Rick Bowness has coached 762 NHL games in the regular season and 54 in the Stanley Cup Playoffs. He has never coached an NHL All-Star Game. Until now.
Bowness, who has led the Winnipeg Jets to the best points percentage in the NHL at the midway point of the season, which was Saturday, will be one of four division-leading coaches at the 2024 NHL All-Star Game at Scotiabank Arena in Toronto on Feb. 3 (3 p.m. ET; SN, CBC, TVAS, ABC, ESPN+).
Peter Laviolette of the New York Rangers, Jim Montgomery of the Boston Bruins and Rick Tocchet of the Vancouver Canucks are the other three coaches.
All-Star Weekend, which runs from Feb. 1-3, will have a completely new look this year, with the addition of NHL All-Star Thursday.
The night will start with the Tim Hortons NHL All-Star Player Draft (6 p.m. ET; SN, ESPN). Player and celebrity captains for each team will pick the four teams of 11 players (nine skaters, two goalies) for the NHL All-Star Game. The four coaches will be assigned to one team each when the player and celebrity captains are named.
Through the midway point of the season, Bowness has guided the Jets to a 28-10-4 record with a .714 points percentage this season. He took a nearly month-long leave of absence starting Oct. 23 to attend to his wife, Judy Bowness, who had a seizure. Bowness guided the Dallas Stars to the Stanley Cup Final as interim coach in 2020.
Laviolette will be coaching his third All-Star Game, the most recent in 2018 as coach of the Nashville Predators. He has led the Rangers (26-13-2, .659 points percentage) to first place in the Metropolitan Division in his first season with the team.
Montgomery makes his second straight All-Star coaching appearance. He’s guided Boston (25-8-8, .702 points percentage) to the top of the Eastern Conference, following up a record-setting first season as coach. He won the Jack Adams Award in 2022-23 after Boston established new NHL single-season records for wins (65) and points (135).
Tocchet will be behind the bench for his second All-Star Game after leading the Canucks (29-11-3, .709 points percentage) to first in the Pacific Division. The former “NHL On TNT” studio analyst was hired on Jan. 22, 2023, to replace Bruce Boudreau, who was fired after the team lost 28 of its first 46 games last season. As coach of the Arizona Coyotes, Tocchet replaced Gerard Gallant as Pacific Division coach at the 2020 All-Star Game in St. Louis after Gallant was fired by the Vegas Golden Knights on Jan. 15, 2020.
Last All-Star Fan Vote players revealed
In addition to the player draft, All-Star Thursday night will also feature the NHL Alumni Association announcing its Man of the Year in a tribute to the 1967 Toronto Maple Leafs, their last team to win the Stanley Cup. The Professional Women’s Hockey League will also play a 3-on-3 game.
NHL All-Star Skills presented by DraftKings Sportsbook, which will be held Feb. 2 (7 p.m. ET; ESPN, ESPN+, SN, TVAS), will have a new look this year as well, with 12 NHL All-Stars competing for points in eight events, with the NHL All-Star who accumulates the most points taking home a prize of $1 million (USD).
Each player will compete in four of the first six events listed below, earning points for their respective finish in each event.
The events are: Fastenal NHL Fastest Skater; Rogers NHL Hardest Shot; Upper Deck NHL Stick Handling; NHL One Timers; NHL Passing Challenge; Cheetos NHL Accuracy Shooting.
Ten of the 12 players were announced by the NHL on Saturday. The final two will be selected via a the 2024 NHL All-Star Skills Fan Vote presented by MassMutual, which is now open online at NHL.com/vote and via X (formerly Twitter) and closes on Thursday, Jan. 18, at 11:59:59 p.m. EST. All X votes will be combined with online vote totals.
The NHL All-Star Game will feature a three-game tournament played in a 3-on-3 format. The initial 32 players chosen for the All-Star Game were announced on Jan. 4.
The remaining 12 players eight skaters, four goalies were announced on Saturday.
Tickets to the 2024 NHL All-Star Skills presented by DraftKings Sportsbook are available at Ticketmaster Verified Resale, the official resale partner of the NHL.
In addition, tickets to the 2024 Hyundai NHL Fan Fair, the official fan festival of the 2024 NHL All-Star Weekend, are available for purchase at NHL.com/FanFair  while supplies last. NHL All-Star Thursday is open to the public and tickets are available here).
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