SPRINGFIELD, Mass. … NHL Coaches’ Association (NHLCA) members Joey Ali, Beth Hanrahan, Suneil Karod and Jessica Turi have been invited to participate in the 2025 AHL All-Star Classic presented by Spotlight 29 Casino, taking place Feb. 2-3 at Acrisure Arena in Palm Desert, Calif., home of the Coachella Valley Firebirds.
In 2023, the AHL launched an initiative to provide professionals from diverse backgrounds with an opportunity to work with, and be mentored by, various staffs in the locker rooms and on the benches at the AHL All-Star Classic.
Ali and Karod are members of the NHLCA BIPOC Coaches Program. Ali, who runs Pro-Formance Goalie Schools and Proali Goalie Training in Surrey, B.C., is a goaltending consultant to Simon Fraser University, junior hockey teams and several minor hockey organizations in British Columbia as well as Canadian Blind Hockey. Karod, currently the assistant general manager and director of skill development for the Victoria Grizzlies of the British Columbia Hockey League, has spent more than 20 years coaching and scouting, winning a Royal Bank Cup national championship in 2018 and five championships with the Victoria Cougars in the Vancouver Island Junior Hockey League, and has always had a focus on player development.
Hanrahan and Turi are members of the NHLCA Female Coaches Program. Hanrahan, an assistant coach with the women’s hockey program at Brown University, played at Providence College and with the New York Riveters of the NWHL, and has previously coached at Mercyhurst College, Lindenwood University and Shattuck-St. Mary’s School. Turi is an assistant coach with the York University men’s and women’s hockey programs and a secondary-school teacher and coach in Mississauga, Ont.; she also won the Isobel Cup as an assistant coach with the Toronto Six of the PHF, as well as two national championships as head coach with Team Ontario.
They will shadow All-Star coaches Geordie Kinnear, John Gruden, Dan Watson and Joe Cirella throughout the event.
In operation since 1936, the American Hockey League serves as the top development league for the players, coaches, managers, executives, broadcasters and staff of all 32 National Hockey League teams. Nearly 90 percent of today’s NHL players are American Hockey League graduates, and more than 100 honored members of the Hockey Hall of Fame spent time in the AHL in their careers.