Pulkkinen, 25 (1/2/92), becomes the third player in team history to earn the honor of playing in the mid-season classic. He also becomes the first forward to do it, joining defensemen Matt Dumba and Gustav Olofsson as the only other Wild players to participate. This marks Pulkkinen's second appearance in an AHL All-Star Game, as he represented Grand Rapids in 2015.
The Vantaa, Finland native leads Iowa in scoring with 12 goals and 22 points in 25 games played. The high-scoring right wing is also tops on the team in power-play goals (4), first goals (5), game-winning goals (3) and shots (85). In his AHL career, Pulkkinen has played in 144 games, scoring 77 goals and adding 66 assists for 143 points. The 5-foot-11, 183-pounder has scored once in nine games for Minnesota this season. Pulkkinen has played in 79 NHL games, scoring 12 goals and totaling 21 points. He was originally drafted by Detroit in the fourth round of the 2010 NHL Entry Draft.
The AHL's All Stars will be divided into four teams, one representing each of the league's four divisions, for the 2017 AHL All-Star Challenge on Jan. 30. The teams will participate in a round-robin tournament featuring six games of 10 minutes each, played entirely at 3-on-3. The two teams with the best records at the end of the round-robin will face off for a championship, a six-minute game also played at 3-on-3.
The 2017 AHL All-Star Skills Competition presented by Giant Food Stores and Velaspan on Jan. 29 will pit the All-Stars from the two Eastern Conference divisions against those from the two Western Conference divisions in seven skills events.
