The NHL All-Star Game is coming to South Florida in 2023. Here’s what we know so far
The 2023 NHL All-Star Game is coming to South Florida.
The Florida Panthers will host the NHL All-Star Game for the second time in franchise history next year, the league announced on the eve of the 2022 NHL All-Star Game. The game is set for Feb. 4, 2023, at FLA Live Arena with the skills competition to be held Feb. 3, 2023.
“We are thrilled and honored to announce the dates for the 2023 NHL All-Star Weekend in South Florida,” president Matt Caldwell said in a statement. “We’ve been excited about bringing an event of this caliber and showcasing the league’s best in our backyard.”
Sunrise also hosted the All-Star Game in 2003 in the fifth year of the new arena, which was then called the Office Depot Center. The All-Star Game was also supposed to be in Broward County last year before the NHL canceled the game because of the COVID-19 pandemic.
The timing actually wound up working out well for the Panthers, who broke ground on a revitalization project at the War Memorial Auditorium in Fort Lauderdale last year. Florida expects the project, which includes a new state-of-the-art practice facility plus various other community spaces, to be completed by the end of the summer, in time for the 2022-23 NHL season.
Currently, the Panthers practice at the Florida Panthers IceDen in Coral Springs. The Fort Lauderdale facility will give the franchise a natural downtown hub to host All-Star events, rather than have events spread out across the city and into the suburbs the team currently calls home.
The Panthers have also experienced a major uptick in local interest in hockey with the team’s recent success. On Saturday, Florida packed more than 18,000 fans into FLA Live Arena for its biggest crowd of the year in its final home game before the All-Star break and the Panthers went into the break with the most points in the league.
With virtually every key contributor slated to return to Florida next season, the Panthers expect to be a contender once again. Florida is a vastly different place for hockey than it was when the Panthers last hosted the All-Star Game.
“For Panthers fans, playing host to an All-Star game is an opportunity to show off our vibrant hockey culture in Florida,” Caldwell said. “For NHL fans, it’s a chance to visit our exciting region and all it has to offer.”
This story was originally published February 4, 2022 at 6:27 PM.
