Rick Bowness has coached 762 NHL regular season games and 54 in the Stanley Cup Playoffs. He has never coached an NHL All-Star Game. Until now.
Bowness, who led the Winnipeg Jets to the NHL’s best points percentage at the halfway point of the season on Saturday, will be one of four division-leading coaches at the 2024 NHL All-Star Game at Scotiabank Arena from Toronto. on February 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 February 1-3, will have a whole new look this year, with the addition of NHL All-Star Thursday.
The evening will begin with the Tim Hortons NHL All-Star Draft (6 p.m. ET; SN, ESPN). The player and celebrity captains of each team will choose the four teams of 11 players (nine skaters and two goalies) for the NHL All-Star Game. The four coaches will be assigned to one team each when the celebrity players and captains are named.
Midway through the season, Bowness has guided the Jets to a 28-10-4 record with a .714 scoring percentage this season. He took almost a month’s leave of absence starting Oct. 23 to care for 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 coach his third All-Star Game, most recently in 2018 as coach of the Nashville Predators. He 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 appearance as an All-Star coach. He guided Boston (25-8-8, .702 points percentage) to the top of the Eastern Conference after a record-setting first season as coach. He won the Jack Adams Award in 2022-23 after Boston set new NHL single-season records for wins (65) and points (135).
“I am very grateful for the talented roster and team we have, and the culture at the Bruins that has allowed us to be successful,” Montgomery said. “I represent the Boston Bruins.”
Tocchet will be behind the bench for his second All-Star game after leading the Canucks (29-11-3, .709 points percentage) to first place 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 during the 2020 All-Star Game in St. Louis after Gallant was fired by the Vegas Golden Knights on 15 January 2020.
