NHL Stars to compete in $200,000 Fortnite tournament.

Several stars of the National Hockey League will be teaming up with ESPN to bring some competition to their air waves that may please some of hockey's younger fans. According to a report from the Winnipeg Sun, several of the game's young stars including Winnipeg Jets goaltender Connor Hellebuyck, Winnipeg Jets forward Patrik Laine, Colorado Avalanche forward Nathan MacKinnon, Carolina Hurricanes forward Sebastian Aho, Ottawa Senators forward Thomas Chabot, Toronto Maple Leafs forward Mitch Marner and Calgary Flames forward Johnny Gaudreau will be participating in a video game tournament that will be broadcast on popular streaming platform Twitch.

The NHL stars will compete in a "Fortnite" tournament that will have a prize pool evaluated at $200,000, so there is some serious money on the line for this one. This will not however be a way for the players to enrich themselves personally but instead is a charity tournament that will see the players competing for good causes while providing entertainment to fans who have been starved for competition for months now as a result of the global shutdown of professional sports leagues. 

The tournament has been put together by Toronto Maple Leafs forward Zach Hyman and Colorado Avalanche forward J.T. Compher the latter of whom released a statement regarding the competition earlier this week through the National Hockey League Players Association.

“Players across the league are passionate Fortnite players. While we cannot compete on the ice right now, it is important to the guys that we give back in a meaningful way,” said Compher in the statement as per the Winnipeg Sun. “We are excited to showcase our competitive skills online to an ever-growing audience, and I can’t wait to watch our event unfold.”

For those of you who would be interested in checking out this type of competition you will be able to watch the event broadcast live on ESPN Esports’ Twitch channel next Monday between 2 p.m. and 5 p.m Eastern Time. It is an interesting direction for the players to take given that not so long ago there were rumblings that some NHL players were playing so much of the game "Fortnite" that it was having an impact on their careers. Of course this is for a good cause so I wish everyone great success in this event.