The city of Los Angeles will host the 2017 NHL All-Star game, NHL Commissioner Gary Bettman announced on Saturday.
“We’ll be in another city where the building of an arena transformed its downtown into a destination after years of just the opposite,” said the Commissioner. “The 2017 NHL All-Star events will take place at Staples Center in Los Angeles.”
This is the third time the Kings franchise hosts the All-Star event.
The 1981 game was played at the Forum in Inglewood, California. More recently, Staples Center played host to the All-Star game in 2002.
In a team release, former player and current President, Business Operations, Alternate Governor Luc Robitaille said: “Today’s announcement is tremendous news for our fans and for our entire club. This means so much. Hockey in Southern California continues to grow at an incredible rate and this is another opportunity for the LA Kings to help grow this great game, one that we love, while also putting on a great show and giving a popular NHL event a special Los Angeles flair.”
The Kings will be celebrating their 50th anniversary next year, while the NHL will be in its centennial season.
“There will be lots of events over our centennial celebration, which I’m not going to get into today,” added Bettman.
“There’ll be league-wide events throughout the U.S. and Canada, but there’ll also be some events that will be part of All-Star weekend in Los Angeles.”
#2017AllStar pic.twitter.com/8l6feU9dxJ
— LA Kings (@LAKings) January 30, 2016