BERLIN, Germany – The coaches have been named for All-Star Game 10 and each team has named the players who will be representing them in the annual Skills Competition that will be held the day before the All-Star Game.

Two retired members of the initial Berlin team will be calling the shots behind the bench. German Jochen Hecht has been named coach of the Southern Conference, while Russian Nikolai Kulemin, who played all six of his EURO League seasons as a Smurf, will coach the Northern Conference.

Hecht, 41, played a year in Berlin and one in Zurich in the EURO League in addition to many seasons in the NHL and German league. He also has some coaching experience, having been Marco Sturm’s assistant with Adler Mannheim. Kulemin, 32, who also played in the NHL and Russian league, now lives on Long Island but said he would be happy to return to Berlin for the game and possibly collect some of the money owed to him by the Smurfs organization.

The Skills Competition will be held Saturday, June 8, with a representative from each competing in the three events: Fastest Skater, Hardest Shot and Accuracy Shooting. The players with the highest Websim attributes on their teams get to compete. Ties were broken randomly.

Here are some notes about the players who will be competing.

• Lisbon’s John Tavares has a chance to add more glory to his landmark season. He already has reached 1,000 points and he should soon notch his 400^th career goal. He will also be among the favorites to win the Fastest Skater and Most Accurate Shooter titles.
• Much to Berlin Smurf General Manager Guybrush Threepwood’s horror, his new least-favorite player will get to make an extra trip to Germany. Zurich forward Jakub Voracek will represent the Lions in the hardest shot contest. Voracek had a nice IIHF Tournament and apparently Guybrush didn’t appreciate his play.
• Many players qualified to compete in two events, but only Taylor Hall of London will vie for titles in all three events.
• The Fastest Skater title is anybody’s guess because 16 of the 24 players have 100 speed ratings. Kris Letang of Paris is the defending champ but two other skaters who have done well in recent years will be there too in Prague’s Torey Krug and Madrid’s Evander Kane. Both have finished in the Top 2 twice in the last four years.
• The favorites in the Hardest Shot competition will be perennial favorites Tyler Myers and 3-time champ Dustin Byfuglien, as well as forwards Chris Stewart, Auston Matthews and Chris Kreider.
• Accuracy Shooting’s favorite is still Erik Karlsson, who represents Paris this year. He has won it 3 of the last 4 seasons and 5 times over the course of the 9-year competition. But Connor McDavid of Oslo, Tavares, Hall and a few others have the talent to keep him from his sixth crown.