NHL All-Star Game coming to Las Vegas next season

By Justin Emerson

Monday, June 28, 2021 | 3:04 p.m.

The Entertainment Capital of the World is getting the NHL’s All-Star Game.

League commissioner Gary Bettman said Monday during his annual press conference that T-Mobile Arena and the Golden Knights will host the 2021-2002 season’s All-Star Weekend at a to-be-determined date.

The All-Star Game is annually the headliner of the weekend, which also includes a skills competition and several other events. It’s typically held the last weekend of January, and the league said next season the event would stay in its spot at the “traditional midway point of the NHL regular season.”

“It’s very exciting to have the opportunity to host the 2022 NHL All-Star Weekend at T-Mobile Arena,” Golden Knights president Kerry Bubolz said in a statement. “This is one of the league’s premier events of the year and we are thrilled to bring fans from around the world to Las Vegas to celebrate hockey. This event will also help continue our growth of the game in Nevada and our surrounding areas.”

There was not an All-Star Game in the 2020-21 season because of the pandemic-shortened season with the last one held in early 2020 in St. Louis.

The league has traditionally not held an All-Star Weekend on Olympic years when NHL players were scheduled to attend (they did not play in the 2018 games in PyeongChang, but did go to Sochi in 2014). Bettman said he did not know if the NHL will go to the Olympics in 2022, though participation was negotiated as part of the most recent collective bargaining agreement.

The NHL has never brought its All-Star Game to Las Vegas, though the WNBA held its at Mandalay Bay Events Center here in 2018 and will again next month. The NBA played its game at Thomas & Mack Center in 2007, and the NFL will hold the Pro Bowl at Allegiant Stadium in February.