List the National Hockey League All-Star game as “Coming Soon” to Edmonton.

And that goes double for the NHL entry draft.

“We have inquired and we are working with the NHL to secure dates for both events in the future,” said Oilers Entertainment Group CEO and vice-chair Bob Nicholson.

“We’ve had conversations with the league about Edmonton hosting the All-Star game and the NHL entry draft. Nothing has been confirmed to date. We would be looking at dates after the Ice District is fully open.”

Perfect. The 2019-20 season would be the 40th anniversary of the Oilers in the NHL.

And what great timing it would be.

Sunday in Nashville, using the eighth different format since it began in 1947, the All-Star game finally found a formula that would work this year. Three-on-three hockey guaranteed great pace and took away the complaining because there’s no hitting, checking or defence. It’s three-on-three. There is no hitting and not much checking and defence. Even for the goalies it wasn’t the ordeal and nightmare it was before.

Putting up a million dollars for the winning team was a good move, too. After the two semifinal games, the final between Pacific and Atlantic divisions was serious stuff. It was 0-0 after the 10-minute, first-of-two periods. The Pacific won it 1-0.

Helluva show!

By the time it gets to Edmonton in 2020, if that’s the way it works out, maybe the NHL will have closed the John Scott window (although the Edmonton-born enforcer and current minor leaguer who was in the Evergreen Trailer Park when the tornado hit, turned out to be a wonderful story, winning MVP honors and and a truck as well as $90,000 and may one day see the story become a movie). And by then, the league may have figured out a way to prevent Alex Ovechkin, etc., from not showing up.

Not that there was anything all that wrong with the 1989 All-Star Game in Edmonton.

It was the spring after Wayne Gretzky had been sold to the L.A. Kings. Gretzky had pretty much always treated the All-Star game as public skating like everybody else but he insisted that one would be different.

“This will be the last time I’ll be on the team Edmonton fans are cheering for. It would be nice to have a great game and to win.”

Playing with five Oilers teammates, Gretzky’s Western Conference team beat Mario Lemieux’s Eastern Conference club 9-5, Gretzky won the All-Star game MVP and gave the car to Dave Semenko after the game.

Connor McDavid would be in his fourth year in the league and you’d figure the Oilers would be at the other end of the standings and with more than one player involved, as was the case with Taylor Hall in Nashville.

Since the NHL All-Star game was in Edmonton, the event has been held in Pittsburgh, Chicago, Philadelphia, Montreal, New York, Boston, San Jose, Vancouver, Tampa, Toronto, Denver, Los Angeles, Florida, St. Paul, Dallas, Atlanta, Montreal (again), North Carolina, Ottawa, Columbus and now Nashville under several different formats without many on-ice successes.

But as was certainly the case in Nashville, the All-Star game is more than a game, it’s All-Star Weekend, a three-day celebration of the sport. The NHL uses it to schmooze sponsors and party with partners. By all indications, the visitors had a wonderful weekend in Music City. And Nashville enhanced its reputation as a city, and especially as a hockey city.

There are several reasons for the NHL to bring the two events to Edmonton sooner than later, the first of which is to celebrate what will be heralded as the finest arena in the world when it opens and a new Edmonton downtown to go with it.

And waiting until 2019-20 makes nothing but sense. If you read the six-part Edmonton Sun special-report series during the All-Star break, you’ll realize the entire Ice District won’t be up and showing off the new Edmonton until 2019.

Get ready for a steady stream of events in the new building.

The most successful World Junior was shared between Calgary and Edmonton and is due to be held in reverse with the medal-round games here. With Nicholson’s history with Hockey Canada, all he has to do is ask. You can expect a Brier as soon as the Ice District is done. The next World Cup of Hockey?

Canada’s City of Champions and Championships is going to be an especially happening place because of Rogers Place.

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terry.jones@sunmedia.ca