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This year the National Hockey League’s best will be in Ottawa for the 59th annual NHL All Star Game. The entire weekend is a fun time for everyone involved, especially the fans. Before the Skills Competition and the actual All Star game the captains from both sides have to build their teams in the newly added fantasy draft, which takes place tonight at 8 PM EST.

This year the players voted to the All Star festivities elected hometown hero Daniel Alfredsson and Bruins defenseman Zdeno Chara as the captains, while Henrik Lundqvist of the New York Rangers and Joffrey Lupul of the Toronto Maple Leafs will serve as assistants (Lundqvist with Alfredsson, Lupul with Chara). When the draft begins both sides will have to follow a set of rules to keep it fair for the goaltenders and the D-men. All goalies must be selected by the end of round 10 while all defensemen must be chosen by round 15.

In the spirit of All Star Weekend yours truly, along with Sunshine State Hockey writer Rob McMahon, decided to fill the shoes of the two captains and participate in our own mock draft. Rob decided to take on the role of Daniel Alfredsson, leaving me with team Chara. After I won a coin toss to see who would draft first the fun began. Below are the complete results of our draft.

Team Chara

Zdeno Chara (C) – D, Boston
Joffrey Lupul (A) – RW, Toronto

1. Steven Stamkos – C, Tampa
2. Tim Thomas – G, Boston
3. Phil Kessel – RW, Toronto
4. Dion Phaneuf – D, Toronto
5. Tyler Seguin – C, Boston
6. Jonathan Quick – G, Los Angeles
7. Shea Weber – D, Nashville
8. Marian Hossa – RW, Chicago
9. Jason Spezza – C, Ottawa
10. Brian Elliott – G, St. Louis
11. Dennis Wideman – D, Washington
12. Pavel Datsyuk – C, Detroit
13. Kimmo Timonen – D, Philadelphia
14. Keith Yandle – D, Phoenix
15. Corey Perry – RW, Anaheim
16. Jarome Iginla – RW, Calgary
17. John Tavares – C, NY Islanders
18. Jordan Eberle – RW, Edmonton
19. Jason Pominville – RW, Buffalo

Team Alfredsson

Daniel Alfredsson (C) – RW, Ottawa
Henrik Lundqvist (A) – G, NY Rangers

1. Evgeni Malkin – C, Pittsburgh
2. Claude Giroux – C, Philadelphia
3. Jimmy Howard – G, Detroit
4. Kris Letang – D, Pittsburgh
5. Daniel Sedin – LW, Vancouver
6. Henrik Sedin – C, Vancouver
7. Ryan Suter – D, Nashville
8. Patrick Kane – RW, Chicago
9. Carey Price – G, Montreal
10. Brian Campbell – D, Florida
11. Marian Gaborik – RW, NY Rangers
12. Alexander Edler – D, Vancouver
13. Erik Karlsson – D, Ottawa
14. Dan Girardi – D, NY Rangers
15. James Neal – LW, Pittsburgh
16. Milan Michalek – LW, Ottawa
17. Scott Hartnell – LW, Philadelphia
18. Jamie Benn – LW, Dallas
19. Logan Couture – C, San Jose

The strategy for team Chara was to first select one of the best natural scorers in the league then grab all of the fellow teammates of big Z and Lupul. It was a tough choice between Stamkos and Malkin but I had to go with the Tampa Bay superstar. As the draft got deeper and Spezza hung around I had to pick him up to get the crowd on my side in Ottawa. Not to mention reuniting Jason Spezza with Marian Hossa in front of the Senators fans was something I couldn’t pass up.

Rob’s strategy for team Alfredsson was to grab players who currently play, or have played together. It seems that during the draft he forgot about Alfy’s good buddy Jason Spezza, letting him fall to team Chara. One big positive of Rob’s strategy was keeping the Sedin’s together, which is something that didn’t happen in last years All Star game draft.

We also want to give a nod to Logan Couture for being the final pick of our mock draft. We know fellow SSH staff member Bre Philley won’t be happy about that.

To see how close we got to the actual teams, or how bad we failed, be sure to watch the 2012 NHL All Star Player Fantasy Draft at 8:00 PM EST tonight on the NBC Sports Network (formally Versus).