Fansided

NHL All-Star Game 2015: Peter Laviolette, Darryl Sutter named as coaches

By Vinnie Criscenzo

Sep 27, 2013; Washington, DC, USA; Philadelphia Flyers head coach Peter Laviolette talks to his team from the bench against the Washington Capitals in the first period at Verizon Center. The Capitals won 6-3. Mandatory Credit: Geoff Burke-USA TODAY Sports
Sep 27, 2013; Washington, DC, USA; Philadelphia Flyers head coach Peter Laviolette talks to his team from the bench against the Washington Capitals in the first period at Verizon Center. The Capitals won 6-3. Mandatory Credit: Geoff Burke-USA TODAY Sports /
facebooktwitterreddit

Peter Laviolette and Darryl Sutter have been named the head coaches for the 2015 NHL All-Star teams.

With the calendar hitting the new year and the Winter Classic now in the books, the next milestone in the NHL season will be the 2015 Honda NHL All-Star game. This years All-Star event will be held January 24th-25th in Columbus, Ohio. It will be the first NHL All-Star game hosted by the city of Columbus and the Columbus Blue Jackets.

Saturday, January 24th will be the Skill Competition and Sunday, January 25th will be the All-Star Game.

More from Los Angeles Kings

The All-Star format will be the same format that was newly implemented in 2011 where they will have a fantasy draft. There will be a captain and two alternate captains named for each team and they will be in charge of drafting their team for the All-Star weekend. The draft will be held on Friday, January 24th.

While we have yet to find out who the captains will be, today we learned at least who will be behind the bench.

Nashville Predators head coach Peter Laviolette and Los Angeles Kings head coach Darryl Sutter have been named the 2015 NHL All-Star coaches. They will have their respective coaching staffs joining them behind the benches for the game.

The way the coaches are decided is the head coach of the defending Stanley Cup Champions is automatically choses as one of the All-Star head coaches, so Sutter obviously knew this was coming.

Laviolette, on the other hand, may have been a bit surprised. Although, I’m sure he had an idea that he may be chosen. The second coach is determined by figuring out the head coach of the team with the highest points per game ratio, or points percentage. In other words, it would be the points the team has earned divided by the total possible points that team was able to earn. Nashville sits at a .725 points percentage, meaning they have earned 72.5% of the total points that were possible to earn so far.

Sutter will be making his first All-Star Game appearance, while Laviolette will be making his second appearance. Laviolette made his first appearance at the 2011 All-Star Game as an assistant under Alain Vigneault. They coached Team Lidstrom to a 11-10 win over Team Staal in the first All-Star Game that instituted the fantasy draft format.

The 2015 NHL All-Star festivities will be aired on NBCSN.

[H/T: NHL.com]

More from FanSided

Home/Los Angeles Kings