. Phil Kessel, then a forward with the Maple Leafs, famously was the last pick in 2011. But players have received consolation prizes like money for charity and Honda cars and trucks, and the NHL has tweaked the format to lessen the impact.

This time, celebrities will be paired with captains, who will pick the four teams for the 3-on-3 tournament at the Rogers NHL All-Star Game on Feb. 3 from a pool of players selected by the NHL and its fans. The NHL has something humorous planned for the final four picks.

The draft will be part of a new event, NHL All-Star Thursday, which will include a tribute to the 1967 Maple Leafs, Toronto's last Stanley Cup team, plus a Professional Women's Hockey League 3-on-3 game.

Tickets for NHL All-Star Thursday will go on sale to the public at 10 a.m. ET on Dec. 5 via Ticketmaster. In Canada, the event will be televised on Sportsnet. In the United States, the player draft will be on ESPN, the rest on ESPN+.

The League has been working together with the NHL Players' Association, which introduced executive director Marty Walsh on March 13.

"Working with the new team at the NHLPA has been an incredible pleasure," Mayer said. "They are leaning into events like this draft. They, like we do, see the value of exposing the players, having fun with the players."

That's what it's all about.

"I don't know whether this will be a one-and-done year for us in Toronto, but it's really dependent on what the players are comfortable with, and the more fun they have with it, the better," Shanahan said. "It's not meant to embarrass anybody. It's meant to just sort of have some fun."