Elias Pettersson named fill-in All-Star co-captain with Canucks teammate Quinn Hughes and Michael Buble

We now know at least two of the five Canucks in attendance will be on the same team at the All-Star game in Toronto this weekend.

Elias Pettersson is set to join Quinn Hughes as an alternate captain for the weekends’ festivities, replacing Jack Hughes, who was set to help draft players alongside his brother.

Pettersson and Hughes will have another familiar face by their side, as Michael Buble will be their celebrity co-captain. They’ll have the chance to have other Canucks join them, as Brock Boeser, J.T. Miller, and Thatcher Demko will all be players they could select.

The other captains for the event, Connor McDavid, Auston Matthews, and Nathan MacKinnon, will have friends of their own close. Leon Draisaitl will be McDavid’s co-captain with Will Arnett, their celebrity, while Matthews gets teammates Morgan Rielly and Justin Bieber, while Cale Makar joins MacKinnon and Tate McRae as their celebrity.

Hughes, Pettersson and Miller will all participate in the skills competition this weekend. All-Star events take place on Thursday, Friday and Saturday.

Pettersson, meanwhile, is having a career year this season with a 1.31 point per game pace well above his career average. With 27 goals and 64 points in 49 games, he’s well on track to post multiple career highs.

The Canucks enter the All-Star break as one of the NHL’s best teams, with their 71 standings points tied with the Boston Bruins for first in the entire league. Meanwhile, their 186 goals scored are second in the league to only the Colorado Avalanche.

Vancouver will get back into the swing of their schedule with a five-game road trip, kicking off on Feb. 6th against the Carolina Hurricanes. They then visit the Bruins, Detroit Red Wings, Washington Capitals, and Chicago Blackhawks, before returning home for a three-game homestand.

Zach Laing is the Nation Network’s news director and senior columnist. He can be followed on Twitter at @zjlaing, or reached by email at zach@thenationnetwork.com.