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).
"Very thankful of the talented roster and team that we have, and the culture of the Bruins that allows us to have success," Montgomery said. "I'm representing 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 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.
