NHL All-Star Skills Competition: Predictions, betting odds, best bets for 2023 events

Bryan Murphy

NHL All-Star Skills Competition: Predictions, betting odds, best bets for 2023 events image

The 2023 NHL All-Star Skills competition is Friday with seven events on deck. Winners of each event get to go home with a cash prize of $30,000. 

However, the All-Stars aren't the only ones that can win money. There are three All-Star Skills events that fans can bet on.  

Sports Interaction has odds for three fan-favorite games: Fastest Skater, Hardest Shot and Accuracy Shooting. Among the players available to bet on are Connor McDavid, Leon Draisaitl and Alex Ovechkin. 

MORE: Explaining three new events taking place at All-Star Weekend

The Sporting News has the All-Star Skills odds, as well as predictions for the three events. 

2023 NHL All-Star Skills competition odds, predictions

All odds provided by Sports Interaction

Fastest Skater

Prediction: Dylan Larkin

No Connor McDavid in the Fastest Skater event is a bummer, but there will still be plenty of speed on display. 

My prediction is Red Wings captain Dylan Larkin. The center already holds one Fastest Skater title, winning the event in 2016 with a time of 13.172 seconds, breaking Mike Gartner's record set in 1996.

Cale Makar will give him a run for his money, but I don't see anyone beating Larkin, who is also the favorite according to oddsmakers. 

Odds

Player Odds
Dylan Larkin +250
Cale Makar +298
Chandler Stephenson +349
Kirill Kaprizov +452
Andrei Svechnikov +554

Hardest Shot

Prediction: Alex Ovechkin

This year's Hardest Shot competition feels a bit lackluster. No big, burly defensemen like Zdeno Chara or Shea Weber that would stand out as a favorite.

With that said, out of the options, it feels like Alex Ovechkin's to take. He won the Hardest Shot event in 2018, hitting 101.3 mph, and has competed in plenty of these events.

Even at his age, he's showing no signs of slowing down, so why not add another Hardest Shot win to his resume? The oddsmakers seem to agree, with Ovechkin holding the best odds to win. 

Odds

Player Odds
Alex Ovechkin +298
Seth Jones +360
Rasmus Dahlin +363
Elias Pettersson +366
Josh Morrissey +391

Accuracy Shooting

Prediction: Nikita Kucherov

The Accuracy Shooting event is a wide-open field. None of the players participating in the 2023 competition have won the event before, and the odds don't have a clear-cut favorite. 

While it feels inevitable that McDavid, who holds the highest odds, dominates and wins the event, I'm going to go with Nikita Kucherov. He has such a quick release and can pinpoint a shot when needed. McDavid can't be winning everything. 

Odds

Player Odds
Connor McDavid +446
Leon Draisaitl +553
Nikita Kucherov +602
Jack Hughes +641
Aleksander Barkov +655
Artemi Panarin +698
Nazem Kadri +800
Vladimir Tarasenko +900
Kevin Hayes +1100
Brock Nelson +1100

 

Bryan Murphy

Bryan Murphy Photo

Bryan Murphy joined The Sporting News in 2022 as the NHL/Canada content producer. Previously he worked for NBC Sports on their national news desk reporting on breaking news for the NFL, MLB, NBA and NHL, in addition to covering the 2020 and 2022 Olympic Games. A graduate of Quinnipiac University, he spent time in college as a beat reporter covering the men’s ice hockey team.