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When the NHL awarded the 2011 All-Star Game to historic hockey hotbed Raleigh, North Carolina, many suspected something would have to be done to jazz up the game. After Tuesday’s general managers meeting, we have our first glimpse of an innovative new All-Star format the NHL hopes to have in place for the 2011 contest in hockey-crazed Carolina.

While the plan is still pending official announcement, fans will reportedly still vote for six starters from each conference, and the NHL’s hockey operations department will still select 36 reserves. But all the players will vote for two captains, and those captains will then draft up teams in a live made-for-television event. The captains just pick whoever they think is best, with teams no longer based on conferences on North America vs. The World as in past years.

It should make for incredibly interesting hockey — especially if one captain was to pick every available goalie, or perhaps try to assemble a team of nothing but forwards. Gamblers and oddsmakers will have a tougher time handicapping the game though, as the All-Star drafts would only take place a night or two before the actual game.

Another concern is that captain’s might risk bad blood by not selecting rivals, and someone is bound to get his feelings hurt as the last player selected and thus the loneliest All-Star of all.

The All-Star revamp is the brainchild of NHL vice-president Brendan Shanahan, who thinks the changes will be positive and realistic:

We’ve worked for a little while now on this idea, this concept, closely with the NHLPA. They like the idea. Some of the players that they’ve talked to — potential all-stars — they seem sort of excited and energized by it… We know what [the All-Star Game] is and we know what it’s not. It’s an entertaining, fun game. Fans like to be entertained by the players showing their competitive spirit with a big smile on their face. It’s not a Stanley Cup final, it’s not an Olympic Games. It’s never going to be that.