Habs have 6 on ballot for Montreal all-star game
DiPietro included on all-star game ballot
Oft-injured Rick DiPietro was one of over 100 players on the NHL all-star ballot released on Tuesday, ahead of the likes of Tim Thomas, who leads all NHL goaltenders in save percentage.
DiPietro has appeared in net in just three games for the New York Islanders this season and will be out from four to six weeks after undergoing arthroscopic knee surgery on Saturday. He suffered a hip injury in last year's all-star game and had surgery in the summer on both his hip and knee.
Boston goalie Thomas wasn't included, despite posting two shutouts early in the season and leading the league with a .944 save percentage.
Goalies for four Canadian teams are among the 104 players on the ballot, including Carey Price (Montreal), Vesa Toskala (Toronto), Miikka Kiprusoff (Calgary) and Roberto Luongo (Vancouver).
The host Canadiens have six players in total on the list for the game taking place in Montreal on Jan. 25, including defencemen Andrei Markov and Mike Komisarek, as well as forwards Alex Tanguay, Saku Koivu and Alex Kovalev.
Fans will be able to vote on both players on the ballot and their own write-in candidates, from Nov. 12 through Jan. 2.
CBC Sports will broadcast the NHL all-star game and the skills competition, with streaming of events on CBCSports.ca
Ottawa's high-powered trio of Daniel Alfredsson, Jason Spezza and Dany Heatley are on the ballot, in addition to Senators defenceman Chris Phillips.
Joining Kiprusoff are Calgary teammates Dion Phaneuf, Robyn Regehr and Jarome Iginla, while Edmonton is represented by forwards Ales Hemsky and Shawn Horcoff, along with defenceman Sheldon Souray.
Twins Daniel and Henrik Sedin are the other Canucks, while defenceman Tomas Kaberle is the only Toronto player other than Toskala.