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NHL announces 'celebrity' presenters for league awards

Josh Cooper
LAS VEGAS, NV - JUNE 24: (L-R) Former NHL player Mark Messier, actor Cuba Gooding Jr. and former NHL player Adam Graves speak during the 2014 NHL Awards at the Encore Theater at Wynn Las Vegas on June 24, 2014 in Las Vegas, Nevada. (Photo by Ethan Miller/Getty Images)

The NHL continued its time-honored tradition of giving us some celebrities we've never heard of to present awards at the annual league celebration in Las Vegas. Actually we've heard of some of them.

Here is the 'All-Star' list of celeb presenters:

Kix Brooks, Colin Hanks, Matthew Modine, Russell Peters, Amy Purdy, Retta, Kevin Smith and Tiesto.

This supplements host Rob Riggle, PA POW! And music guest Daughtry for the June 24 event at the MGM Grand. Why can’t Mark Messier sing and dance while giving away his leadership award picked by him and presented by a tire company? Hopefully we're surprised.

Here are the hockey-centric presenters:

This year’s scheduled presenters also include former NHL players Daniel Alfredsson, Bill Guerin, Pat LaFontaine, Ted Lindsay, Trevor Linden, Mark Messier and Cam Neely as well as broadcasters Anson Carter, Nick Kypreos, George Stroumboulopoulos and Kathryn Tappen.

But who cares about the jocks. Who are these celebrities why did the NHL choose them?

Kix Brooks

Who is he?: He is Brooks of the band Brooks & Dunn.

Hockey connection: He’s from Shreveport. He likes the Predators?

Colin Hanks

Who is he?: The son of Tom Hanks and a pretty solid actor in his own right actually. I was a fan of “Orange County.”

Hockey connection: He and Wil Wheaton always seem to compete for Twitter Kings celebrity fandom.

Russell Peters

Who is he?: A Canadian comedian.

Hockey connection: He’s a Canadian in entertainment, so he must be a hockey fan. Duh!

Amy Purdy

Who is she?: A Paralympic snowboard cross bronze medalist from 2014 in Sochi. She was a Dancing With The Stars contestant. A double-amputee, she fits the bill for the inspirational presenter.

Hockey connection: Can't seem to find one, other than she’s also involved in a winter sport and is from Las Vegas.

Matthew Modine

Who is he?: An actor who isn’t exactly ‘A’ list, but was in “Full Metal Jacket” so that’s pretty cool.

Hockey connection: He’s a Rangers fan?

Retta

Who is she?: An actress/comedian, she played the character Donna Meagle on “Parks and Recreation” and has 310,000 followers on Twitter.

Hockey connection: With the Los Angeles Kings. It’s quite great actually. She even got control of the team’s Twitter account for a period once. Hey, there she is at last year’s awards showing her hockey connection.

Kevin Smith

Who is he?: Director, actor, Silent Bob … man who created the Jersey Trilogy.

Hockey connection: He’s the NHL’s resident pseudo celebrity.

Tiesto 

Who is he?: World famous DJ (who pulls in $32 million per-year). He’s probably the most valuable presenter.

Hockey connection: He just partied with the Blackhawks after their Stanley Cup win. That’s something. He also once designed a Henrink Lundqvist mask. If the stylish Hank said yes to the Tiesto mask design, he's cool in our book.

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Josh Cooper is an editor for Puck Daddy on Yahoo Sports. Have a tip? Email him at puckdaddyblog@yahoo.com or follow him on Twitter!

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