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Dallas Stars: Ken Hitchcock Will Turn Tyler Seguin into Brett Hull

By Sophia Horst

Apr 8, 2017; Dallas, TX, USA; Dallas Stars center Tyler Seguin (91) skates in warm-ups prior to the game against the Colorado Avalanche at the American Airlines Center. Mandatory Credit: Jerome Miron-USA TODAY Sports
Apr 8, 2017; Dallas, TX, USA; Dallas Stars center Tyler Seguin (91) skates in warm-ups prior to the game against the Colorado Avalanche at the American Airlines Center. Mandatory Credit: Jerome Miron-USA TODAY Sports /
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Before Ken Hitcock, Brett Hull was the exact same type of player as Tyler Seguin. As much as Dallas Stars fans love Seguin, he has to improve a lot if he wants to end up in the Hall of Fame like Hull someday. Fortunately, Ken Hitchcock is here to help.

Brett Hull, 2009 Hall of Famer, was a completely different player from the time he joined the Dallas Stars to when he left three seasons later. With St. Louis, Hull scored around 30-40 goals a season and 3 times he scored over 70. He had a sniper slap shot from the wing. He also, like Tyler Seguin now, was a one-dimensional player. All offense and no defense.

“I was never held accountable defensively in my whole life, which is why I never did it,” -Brett Hull

All that changed when Hull came to Dallas and met with relentless coach Hitchcock who wanted to change his entire game up along with the rest of the Dallas Stars. Hitchcock’s style of hockey is defense first. Well telling a purely offensive player that he needed to stop worrying about the offense and goal scoring and instead focus on defense didn’t fly too well. The two butted heads a lot when they were together for the three years. But despite all their arguing, the Stars won the Stanley Cup in 1999 and Brett Hull had the championship winning goal.

Within a few seasons Hull’s game changed significantly and when he went to the Detroit Red Wings in 2001 he was a well rounded player. He was even a significant part of their penalty killing team. Going from being the volunteer to take penalty minutes to being on the penalty killing team is quite the turn around.

Next: Former Dallas Stars in the 2017 Conference Finals

Hopefully Seguin will take note and try his best to adjust to Hitchcock’s new vision for him. It could prove a frustrating journey for him especially since he’s moving from a wing to center, but hopefully it’ll all be worth it and the Stars will end the season with their second Stanley Cup. And perhaps Seguin will remember how Hitchcock changed him into a well rounded player when he’s inducted to the Hall of Fame.

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