Dallas Stars Playing It Smart, Looking At All Angles In Head Coach Search

Ken Hitchcock retired on Friday morning, leaving a void behind the Dallas Stars bench. But as the new head coaching search begins, GM Jim Nill is taking all of the proper steps to finding the right guy for the job.

For the second time in a 12-month span, the Dallas Stars don’t have a head coach with the regular season having ended just recently.

On Friday morning, Ken Hitchcock announced his retirement from the NHL after spending just one season in Dallas in his second stint with the Stars. His retirement leaves an extensive legacy, but also gives Dallas a hole to fill.

Hitchcock was hired on April 13, 2017 by the Stars in hopes that he would fix, well, a lot of things. The Dallas Stars had missed the playoffs by 15 points in the 2016-17 season, put up some of the worst defensive numbers in the NHL, and couldn’t get over injury and depth issues. As a result, Lindy Ruff was let go and the Stars needed a boost back to ground level.

And while Hitchcock helped the team grow in plenty of areas, his contributions weren’t enough to get Dallas back to the playoffs. The Stars finished the season with a 42-32-8 record and 92 points. They were just three points away from the postseason, but had complete control over their own destiny in early March and still couldn’t get the job done. That’s unacceptable.

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This marks the second straight year of a long offseason, so changes still need to be made. That started with Hitchcock’s retirement.

With that, the Dallas Stars once again find themselves scanning the coaching market. That could be perceived as a bad thing, but could also end up having a major payoff. That payoff could all come from how Jim Nill plans to find the newest bench boss for Dallas.

When Nill addressed the media on Friday morning following Hitchcock’s announcement, he began answering questions about the search for a new coach. And while he didn’t give out extensive specifics or details on the subject, he made sure to send a message to the hockey world. That message is that the Dallas Stars are going to take the best candidate on the market.

From what Nill said, the Stars do not plan to filter any coaches out because of experience, current league coaching level, or any other outlier that separates the candidates. Nill is prepared to do a wide search and come up with a handful of candidates. He isn’t planning on focusing on a specific group or area of coaches and is determined to dig in for as long as it takes to find the right guy.

This could end up being a great move for Dallas. When Nill first started as GM in April 2013, one of his first moves was firing head coach Glen Gulutzan. He replaced Gulutzan with Lindy Ruff, an old and established coach that had been around the league for a long time.

Ruff led the team on a respectable four-year stretch, going to the playoffs twice and winning the division once. But after a catastrophic 2016-17 season, Nill had to part ways with Ruff and look for another coach to feed the “win now” mentality.

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Almost as if he had already planned it, Nill hired Hitchcock a few days later, who has been in the league for over 20 years and is a constant presence in the Stanley Cup Playoffs. Hitch is known around the league for his tough and demanding tactics to get the best out of his team, and it showed during this past season. Unfortunately, it all fell apart through the month of March and everything went to pieces.  As a result, Hitchcock stepped down and shifted to an advisory role.

Now Nill has the chance to find the perfect successor for the future of the Dallas Stars, and it could not come at a more critical time. Dallas is in the midst of its “window” being open and is only one or two small pieces short of competing for a Stanley Cup. But they have to possess a competent head coach before any success can happen.

This is Nill’s chance to set the Stars on the right path not just for this year, but for the many years to come. Maybe he goes after a young coach with little to no NHL experience instead of picking a veteran coach with only a handful of years left in the league? It would probably be the best move for the franchise and could give Dallas a bright future.

Regardless of what happens, Nill is playing it smart in this situation. He’s not sticking to a pre-formed battle plan and is taking a look at every possible avenue. He is also not rushing into any hiring so he can take a look at every option, regardless of where they are and what they are currently involved in.

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Nill knows that there are plenty of options out there and that each one offers a different strength to the mix. As a result, he is looking for the guy that will help the Stars check all of the boxes and get out of the gate immediately. That’s what good general managers do.

It’s time for Jim Nill to keep being a good GM.