All-star games in professional sports leagues are tricky to begin with; one of the key criticisms being that if a game is held mid-season, there’s a chance that a star player will be injured, which would impact his team’s playoff chances. This year, the NHL is attracting controversy to its All-Star Game for a different reason.

The big story this season is the Arizona Coyotes’ John Scott being selected to play in the game. As this SB Nation article explains, Scott isn’t a household name among most NHL fans, so partially out of a desire to annoy NHL executives, they selected Scott to serve as one of the captains. The controversy took a new twist when the veteran learned on Friday he would be not only be traded to the Montreal Canadiens, but his new club assigned him to their AHL affiliate, making him ineligible for the All-Star Game.

However, the news earlier this week was that Scott would have his ASG eligibility re-instated, meaning he will be captains for one of the teams. Going back to the SB nation article, originally he shared executives’ lack of enthusiasm for the idea, but slowly warmed up to being an All Star, and getting a chance to realize that will be a unique opportunity for him and his family.

The whole situation brings this question to light: are All Star Games nothing more than popularity contests? Had John Scott already been a household name among hockey fans, the NHL would not have had a problem with the result, as it was their idea to have a fan vote. The league has been trying to promote itself to new fans with promising ideas, but their initial action to disregard the fan vote puts a severe limit on the amount of credibility they could’ve gained. If something like this happens next year, how will the NHL react to that occurrence?

The NHL All-Star Weekend will be held the final weekend of January in Nashville. Instead of one traditional game, each of the four divisions will have an 11-man roster, competing in 3-on-3 games to determine which division wins the ASG Final. Scott, having been on the Coyotes’ roster during the fan vote, will captain the Pacific Division.