Matthews admits he'd have chosen someone else as All-Star MVP

Matthews might have been named the MVP of the game in front of the hometown fans, however, he feels someone else was far more deserving of the honour and doubled down on his draft-day take that he was the steal of the night:

"Filip Forsberg for me was a guy that I was super excited to be able to see and have on my team and like I said the other night at the draft, I thought he was the steal of the draft and he came up pretty big for us today. In my mind he was the MVP of our team."

Forsberg finished with 3 goals and 2 assists while also racking up a +5 rating, including a goal and an assist in the final game against Team McDavid. One of the more underrated players at this year's festivities, Matthews selected the Nashville Predators' forward 7th after William Nylander, Mitch Marner, Jake Oettinger, Clayton Keller, Mathew Barzal, and Igor Shesterkin.

In a separate interview with David Amber, Matthews was asked what he was feeling, being named MVP of the All-Star game in the city of Toronto:

"It sounds great, just a special way to cap off the weekend here in Toronto. Gotta thank the fans, the organization, the city, the NHL for putting on a great show for everybody, lotta fun, lotta fun."

With the player draft, skills competition, and now the games in the books, David Amber asked him what were some of his favourite moments he was going to take back:

"Just the weekend as a whole but I've been lucky to play in a couple of these but never won so this one feels good to get one here in the hometown and like I said, the fans have been great all weekend, great atmosphere."

Overall, it was a much better showcase than in previous seasons, and with the Four Nations Tournament and the Olympic Games coming up in consecutive years, we might not see another All-Star Game until 2027.