The 2024 NHL All-Star weekend is all wrapped up and the city of Toronto put on a great show for hockey fans. HockeyStickMan was a proud sponsor of this year's event and we had a blast taking in all the festivities. It was a pleasure to see some the HSM faithful out and about as well. Stay tuned for more content recapping the weekend of a lifetime!
The action on the ice was just as good as it was off the ice, with the best players in the world dazzling in both Friday night's skills competition and Saturday's All Star games. This event is a great opportunity for gear manufacturers and their athletes to come together to create some sweet custom gear to commemorate the event. Let's take a look at what some of the guys and girls were using.
Bauer
Bauer always takes care of their athletes, equipping them with custom colour gear. With the Proto R only being a recent release, we haven't come across too many custom colorways, but when you're Elias Pettersson, you get what you want. This sweet custom blue Proto R offers a nice sleek look with a bit of pop.
LA Kings' backstop Cam Talbot showed some love to the city of Toronto with a great set of custom pads for the weekend, featuring the iconic CN Tower and 2024 NHL All-Star colorway.
CCM
Notice anything else about that photo above? Take a peek at Matthews' stick, how about that custom color on his unreleased CCM Jetspeed FT7. Additionally, it's Auston Matthews, he's a style icon. There was no way he was going to have a custom stick without matching custom skates. Seen here are the also unreleased CCM XF Pro skates.
CCM went all out making sure their athletes were hooked up with some great custom and unreleased gear. Apart from this past World Junior tournament, this was our first good look at the unreleased Jetspeed FT7. Morgan Rielly was spotted with a sweet custom Toronto blue FT7.
We also saw Connor McDavid using a blacked out (blacked out plug check) FT7 that might have helped him take home the $1M prize in the skills competition.
Speaking of unreleased Jetspeed sticks, we got a great look at the Jetspeed FTW when PWHL All-Star Sarah Nurse was dishing out perfect feeds during accuracy competition on Friday night. We've seen pieces of protective equipment from CCM's FTW line, but this was our best look yet at the unreleased twig.
Of note, it was interesting to see some players using their own versions of "Ol' Trusty" like NY Islanders' star Mat Barzal wielding his Ribcor Trigger 6 Pro. In a weekend full of custom colorways and unreleased gear, it was great to see some players taking the "if it ain't broke, don't fix it approach" by keeping things status quo as far gear goes. We like to think, if it's good enough for Mat Barzal, it's good enough for all of us, and we still have a great selection of Ribcor Trigger 6 Pro's online and in store at HSM!
We're gonna tell you one time, we thought Justin Bieber looked like $300 million out there in warmups along his his co-captain, Auston Matthews. Everyone knows how much of a hockey fan Bieber is, and he has the on-ice style to prove it. Dancing out there in his CCM Ribcor 100K Pro skates, his blue Jetspeed FT6 Pro twig (75 flex, R shaft) and HPTK mitts, The Biebs fit right in with the NHL's best.
Sherwood
Sherwood was not about to be outdone when it came to custom gear as Sherwood athletes Alex DeBrincat and William Nylander were both using limited edition PMP 7500 graphics on their sticks, in celebration of Sherwood's 75th anniversary.
True
Known for his creativity on the ice, Mitch Marner should be given just as much credit for his creativity off the ice as well. Marner made the most of being hometown Leaf at the hometown All-Star weekend by drawing some custom True skates. Featuring Justin Bieber's Drew House x Leafs logo and the Toronto skyline, these skates had a lot going on, but it all worked as these look pretty sweet.
Warrior
Warrior's biggest star Leon Draisaitl was not about to be shown up as he showed up to All-Star weekend with a custom All-Star Alpha LX2 Pro graphic.
All in all, stars aligned and put on a terrific show for all fans in attendance, whether it was Thursday's draft & PWHL Showcase, Friday's skills competition, or Saturday's games, the weekend was a giant success. It was an honour to be involved in this years All-Star festivities, we hope everyone who made their way downtown or followed along from home enjoyed everything as well, until next time!