DetroitRedWings.com’s Jonathan Mills spoke with Grand Rapids Griffins coach Dan Watson regarding his experiences at the 2025 AHL All-Star Game this past weekend in Coachella Valley, California:
Manning the bench for the Central Division at the 2025 American Hockey League All-Star Classic was one of many cool moments this past weekend for Grand Rapids Griffins head coach Dan Watson, whose wife and three children also took in what he summed up as a very special experience at Acrisure Arena in Palm Desert, Calif.
“It’s always nice to represent your organization at any stage, any event you can,” Watson told DetroitRedWings.com on Wednesday morning. “It was nice to meet the other coaches that were there and share some talks with them, see how they do things. Met the players, too. It was a great, well-organized event.”
Watson is the first Griffins head coach to achieve the honor since Todd Nelson in 2017 and the fourth bench boss in franchise history to coach in an All-Star Game. The 45-year-old also coached in three ECHL All-Star Classics (2017, 2019 and 2022) with the Toledo Walleye.
“A great experience for myself, obviously I had my family there to share with them,” Watson said. “You never know when you get to do these things. I was fortunate enough to have a couple in the ECHL, but [the AHL] is tough. [The Griffins] did a really good job in the first half to get me there.”
But Watson wasn’t the only one who represented Grand Rapids in Coachella Valley, as goalie Sebastian Cossa and forward Austin Watson also made their first career AHL All-Star appearances.
