NHL

NHL All-Star draft tonight

In the NHL’s continuing search for meaning to its All-Star Game, they’re turning it into a pickup match.

Fine. The ideal of Stanley Cup winner vs. The Best is the most compelling since there’s no more USSR, but it would be a genuine hardship for the champs. So it’s a show, a party, a method to make money, and often, fun and even memorable.

To some players, Sunday’s show in Raleigh, N.C., is a burden best skipped, for injury existing or feared, R&R or simple ennui. But sometimes, elders embrace the honor.

Patrik Elias of the Devils is one example. He’s bringing a dozen-or-so of his New Jersey neighbors to North Carolina for the weekend’s festivities.

“It was my wife’s idea. Who knows if there will be another opportunity?” the 34-year-old forward said. “I’m going to have a good time and enjoy it with them.”

The Rangers will be represented by Henrik Lundqvist and Marc Staal, the latter likely to be picked early tonight (8, VS) by his brother, Erik, of the host Hurricanes, captain of Team Staal. Lundqvist could go early as a selection of fellow countryman and visiting team captain Niklas Lindstrom.

In tomorrow’s Skills Competition, Rangers rookie Derek Stepan and Islanders’ freshman Michael Grabner will pit their abilities against the best in the game. The categories are Fastest Skater, fan-voted Breakaway Challenge, Accuracy Shooting, Skills Challenge Relay, Hardest Shot and Elimination Shootout.

But the most important part of the weekend will be tomorrow’s Board of Governors meeting, where team officials will discuss rules, trades and the collective bargaining agreement.

The All-Star Game has been around in various formats since 1934, a benefit for Toronto’s Ace Bailey, whose career was ended earlier that season by an attack by Eddie Shore. In 1937, Howie Morenz was memorialized, as was Babe Siebert in 1939. The game became regular in 1947, pitting the Stanley Cup champ against the All-Stars, in what surely was the most compelling format. There were gaps for lockouts, Olympics, the marvelous 1979 Challenge Cup at MSG and Rendezvous ’87 in Quebec, both against the USSR.

It’s a showcase of stars and their stunning skills that usually can’t be displayed in meaningful competition. Sometimes overlooked is the fact that most of the affairs have been close, and many have been memorable.

The 1983 encounter at Nassau Coliseum was the night Wayne Gretzky served notice in the home of the then-three-time Stanley Cup champs that he would not be denied, if not that spring, then the next.

Goalie John Garrett, Vancouver’s backup to “King” Richard Brodeur and his injury replacement, had dibs on the MVP Z28 until the 22-year-old started scoring in the third period. After Gretzky’s first went in, Lanny McDonald told Garrett, “There goes the trunk.”

Then after his second, McDonald said, “There goes the steering wheel.”

Gretzky’s third of the period brought, “He just stole the keys,” and when The Great One put away his All-Star record fourth in one period, McDonald told Garrett, “He just stole the car out of your driveway.”

The MVP ballots, collected early in the third for Garrett, were trashed and re-voted.

The 1994 All-Star Game at the Garden was Mike Richter’s MVP, following then-teammate Mike Gartner in 1993. At the Meadowlands, the Rangers Don Maloney drove away the 1984 MVP car. In 1999, in Tampa, Rangers newcomer Gretzky won his third and final All-Star MVP.

The risk is injury, although penalties rarely are called or needed. Any injury, however, is a major issue, since these are the stars.

mark.everson@nypost.com