Predicting Where Travis Konecny Will Finish In Fastest Skater Event

The Philadelphia Flyers winger will have some fierce opposition in the Fastest Skater challenge at the 2020 NHL All-Star Skills competition.

The 2020 NHL All-Star Weekend will officially kick off this (Friday) evening with the Skills Competition, giving players an opportunity to flaunt their talent in individual challenges. There will be six events in total at this year’s Skills contest in St. Louis, with the Gatorade NHL Shooting Stars™ and the Elite Women’s 3-on-3 fixtures making their debuts and the Bridgestone NHL Fastest Skater™, Bud Light NHL Save Streak™, Honda NHL Accuracy Shooting™, and Enterprise NHL Hardest Shot™ returning for yet another installment of skill supremacy. Travis Konecny, who’s the Philadelphia Flyers lone representative at the 2020 All-Star Game, will compete in the Fastest Skater event in a field that seems to get tougher every year.

Konecny will be joined by Edmonton Oilers centerman Connor McDavid, Buffalo Sabres centerman Jack Eichel, Ottawa Senators winger Anthony Duclair, Colorado Avalanches’ centerman Nathan MacKinnon, New York Islanders centerman Mathew Barzal, New York Rangers winger Chris Kreider, and Vancouver Canucks defenseman Quinn Hughes. Seven of the eight contestants will look to dethrone McDavid, who’s walked away as Fastest Skater champion in each of the last three years. It certainly won’t be easy to stop the 2016-17 Hart Trophy winner from earning his fourth-straight trophy, but this year’s list of hopefuls is as good as any to give the star forward a run for his money.

Stacking up TK against the rest of the participants, I believe he has an excellent opportunity to, at the very least, place in the Top Three. The Flyers first-time All-Star is no slouch in the speed department and could even surprise some casual viewers with how quick he is on the ice. Konecny’s toughest opposition lies within McDavid (obviously) and MacKinnon, who’ve long been known as two of the fastest players the league has to offer.

Barzal, Duclair, and Hughes shouldn’t be disregarded, either, as all three possess the ability to post solid times that could make this one of the closest competitions in recent memories. All in all, I predict that Konecny will finish behind the previously mentioned McDavid and MacKinnon while having a slightly better time than Duclair to place third among the eight skaters.

For those who are unaware of how the Fastest Skater competition works, here’s a brief description of the contest thanks to NHL.com:

"Eight players will compete in the Bridgestone NHL Fastest Skater™. Each skater will be timed for one full lap around the rink. The skater may choose the direction of their lap and can be positioned a maximum of three feet behind the start line located on the penalty box side of the center red line. The skater must start on the referee’s whistle and the timing clock will start when the skater crosses the start line. In the event of a clock malfunction, the official time will be recorded by the referee’s stopwatch. The skater with the fastest time is the winner of the Bridgestone NHL Fastest Skater™, and if there is a tie for the fastest time, the tied players will skate another lap to determine the winner."

All of the festivities are set to get underway at 8 pm EST. You can watch everything unfold on NBCSN or Sportsnet in Canada.