Shea Weber likeliest to win Chara-less hardest shot competition

COLUMBUS Ohio – Shea Weber is a humble young lad from Sicamous, British Columbia. Ask him about himself and questions get deflected back to the team.

Ask him about how he’s going to pummel his fellow players in the NHL’s hardest shot contest at the NHL’s skills competition Saturday night, and he thinks someone else will beat him.

Yeah right, like Dustin Byfuglien, Steven Stamkos or Brent Seabrook will best Weber of the 106.0 mph blast.

And rivalries always play on #rivalrynight.

“There’s probably someone that’s going to surprise a lot of people,” he said. “I’m sure that there’s a lot of guys who shoot hard and it’s going to be a surprise every year.”

No Shea, there will be nobody who shocks the world. With Zdeno Chara out of the All-Star Game, you are the guy. Everyone will be gunning for you and you will win – at least that’s what I’m predicting.

We asked Weber’s former teammate, Ryan Suter if Weber’s going to win it. Suter trolled his buddy a little.

“Is 'Big Buff' doing it?” Suter asked about Byfuglien. “He’d probably be right up there. He has a hard shot. There’s a lot of guys with hard shots. Webs was unfortunate that Chara was doing it the last couple of times, otherwise he would have had it for sure but I think he’s got a good shot this year.”

Pun intended Ryan? DRINK!

Byfuglien estimated his hardest timed shots was close to 102 or 103 mph. Good, but nowhere near Weber’s 106.0 blast at the 2012 Ottawa All-Star Game, where he was beat by Chara slamming a puck at 107.0 mph.

Other guys in the festivities include Brent Burns, Alex Ovechkin, Stamkos and Brent Seabrook. They all shoot hard, but not Weber or Chara hard.

So … Is this competition tainted without Chara? Not if Weber can fire a shot at 108.0 mph – that would be 20 mph faster than it takes to make time travel possible!

“The way Webs is going it’ll probably be harder than it has ever been,” Suter said.

Does Byfuglien think he’s a worthy challenger? Nah, not really.

“I think Shea definitely is going to be that guy,” he said. “He can really shoot that thing. I’d probably put my money on him.”

So Weber will technically win if he beats everyone. But he will only truly win if he beats Chara’s best. Good luck Mr. Weber. Good luck.

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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! Follow @joshuacooper

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