National Hockey League announces John Scott will captain Pacific Division at All-Star Game

NEW YORK (January 19, 2016) – John Scott will captain the Pacific Division team at the 2016 Honda NHL All-Star Weekend in Nashville, the National Hockey League announced today. The resultant change in division, and Scott’s subsequent assignment to the American Hockey League, created a unique circumstance that required review – the result of which was a determination to maintain the status quo for the All-Star weekend in order to preserve all parties’ pre-existing expectations, including Scott’s desire to participate.

In addition to Panthers forward Jaromir Jagr, Blackhawks forward Patrick Kane and Capitals forward Alex Ovechkin, Scott was chosen as a fan-elected captain as a member of the Coyotes in the 2016 NHL All-Star Fan Vote.

NHL All-Star John Scott is back on the table. Nope. Guessing the league will encourage fans to vote for their favorite players but within strictly defined guidelines; as in the NHL can be expected to provide a nice list of players they can vote for and beyond that they can pound salt. Last week, he was traded to the Canadiens and demoted to the AHL.

Teams representing the four divisions will participate in a tournament of 3-on-3 play – the skating-heavy format is not kind to Scott’s limited abilities.

The decision settles an awkward situation for the league. The fans voted him in so why not have him there? Nilan had considerably more skill than Scott, playing in 688 games in which he amassed 110 goals and 115 assists for his career.

The Arizona Coyotes now have no actual representative in the All-Star game. In 1999, a hacker attempted to add more than 25,000 votes to the tallies of Red Sox shortstop Nomar Garciaparra, catcher Scott Hatteberg, second baseman Jose Offerman and third baseman John Valentin.

And if Scott gets physical during play?

John Scott will be allowed to play in the NHL All-Star Game.