February 1 2011 Last updated at 01:05 PM ET
With the way things went for the NHL over the weekend at the All-Star Game in Raleigh, N.C., it's becoming very hard to imagine the so-called Fantasy Draft format not returning for a second year.
Not only did the players seem to enjoy the experience, but the league can look at the game's increased television ratings as another reason to bring it back when the game shifts to Ottawa next season.
According to a press release from Versus, the game -- which aired at 4 p.m. Eastern Sunday -- averaged nearly 1.5 million viewers, making it the most-watched NHL All-Star Game since Versus began televising the event.
The telecast peaked at close to 2.5 million viewers between 6:45 p.m. and 7 p.m. Eastern.
Versus notes that the ratings showed a 36 percent increase from the last All-Star Game, which was in 2009 (there was no All-Star Game last year because of the Winter Olympics).
Saturday's SuperSkills Competition averaged nearly 1.2 million viewers, marking the event's largest audience since it was on ESPN in 2003.
Even Friday's Fantasy Draft show averaged over 600,000 viewers, more than double Versus' average for a regular-season game, which is a shade over 300,000 viewers.
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