Dump and Chase: All-Star Weekend extravaganza

Welcome into Dump and Chase, powered by FanDuel. Join Aaron Korolnek and Carlo Colaiacovo every Tuesday and Thursday of the NHL Season as they give their best bets for the evening's slate. Join Korolnek and Colaiacovo today as they make their picks for who's going to win the Hardest Shot, Fastest Skater and the Accuracy Challenge. 

Aaron Korolnek: A special all star extravagance ahead of the skills competition. A ton of great offerings on Fanduel for you to look at. Ahead of what should be an outstanding All-Star Weekend. And when it comes to the skills competition, yes, it's kind of a crapshoot.

But the winner this year will take home $1 million. So we're going to try to find some, value for you on that front. And, Carlo, why don't we start with the hardest shot? Who is your pick to click in that event?

Carlo Colaiacovo: Well, I'm going with J.T. Miller of the Vancouver Canucks at a juicy +280.

Because if you look at the players participating in these events, yes, they're all great, they're all elite, but they don't really score a lot of goals with a slap shot, which is what this competition is. You got to shoot it as hard as you can with the slapshot. I think JT Miller, when I look at him, I look at him as a rugged shooter, a guy that's a shoot first type of guy, then a passer.

So I'm choosing him at the value +280.

Korolnek: No Zdeno Chara or Shea Weber or Al Iafrate, I'm looking at last year's winner, Elias Pettersson, at +280 himself. J.T. Miller's teammate, he was over 103 miles an hour on his clapper. And Pederson's not necessarily a guy you look at who rips shots to that degree, but, man, he can fire it.

Winning last year, I think he goes back to back. Coco, let's look at fastest skater, an event you would have won back in your glory days in the mid 2000s. But who is your pick in 2024 on Fanduel?

Colaiacovo: Well, I'm going with the guy that had the biggest highlight reel moment in a negative way last year, and that's Cale Makar, because he blew a tire and he was disqualified from the competition.

Well, he gets a chance at redemption this year. And at 15-1, man, who doesn't marvel at the way Cale Makar skates across the ice, I think he's going to be looking at this as a chance to redeem himself, finish the full skate around the ice with the full lap and win this one at 15-1 at great value. Because it's a little chalky with (Connor) McDavid and (Nathan) McKinnon, if you ask me.

Korolnek: Yeah, you mentioned McDavid and McKinnon. They are the prohibitive favourites. I'm looking at Mathew Barzal, someone who won the event back in 2020 with a time superior to that of any ever recorded by McDavid or McKinnon. And you can find Barzal at +280. I think he should be the favorite, and I think he will win fastest skater at Scotiabank Arena in Toronto.

All right, the last one. Accuracy shooting. You talk about difficult to pick events, this might be number one. Who is your favorite to win this one?

Colaiacovo: Well, not difficult for me. Because if anybody saw the TSN Top 25 list come out last night and McKinnon overtake McDavid, guess who's winning this event? It's going to be Connor McDavid at 6-1 odds. You're getting with the guy who last year went four for four in 9.4 seconds.

So it's a great spot for him to remind the world why he thinks he's the best player in the game and why he knows he's the best player in the game when he wins this event.

Korolnek: Come on, Coco, you got to go with the hometown kid. William Nylander, +600 is my pick to win this event.

Yes, he's been ice cold in the regular season, in the NHL, pointless in seven of his last nine, but this guy can rip it with serious accuracy. +600. I love it.

All-Star Weekend, it's going to be fantastic. And it'll be even better with our picks here on Dump and Chase, powered by Fanduel.

Korolnek and Colaiacovo are 55-34-1 on the season