Best bets for NHL All-Star Skills Competition: McDavid's time to shine

The NHL All-Star Skills Competition is Friday night, and there are several events to look forward to. With $1 million going to the winner, there's also an incentive for the players to bring their best.

Let's take a look at the best ways to attack what should be a fun night on the ice.

All-Star Skills outright winner

You could make a case for a lot of these guys. I'm going to target extremes, with Connor McDavid up top and J.T. Miller at the bottom.

We'll start with McDavid. He's the fastest skater participating in this event, so he should have a strong chance of winning that competition. He also won the accuracy competition a year ago and is perhaps the league's best stick-handler. He's so good in so many areas that I could see him winning several events and running away with it.

McDavid was vocal in getting the game's best to participate this year and make the Skills Competition a must-see event. I don't think he'd be pushing for that, only to take it lightly and throw up a dud. It's also worth noting he's a local kid who'll likely have a lot of friends and family in attendance.

Miller is well-equipped for success in most of the events he's taking part in. He has a very heavy shot and is in the hardest-shot and one-timer competitions. He's an extremely accurate shooter - he's finishing at better than a 20% clip this year - and is in the accuracy competition. I could see him stealing an event or two, and at +1200, he's worth a sprinkle.

Fastest skater

McDavid is built for any competition involving skating. He has such an effortless skating stride and high top speed, and his control while moving at top speed is unmatched. Using NHL Edge data, we can see that McDavid has reached a top speed of 23.58 mph this season, and his average speed clocks in at 10.46 mph. Both of those totals lead the competition.

Mathew Barzal comes closest to McDavid in both categories. He can fly and has great edge work, so I think the market is rightly identifying him as the most likely player to challenge McDavid.

I don't think any of the long shots are worth a dart throw in this spot. The hometown player, William Nylander, owns the lowest top speed of the bunch, while Quinn Hughes hasn't fared much better. Interestingly enough, Quinn owns the lowest top speed - and average speed - among the three Hughes brothers.

McDavid (+110) is the way to go here. I think it comes down to McDavid and Barzal, and I'm happy to take my chances on McDavid winning that battle at plus money.

Hardest shot

Elias Pettersson is favored in this competition. Although he has the highest top shot speed of anybody in the group, I think a couple of the middlemen - Cale Makar and Miller - offer more value.

Makar isn't far behind Pettersson in top shot speed and possesses a higher average. He's also taken 17 shots clocking in at least 90 mph this season, the highest of any of the five competitors.

Meanwhile, Miller is just 0.20 mph out of first place in top shot speed. He ranks second in the group with 13 shots of 90-plus mph this season. Miller can absolutely hammer pucks, and everything he does is heavy. I think he could do some damage in this event.

Auston Matthews is the best goal-scorer in the sport, but he relies more on deception, angles, and getting the puck off his stick quickly as opposed to simply overpowering netminders. The highest shot speed we've seen from him all season is 91.43 mph, well behind the aforementioned players.

I don't see David Pastrnak as a significant threat here, either. Similarly to Matthews, he's more of a skilled shooter than one who relies on pure power. He has just five shots above 90 mph all season long.

Accuracy shooting

This might be the toughest event to win. Almost every player partaking in the Skills Competition is a part of this event, and there's no shortage of players who can hit their spots with ease.

I would defer to the leaders in goals: Matthews and Pastrnak. As I wrote earlier, Matthews and Pastrnak are lethal finishers who rely more on accuracy and deception than power. I think those skill sets will serve them well in this competition.

I'd also like to say Miller has no business carrying the longest odds to win. He's converting on better than 20% of his shots this year, and his career finishing rate sits at nearly 15%. He scores off picking his spots - not piling up insane volume - and that should give him a chance here.

Best of the rest

McDavid (+475) and Nathan MacKinnon (+600) are extremely puck-dominant players who facilitate everything offensively for their teams. Both are used to navigating their way around waves of defenders and should excel in the stickhandling competition.

There's a lot of talent in the one-timer competition, but I'm not sure it's in anybody's wheelhouse as much as Leon Draisaitl (+500). On the power play, especially, he posts up at crazy angles and waits for the puck to come his way so he can one-time them home in the blink of an eye. I also like Draisaitl's chances in the passing challenge at +700. He has insane touch and won a passing event a few years ago.

Todd Cordell is a sports betting writer at theScore. You can follow him on X at @ToddCordell.