Well, this is truly embarrassing for me.
How did I not notice that, even after having played the game for the past matter of months?
As far as I am aware, NHL '96 does not have any presence of the Eastern and Western All~Star teams, at least on consoles (if the PC version also lacks them, then please do mention it).
I had just noticed this within the past few minutes while I was about to do some General Gameplay of both titles; how I was unaware of the lack of the All~Star teams is well beyond myself though.
However, there was an All~Star game that season, if my memory serves correctly, so the lack of them makes no sense to me.
There must have been a specific for their omission, I do not think that EA Sports would deliberately take out the All~Star teams, especially since they were in NHL Hockey '92 to NHL '95 prior to this, '97 and '98 also having them.
In the event that you could explain why NHL '96 does not have the Eastern and Western All~Star teams in the game, then please do so, this truly is confusing to me, provided that this is the only title on both the Genesis/Megadrive and Super Nintendo/Super Famicom that had this factor.
Perhaps somewhere along the way, once it becomes expansively hackable, somebody could insert the All~Stars into it by means of expanding the amount of teams; without these two (as well as probably the lack of the USA, Canada, and Europe teams, or even probably the EA Sports and High Score Productions Bonus Teams, if you truly are one for the 037 team setup in '98), it truly does feel a little incomplete, it feels odd or off without them, I would not be surprised if some of you are feeling the same way about this, this is rather abnormal.