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TORONTO, ON – Leave the mind games for the players on the ice, Will.

Celebrity coach and actor Will Arnett might’ve claimed to know what he was doing when he pulled on a blue & white Toronto Maple Leafs hat for the 2024 NHL All-Star Player Draft, but the ‘Blades of Glory’ star from 2007 wasn’t about to override the likes of Connor McDavid and Leon Draisaitl when it came to making the roster decisions.

“Yeah, I'm wearing my Leafs hat. It's a bit of a psych-out,” said Arnett, a Toronto native, following the event on Thursday night.

“My team is captained by Connor McDavid and Leon Draisaitl, two really good hockey players, and we’ve got to go against a lot of guys stacked from my hometown. So I figured I'd just do a little mind game. I don't know. I'm not great at mind games.”

“The last thing you want to do when you're putting a hockey team together is ask the actor for his advice, so I'm just trying to help those guys make the best [choice]. And Blades of Glory, by the way… I was the best.”

With the help of Arnett and his co-captain Draisaitl, McDavid filled out his roster for Saturday’s NHL All-Star Game, which this season features the return of the player draft for the first time in nearly a decade and the added twist of including celebrity coaches as part of the 3-on-3 tournament.

“That was kind of fun,” McDavid said of the player draft. “Obviously it's a little different for us, as you mentioned, but it was fun to be a part of. Not every day you get to draft a team out of the best players in the world. Leo and I had a really good time with Will Arnett. He's a great guy, made it fun for us. He was super entertaining, so it was fun to be up there with those two.”

"It was good. It was different," Draisaitl added. "It was obviously our first time doing this, so it was a lot of fun. It was nice getting to know Will a little bit and doing it with him. He seems to know his hockey pretty well."

Team McDavid had the fourth and fifth picks in the draft, electing to use their first selection to secure a veteran presence between the pipes in Winnipeg Jets netminder Connor Hellebuyck.

McDavid & Draisaitl know from personal experience over their careers in the same Western Conference as the Jets' goaltender just how effective he can be, with the 30-year-old owning a 1.95 goals-against average and .949 save percentage against Edmonton over two games against Edmonton in 2023-24.

"He's just a good goalie. He's hard to score on," Draisaitl said. "He's so under control and so big; technically, he's amazing. So we just wanted to ensure we grab him early and have the goalie situation all taken care of."

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      Leon addresses the media after Thursday's All-Star Draft in Toronto

      Owning the next pick, Draisaitl and McDavid didn't hesitate at the opportunity to add another player they both have a strong amount of respect for in Boston's David Pastrnak, who could complete one of the most high-octane lines we've ever seen at an NHL All-Star game alongside the Dynamic Duo.

      “I’m excited to see how it’s going to be,” Pastrnak said. “They are both unbelievable players, two of the best in the world. I’m excited and hopefully, we can score some goals on Saturday and get the win."

      Pastrnak was selected 22 picks after Draisaitl in the first round of the 2014 NHL Draft, and the Czech forward is also second behind the German for overall points from the draft class with 334 goals and 689 points in 641 NHL games – including five more career goals.

      The 27-year-old Bruin is third in NHL scoring this season with 33 goals and 27 points in 49 games.

      “With ‘Pasta,’ we kind of grew up together, got drafted in the same year and been through the whole thing together,” Draisaitl said. “So I’m excited to spend some time with him, I got to know him from spending some time in Prague.”

      For all of his All-Star Game experience, McDavid believes that getting the chance to line up alongside NHL talent like Pastrnak, whom he's never been teammates with, is still one of the best parts of the whole event and certainly factored into his decision to take the elite scorer with his second pick.

      “It’s exciting,” McDavid said. “I’ve come to the All-Star Game, this is my seventh time, and never gotten a chance to play with a guy like Pastrnak. That’s exciting to me. It’s always fun to get to play with new guys when you’re coming to an event like this where it’s the best against the best. It’s fun.”

      Leon addresses the media after Thursday's All-Star Draft in Toronto

      Team McDavid then took their first defenceman in Buffalo Sabres' first-overall pick Rasmus Dahlin before rounding out their roster with the likes of Sergei Bobrovsky (Florida), Tomas Hertl (San Jose), Nick Suzuki (Montreal), and first-time All-Stars in Robert Thomas (St. Louis), Boone Jenner (Columbus) and Sam Reinhart (Florida).

      Team McDavid will face Team MacKinnon in the first match on Sunday, with the winner going on to the final to face one of either Team Hughes or Team Matthews – the latter of which boasts all four Toronto Maple Leafs players (Matthews, Nylander, Rielly and Marner).

      Full Team McDavid Roster

      Connor McDavid, EDM
      Leon Draisaitl, EDM
      Connor Hellebuyck, WPG
      David Pastrnak, BOS
      Rasmus Dahlin, BUF
      Robert Thomas, STL
      Sam Reinhart, FLA
      Sergei Bobrovsky, FLA
      Boone Jenner, CBJ
      Nick Suzuki, MTL
      Tomas Hertl, SJS