Ryan Reaves, Alex Tuch to participate in NHL Gaming Challenge

Ryan Reaves and Alex Tuch will represent the Golden Knights in the NHL Player Gaming Challenge.

The four-week charity event starts April 30 and features players from all 31 teams, in addition to NHL Seattle, competing on the EA Sports NHL20 video game.

Each club will be paired in a one-time matchup, which will be released on Thursdays and Saturdays each week, the league said in a news release.

NBC Sports Network will air the first series of games, including Calgary vs. Ottawa (the Tkachuk brothers facing off) and Columbus vs. Winnipeg, beginning at 2 p.m. Pacific. All of the matches will be streamed on the NHL’s social platforms: Twitch, YouTube, Twitter, Facebook Premiere and NHL.com.

The NHL and Electronic Arts will donate a combined $100,000 in support of the CDC Foundation’s COVID-19 relief efforts.

“Over the past several weeks, the NHL, its Clubs and player community have been very active with gaming initiatives in an effort to connect with fans while social distancing — such as charity tournaments, simulated games and nightly streams,” said Chris Golier, NHL vice president of business development and innovation. “The NHL Player Gaming Challenge presented by Honda will take gaming to another level. We know how competitive our players are, and coupled with the interaction between players, these series of competitions will be extremely fun to watch.”

The lineup of participants includes NHL standouts Filip Forsberg of the Nashville Predators, Evgeny Kuznetsov of the Washington Capitals and others.

One suggestion if the NHL hasn’t already made the matchups: A Knights-Sharks virtual contest would be fire, as San Jose is represented by Evander Kane and Marcus Sorensen.

Contact David Schoen at dschoen@reviewjournal.com or 702-387-5203. Follow @DavidSchoenLVRJ on Twitter.