The Arizona Coyotes won’t be sending any players to the All Star Game due to the injury of goaltender Darcy Kuemper but they will be sending their Head Coach Rick Tocchet. After Vegas Golden Knights Head Coach Gerard Gallant was fired this week Tocchet will replace him as the coach of the Pacific Division at the All Star game in St. Louis later this month.
The Arizona Coyotes currently sit on top of the Pacific Division with 57 points so it's no surprise that the NHL asked Tocchet to head up the bench of the division’s best players.
The success of Rick Tocchet over the past season and a half is a testament to the patience of the Coyotes organization. In Tocchet’s first season behind the bench he didn’t get his first win until October 30th & began the season with a record of 9-27-5 in his 41 games. Fortunately the team stuck by their head coach & now we are seeing the fruits of that with a team that is all-in on the system that Coach Tocchet has implemented. After that rough start Tocchet’s Coyotes record now stands at 94-94-25. Coach Tocchet was also recently named the front runner for the Jack Adams award for the best coach in the NHL by NHL.com