NHL All-Star Game 2012: 3 Underrated Players Who Deserved a Nomination

The NHL announced the final players selected for the 2012 All-Star Game. There were a lot of players who deserved the honor of being nominated, and there were some who were snubbed all together.

The All-Star process is an interesting one, as players are selected by the league based on their year to-date and the number of votes they received. In this case, there are three players who really deserved to go to Ottawa.

Patrik Elias

Patrik Elias should definitely be headed to Ottawa. He is one of the most underrated players in the league despite his consistent history with the New Jersey Devils. Up to this point, Elias has 40 points. His 15 goals and 25 assists illustrate that Elias is a team guy who puts others before himself.

When you look at his statistics compared to other players selected, it isn't even close. Players like Alex Ovechkin have had down years, but the name recognition factor gives him an edge over players like Elias.

What makes this a major snub is that no New Jersey Devil was named to the All-Star team. Instead, the league chose to select rookies Adam Henrique and Adam Larson. No matter how you slice it, Elias was cheated out of an All-Star selection.

Scott Hartnell

Scott Hartnell has had a great season up to this point. He plays a rough-and-tumble style of hockey, but puts up the points on the board. Hartnell has 38 points comprised of 19 goals and 19 assists.

Hartnell is also a plus-19 on the year. In Hartnell's case, his chances may have been hurt by the fact that the Flyers already had Claude Giroux, Kimmo Timonen, Matt Read and Sean Courturier on the roster.

Hartnell is definitely a player who should have been rewarded for his hot start considering he had only 49 points in 82 games last season. When you're off to the best start in recent years and are on pace to almost double your point total from the year prior, you should be an All-Star.

Kris Versteeg

Kris Versteeg has bounced from team to team throughout the league, but has found his place for now in Florida. How the Panthers, who are one of the biggest surprises of the early season, have only one All-Star headed to Ottawa, boggles my mind. What hurts the format of the game is that every team has to be represented.

It becomes a toss up when you look at who you could take off to add Versteeg, but he really has flown under the radar for the better part of this season.

In the case of these three players, it shows how the All-Star system is a bit flawed. Three players are off to great starts but failed to make the team because of some various factors. Whether it was the fact that each team needed a nominee or their respective team was already represented, Elias, Hartnell and Versteeg deserved to a spot on the All-Star roster.

It may not be a big deal in the grand scheme of things, but it would have been nice to see these three men rewarded for their efforts up to this point of the season.

Tom Urtz Jr. is an NHL Featured Columnist. For NHL news, updates and alerts about players: