Talent on full display at this year's AHL All-Star Classic

The AHL All-Star Classic returns and the Tucson Roadrunners’ selection is the “best representative.”

On Sunday night, the AHL will hold its Skills Competition and on Monday, the AHL All-Star Challenge, both on the NHL Network.

Center Cameron Hebig will represent Tucson.

“He’s absolutely the best representative, it’s a great story,” said Tucson head coach Steve Potvin. “He’s been on our team for a long time and this is a person that shows up every single day with the intention of improving.”

The skills competition will feature speed, agility, puck control, rapid fire, hardest shot and accuracy challenges. Hebig filled out a questionnaire about his preferences but as of Friday night Roadrunners officials hadn’t heard what event(s) he would be participating in.

Then, on Monday will be the All-Star Challenge, a 3-on-3 tournament where the league’s four divisions will battle it out for the title.

“It was just super exciting and so awesome, family is gonna come down and girlfriend, so it’ll be an awesome experience with them,” said Hebig, a Saskatoon, Saskatchewan, native. “It was great news and like I said, really looking forward to it.”

Fifteen Roadrunners have been selected to the All-Star team, starting with Brendan Perlini, Kyle Wood and Christian Fischer in 2016-17 and continuing with Josh Doan and Hebig this season, though the Utah Hockey Club recalled Doan soon after his selection.

Of those 14 besides Hebig, 12 went on to play in the NHL, with seven currently in the league.

“There’s been some elite players over there in the past and a lot of a lot of good players, so to be able to go and represent Tucson, it’s just really exciting,” Hebig said.

Since 1995, more than 94% of AHL All-Star Classic participants have made it to the NHL.

“There’s a plethora of young talent,” Potvin said.

The all-star festivities are at Acrisure Arena, which has a 10,100 capacity for hockey and a few ties to Tucson. The arena opened Dec. 14, 2022, with the Roadrunners handing the Firebirds their first loss there six days later.

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The UA men’s and women’s basketball teams have also played there in 2023 and 2024, respectively.

It’s the second straight season the All-Star Classic is in a Pacific Division city. Last season it was in San Jose, making the quick turnaround — the Roadrunners have a game Saturday night — easier.

“It’s a great venue, it’s a great town, they’ve supported the team extremely well,” Potvin said. “It’s great to see in the Pacific there’s no doubt and yeah it makes it a lot easier for Cam to be able to get there, it’s gonna help him for the travel for sure, it’s an all round great selection. It’s a hockey town now.”

In 2023, the Classic was in Laval, Quebec, and next year it will be in Rockford, Illinois.

The AHL first held an All-Star Game in 1942, and it was held irregularly until 1995 when it returned after a 35-year absence. From then on, it was annual except for 2021 and 2022 due to COVID-19.

In 2015-16, the league formed the Pacific Division as western NHL teams moved five teams to California. Then the next year, the Roadrunners debuted and in 2022-23, the Coachella Valley Firebirds joined the league as the Seattle Kraken’s affiliate.

The current division tournament format for the All-Star Classic was adopted in 2016.

“It was awesome, obviously there’s a lot of great players from around the league who get to come to an event like that and showcase how good they are and give the fans a good show,” said Tucson goalie Matthew Villalta, an all-star last year. “It is a pretty cool experience to see all the talent in the league and a lot of younger players and even older players who have a lot of skill and can play the game at a elite level. And it was just an amazing experience to kind of meet new people and just players from around the league.

“So, all in all it was a very cool experience and I’m very thankful and grateful for that opportunity I had last year.”

The Pacific Division has won all the all-star tournaments since the All-Star Classic returned after COVID, and the Western Conference won the skills competition last year.

“I think at the end of the day we’re all competitors and we’re going out there to win and you wanna make your division proud and to show the rest league that you’re the best division in the league,” Villalta said. “So there’s definitely some pride behind that and a little bit of bragging rights as well, so it’s definitely for fun and a lot of it’s for the fans, but when it comes down to the game you wanna get out there to win and you wanna play good for the division.”

The Pacific, Central (2016 and 2017) and North (2018 and 2019) have two titles and the Atlantic one (2020).

Slap shots

• On Friday, the Calgary Wranglers announced that Wranglers assistant coach
  • Brett Sutter will lead the Pacific Division team as interim head coach
    • Joe Cirella is unable to. Since they were in first place on Jan. 1 Calgary got the division’s head coaching spot, but a few days before that, Wranglers head coach
      • Trent Cull was moved up to their parent club, the Calgary Flames, on an interim basis.
      • Fuego, the mascot for the Coachella Valley Firebirds, announced that for the first time in five years there will be a mascot game at the All-Star Classic. It is set to take place Monday during the first intermission after a meet-and-greet and mascot fashion show.