Patrick WilliamsTheAHL.com Features Writer
A host of top NHL draft picks will be in attendance at the 2026 AHL All-Star Classic presented by BMO, scheduled for this week in Rockford.
The AHL All-Star Skills Competition will take place on Tuesday (8 ET/7 CT) with the AHL All-Star Challenge, a 3-on-3 round-robin competition between the four AHL divisions, following on Wednesday (8 ET/7 CT). NHL Network (United States) and TSN (Canada) will televise the game while AHLTV on FloHockey will have broadcast coverage. The Chicago Sports Network will produce the game and also broadcast it.
The event will feature 18 players who were first or second round draft picks in the NHL. Here’s a look at some of the members of that group:
Conor Geekie – Syracuse Crunch
The pursuit of the Stanley Cup year after year means the Tampa Bay Lightning have had to deal with draft picks. But they got a great prospect going forward in Geekie when they got him in 2024 as part of the team. Mikhail Sergachev deal.
Geekie, now 21, was selected by the Arizona Coyotes with the 11th overall pick in the 2022 Draft. He played 52 games last season for the Lightning, and this year he ranked second for the Crunch with 41 points (13 goals, 28 assists) in 40 games.
Matvei Gridin – Calgary Wranglers
At 19 years old, Gridin is one of two youngsters participating in this year’s All-Star Classic, and he has shown that he can skate with the game’s top young talent. The forward entered the AHL and collected 11 points (four goals, seven assists) in his first eight games with the Wranglers. He was selected 28th overall by the Calgary Flames in 2024, and has appeared in 13 NHL games this season and has six points (three goals, three assists). In 34 games for the Wranglers, he has 28 points (10 goals, 18 assists).
Gridin’s rise has been rapid as well. In 2023-24, he led the United States Hockey League with 83 points (38 goals, 45 assists) for Muskegon. He went to the Quebec Maritimes Junior Hockey League last season and won the rookie of the year award after having 79 points (36 goals, 43 assists) in 56 games with Shawinigan.
Konsta Helenius – Rochester Americans
Another young All-Star this year, Helenus was also part of the NHL’s 2024 first round class going 14th overall to the Buffalo Sabres. Since it has become a common move for the organization, they chose to deliver directly to Rochester, the same method that has recently been used in popularity Jiří Kulich, Jack Quinn again Isak Rosén.
Helenus managed his first season at the age of 18, scoring 14 goals for the Amerks in 65 games in 2024-25. He now has 34 points (10 goals, 24 assists) in 34 games at the age of 19 as he works to position himself for a future career with the Sabres, one of the NHL’s top transfer stories this season.
Bradley Nadeau – Chicago Wolves
Coming off a stellar rookie season as a 19-year-old forward, Nadeau continues to build in his second pro season as a prospect for the Carolina Hurricanes. Carolina selected Nadeau 30th overall in the 2023 NHL Draft, and he spent one season at the University of Maine before turning pro.
Last season with Chicago, he became one of five players in AHL history under the age of 20 to record a 30-goal season. His 58-point season, 32 of which were goals, earned him spots on the AHL All-Rookie team and the AHL Top Prospects Team. This season, the AHL Player of the Month for January posted 41 points (18 goals, 23 assists) in 34 games.
Dmitri Simashev – Tucson Roadrunners
Defensemen are the backbone of NHL contenders, and the Utah Mammoth think they have a good one in Simashev. Arizona selected Simashev sixth overall in 2023, and he came to Utah before last season. Like Nadeau, he earned league honors for his January performance, posting a goal and 10 assists in 10 games to earn AHL Rookie of the Month honors.
Simashev, 21, came to the Roadrunners in December after a long run with Utah in his first season in North America. Along with 24 games for the Mammoths, he had 23 points (seven goals, 16 assists) in 23 games with Tucson. Last season in the Kontinental Hockey League, he won the Gagarin Cup with Lokomotiv Yaroslavl and his current Tucson teammate. Daniel though.
In the American Hockey League for two decades, TheAHL.com features writer Patrick Williams and currently covers the league for NHL.com and FloSports and is a regular contributor to SiriusXM NHL Network Radio. He was the recipient of the AHL’s James H. Ellery Memorial Award for the league’s top scorer in 2016.
