Metropolitan Notes: Devils Coaching Search, Hurricanes, Ovechkin
With several big-name coaches on their wish list, many people didn’t put much thought into a report that Lindy Ruff was a fifth candidate for the New Jersey Devils. After all, the Devils were also considering Peter Laviolette, Gerard Gallant, Mike Babcock, John Stevens, Bruce Boudreau and current interim head coach Alain Nasreddine. However, on his most recent 31 Thoughts column, Sportsnet’s Elliotte Friedman writes that Ruff is hardly an afterthought and is a serious candidate for the team’s head coaching position.
What’s interesting about that statement is that New Jersey still doesn’t have a general manager in place and has been interviewing candidates for that position too. Friedman notes that many of those candidates have requested input in the team’s head coaching search, which would likely alter the team’s plans in hiring a head coach. However, the scribe notes that it looks like regardless on what the team decides, Ruff is highly favored within the organization.
Ruff served as head coach of the Buffalo Sabres from 1997 to 2013, while taking the same role in Dallas from 2013 to 2017 and has 736 coaching victories in the NHL.
- With many teams having shutdown voluntary skating in their facilities recently due to a number of positive tests for COVID-19, the Carolina Hurricanes announced they will open up PNC Arena to players who wish to begin voluntary small-group training, starting on Tuesday, June 30. The team is expecting 16 players to be ready to go on that date, with that group to be split in half during on-ice workouts. So far, no word on what players will hit the ice in Carolina.
- Speaking of teams that have been on the ice for some time, the Washington Capitals, who have been skating at MedStar Capitals Iceplex in Arlington, VA since June 8, got a familiar face on the ice as star forward Alex Ovechkin skated with some teammates Saturday. The 34-year-old, who tallied 48 goals in just 68 games last season, has been training in Florida before now. He was joined by Evgeny Kuznetsov, Lars Eller, Garnet Hathaway, John Carlson and Braden Holtby.
Lindy Ruff Under Consideration For Devils Head Coach
Earlier this month, it had been reported that New Jersey’s coaching search had been narrowed to four candidates with former Nashville bench boss Peter Laviolette believed to be the frontrunner. However, Sportsnet’s Elliotte Friedman (via Twitter) has added a fifth coach to the mix, reporting that Rangers assistant coach Lindy Ruff is also under consideration for the job.
Ruff has plenty of experience behind the bench, serving as Buffalo’s head coach from 1997 through 2013 while filling the same role in Dallas from 2013-17. He has been an assistant coach with New York since then and also spent time as an assistant in Florida from 1993-97 before getting the Buffalo job. His 736 career head coaching wins in the NHL sit sixth in league history.
Other coaches still in consideration for the position are Gerard Gallant, John Stevens, and current interim head coach Alain Nasreddine.
With New Jersey not among the 24 teams that will be returning to action this summer, there is plenty of time to make this decision as the official ‘offseason’ won’t likely begin until mid-October. However, the decision maker isn’t also necessarily in place either. Tom Fitzgerald is the interim GM and has been conducting the coaching search but ownership has also been in talks with prospective GM candidates. Accordingly, a decision on Fitzgerald’s fate may need to happen before a head coaching hire can be finalized.
Hockey Canada Names World Championship Coaching Staff
Hockey Canada has named their full coaching staff for the upcoming IIHF World Championship, a group that will be led by Alain Vigneault. The former New York Rangers bench boss will be joined by assistants Dave Hakstol, Lindy Ruff and Kirk Muller.
The entire staff has quite a bit of NHL experience under their belt, and were all employed recently if not this season. The group will be commanding a Canadian team that is expected to have quite a bit of talent, although some big names have already dropped out. Connor McDavid was injured in his last game of the season and won’t be able to attend, and Carey Price has already ruled himself out as well. Price’s teammate Shea Weber also is unlikely to go, instead looking forward to a full offseason of rest and training instead of rehab from injury.
Still, Canada always puts together a solid roster and should serve as a chance for Vigneault and others to show what they can do with a talented group. The former Rangers coach has been connected to various vacancies already, though one of those spots has already been filled with the hiring of Joel Quenneville in Florida.
The tournament runs May 10-26 in Slovakia and Canada’s contingent will be put together by a management group including Buffalo Sabres GM Jason Botterill, and former GMs Ron Francis and Ron Hextall.
What Your Team Is Thankful For: Dallas Stars
With the holiday season in full swing, PHR will look at what teams are thankful for so far this year. There also might be a few things your team would like down the road. We take a look at what’s gone well in the first few months and what could improve as the season rolls on. So far we’ve covered the following teams:
Atlantic: BOS, BUF, DET, FLA, TOR, MTL, OTT
Metropolitan: CAR, CBJ, NJD, NYI, NYR, PHI, PIT, WSH
Central: CHI, COL, MIN, NSH, STL
Pacific: ANA, ARZ, CGY, EDM, LAK, SJS, VAN, VGK
What are the Dallas Stars most thankful for?
The draft lottery.
2016-17 was a huge disappointment for the Stars. After finishing first in the Western Conference and advancing to the second round a year earlier, Dallas got off to a brutal start last season and couldn’t overcome it to sneak their way into the playoffs. Finishing with 79 points and third-last in the West, it cost head coach Lindy Ruff his job and several players their role on the club.
Still, it wasn’t all bad. After the season, the Stars lost Cody Eakin to the Vegas Golden Knights in the expansion draft, and couldn’t have been that upset about it. The centerman has put up a better season for Vegas than he had in 2016-17, but is still not the 20-goal, 50-point man many had hoped he would develop into. The fact that the Stars no longer have to worry about the two years at $3.85MM that Eakin is still owed on his current deal is actually probably worth more than having him on the team.
Then came the draft, where Dallas won the right to select third-overall and were able to take home exactly what they were after. Though some casual North American observers may have forgotten about Miro Heiskanen as he continues to develop in Finland, the Stars sure haven’t. Heiskanen is playing excellent in the Finnish Liiga, scoring nine goals and 14 points in 20 games while controlling games from the blueline. He is an absolute prototype when it comes to the new era of NHL defensemen, able to play well at both ends of the rink.
Fans should get a good look at his potential when he skates for Finland at the upcoming World Junior Championships, where he’ll remind everyone why he was taken third-overall. The idea of the Finnish duo of Julius Honka and Heiskanen playing long-term together should have Dallas fans salivating.
Who are the Stars most thankful for?
Benn continues to be one of the greatest stories in the NHL, going from a fifth-round pick out of the BCHL to a legitimate All-World captain and winger. His 30 points lead the Stars again this season, while his possession numbers and all-around play remain high. He’s the type of player every team around the league would be after if there was a chance, but as he starts his new contract extension it looks like he’ll be in Dallas for a long time.
With a $9.5MM cap hit for another seven years, there is definitely some risk involved in Benn’s deal. Who can know what kind of player he’ll be in his mid-thirties, but at this point he’s still the best chance the team has to compete for the Stanley Cup. With Tyler Seguin set to hit free agency in the summer of 2019, it will be interesting if the team decides to keep the dynamic duo together long-term, for what would be a huge chunk of the salary cap.
What would the Stars be even more thankful for?
Healthy and effective goaltending.
The Stars went out and got the starting goaltender they wanted in the offseason, buying out Antti Niemi and bringing in Ben Bishop to handle the load. Unfortunately, Bishop has battled a sore back this season and looked average even when he is in the net. Kari Lehtonen has bounced back from a dreadful 2016-17, but only to about the same level Bishop is playing, which is not good enough.
Bishop and Lehtonen have .908 and .907 save percentages respectively, and the Stars need more than that to get back to being a contender in the league. Especially when you factor in that Ken Hitchcock’s system usually increases save percentages in the first few years, the goaltending simply hasn’t been good enough. There are several issues with this team, but getting Bishop—who signed a six-year, $29.5MM contract with the team—back to playing like the Vezina contender he’s been in the past, could make up for them all.
What should be on the Stars’ Holiday Wish List?
Some more help up front.
Beyond the trio of Benn, Seguin and Alexander Radulov (who’ve been spread out recently to try and spark some more offense) the Stars don’t have enough firepower at forward. Young forward Radek Faksa has done his part, but veterans like Martin Hanzal, Jason Spezza and Antoine Roussel have been almost invisible when in the lineup.
The Stars are still 18-14-3 on the season and within striking distance of the top teams in the Central Division, but to really compete they’ll need a deeper offensive attack. The depth of their forwards pales in comparison to clubs like Nashville, Winnipeg and St. Louis, something that would become even more prominent in a seven-game series.
Photo courtesy of USA Today Sports Images
Draft Day Notes: Ruff, Markov, Phaneuf
While the New York Rangers continue to select the next wave of talent in the NHL draft, the front office is also busy working on the NHL coaching staff. Larry Brooks of the New York Post is reporting that Lindy Ruff will join the team as an assistant coach, replacing Jeff Beukeboom who will move into a scouting role with the club.
Ruff of course has decades of experience as a head coach in the league, with his latest stint ending in Dallas at the end of the year. This will be the first time he takes an assistant role since 1997, and will be mostly in charge of the defense group.
- Though it’s been clear there is interest between Andrei Markov and the Montreal Canadiens, Renaud Lavoie of TVA Sports is reporting that Markov now wants a two-year contract. That could be too long for the Canadiens, who are set to give Carey Price a huge raise next summer and have to make sure they spend every dollar appropriately. That’s not even mentioning that Markov will turn 39 this season, and at any point could fall off a cliff in terms of production. The cap hit would have to be very reasonable for the long-time Montreal defender to get those two years.
- Before the Travis Hamonic deal went down, Bob McKenzie of TSN tweeted out some details about Dion Phaneuf continuing to draw trade interest from teams that aren’t on his approved list. Remember that Phaneuf would not waive his no-movement clause for the expansion draft, and though Pierre Dorion has had chats with his representation, there is no movement on the trade list as of yet.
James Patrick Leaves NHL To Coach WHL’s Kootenay Ice
Over the past decade, James Patrick has been the right hand man of one of the NHL’s most well-known coaches, Lindy Ruff. However, Ruff’s future is in doubt after the Dallas Stars declined to extend both he and Patrick. Patrick has embraced the unknown and decided to strike out on his own. The Kootenay Ice of the major junior Western Hockey League announced today that they have hired Patrick as their new head coach. It is a three-year contract for Patrick, as he looks to turn around the team that finished dead last in the WHL in 2016-17.
Patrick is long overdue for a head coaching job. Patrick finished up his long 21-year NHL career after the 2003-04 season with the Buffalo Sabres. He re-joined his former team to work for his former head coach not long after, joining the Buffalo staff ahead of the 2006-07 season. Patrick spent seven seasons in Buffalo under Ruff and then followed him to Dallas for four more campaigns. In addition to his coaching career, Patrick recorded 639 points in 1280 NHL games with the New York Rangers, Hartford Whalers, Calgary Flames and Sabres and was also an NCAA champion at the University of North Dakota in 1982.
While Patrick’s hire is big news, it certainly won’t be the biggest announcement in the Patrick family this June, as his nephew, Nolan Patrick, is one of the upcoming NHL Draft’s top picks and could very easily be picked first overall by the New Jersey Devils. Should Patrick find success as the head coach in Kootenay, he could one day end up coaching his nephew (or against him) at the NHL level.
Dallas Stars Hire Ken Hitchcock As Head Coach
Thursday: The Stars have made it official, naming Hitchcock as head coach. He has a multi-year deal that will transition into a consulting role thereafter.
Wednesday: After firing Lindy Ruff just a few days ago, the Dallas Stars have acted quickly, and according to multiple reports (including Tim Cowlishaw of ESPN) are set to hire Ken Hitchcock as their next head coach. The Stars are coming off a dreadful season that saw them finish with just a 34-37-11 record, a 30 point fall from their division leading 2015-16 season. 
Hitchcock of course was fired from his latest job mid-season, when the St. Louis Blues let him go early and installed Mike Yeo as the bench boss. At the time Hitchcock was said to be considering retirement, though many around the league doubted that he would ever be able to stay away from the game should an opportunity present itself. Well, now one has in one of his old stomping grounds. The eventual hall-of-fame coach spent the first seven seasons of his coaching career in Dallas, winning a Stanley Cup in 1999 and returning to the Western Conference Finals the following year. His team finished first in the division five straight seasons, and only had a losing record in his first year.
Hitchcock is known for his bristly nature with players, but also for some unconventional tactics that often pay dividends. He is currently number four on the all-time coaching list, and will surpass Al Arbour for third with just two wins next year. His .606 career winning percentage also ranks among the leaders.
The Stars will have to do more than just change coaches in order to climb back up the standings, but this at least provides them with a picture of what the team’s leadership will look like before they start working on the roster. Goaltending is still one of the biggest issues in Dallas, as they ranked last in save percentage despite paying over $10MM to the duo of Kari Lehtonen and Antti Niemi. Each will become an unrestricted free agent after next year, so Hitchcock and the Stars will need to prepare for the next chapter in net.
Hitchcock has been regarded as something of a defensive coach in the past, introducing systems that limit high quality shot attempts. It will be interesting to see whether this group can accomplish those systems, as they don’t have the established defensive core that some of his previous teams did. What they do have, is a young group that can grow under his tutelage and perhaps change the “high-flying” reputation.
Photo courtesy of USA Today Sports Images
Lindy Ruff Out As Dallas Stars’ Coach
The Dallas Stars’ General Manager Jim Nill announced today that coach Lindy Ruff will not return as head coach for the 2017-18 season on their website.
Stars Notes: Nichushkin, Expansion, Honka
When Valeri Nichushkin left for the KHL last summer after having trouble with Dallas Stars head coach Lindy Ruff, the team lost one of its best young assets to a rival league. The former 10th-overall draft pick had put up 34 points in his rookie season, then missed most of the next year after hip surgery but came back with another solid 29 point season as a 20-year old last year. He looked like a star (pun intended) in the making in Dallas, ready to break out over the next few seasons.
Well, breakout he did, just on the wrong continent. With 24 points in 36 games, Nichushkin was outstanding for CSKA Moscow when he was healthy. He is under contract for one more season with the Russian team, but Jim Nill was on the radio today saying (via Mark Stepneski of NHL.com) that he would like to bring him back to North America eventually. The now 22-year old would be a nice addition if they could get him under contract, as they’re likely losing Ales Hemsky, Patrick Sharp and Jiri Hudler this year—not to mention Patrick Eaves and Lauri Korpikoski, who they dealt at the deadline.
- According to Stepneski, Nill also said that he likely will protect Nichushkin in the upcoming expansion draft, something that would complicate things quite a bit. Protecting Nichushkin would leave one of Antoine Roussel, Brett Ritchie, Radek Faksa or Cody Eakin exposed, none of whom the Stars could afford losing for nothing. While leaving Nichushkin exposed isn’t perfect, it would be hard to see Vegas taking a swing at him not knowing for sure if he’d ever come back to the NHL. Perhaps the Stars will work out a deal with the Golden Knights on who to take, as they currently look like they’ll lose an effective player in the draft.
- Julius Honka will be back up with the NHL team at some point, to play another 8-10 games with the big club before the end of the season. The top prospect played 10 games earlier in the season for the team, and has thrived at the AHL level for three straight years. There will be no playoff run for the Texas Stars of the AHL this season, as they currently sit in seventh place in their division with a 27-29-4 record.
Central Notes: Elie, Blackhawks’ Success, Jurco
The Dallas Morning News’ Mike Heika lists a number of quotes from Stars bench boss Lindy Ruff regarding rookie Remi Elie. Out of all the quotes, the one regarding Elie’s staying power with the big club was probably the most telling. Ruff via Heika:
“Well, I look at what we need on the road to be a better team, a harder team to play against. I think that he fits what I think can help us. I thought the line of Eakin, him and Hemsky did a real good job. You look at the number of chances he created, the duress he put their defense under and the fact that he’s a physical player. I think there’s been some situations where we haven’t been hard enough to play against. You take Roussel of our lineup and I think that’s a good replacement to continue down that path where we’re hard to play against.”
The Stars’ second round pick in 2013, Elie has appeared in only two games for the Stars, but from the sound of it, may be lacing up for more. Ruff said more about the rookie, saying that his speed is something Dallas has “missed” in its lineup and that with “more polish” in his game, Elie is the perfect fit for the Stars’ style of play.
- CBS Sports’ Cody Benjamin details how the Chicago Blackhawks have hit their stride later in the season. Calling it “no surprise” that the Hawks are surging in early March, Benjamin points to a couple stalwarts upping their game, Jonathan Toews, and Patrick Kane. Kane has tallied 21 points (14-7) while Toews has added 20 points of his own during Chicago’s 12-1 run. Corey Crawford, according to Benjamin, has been stellar in net while the Hawks have been “resilient” during a season that’s tested them with injuries to key players, and a defense that hasn’t included the dominant pairings of years past. Regardless, Chicago has been one of the better teams in the West this season and is certainly working itself into a good position for the playoffs.
- In other Blackhawks news, newly acquired forward Tomas Jurco is starting to acclimate himself with his new surroundings. Though head coach Joel Quenneville calls him a “work in progress,” CSN Chicago’s Tracey Myers reports that Jurco is “thankful” to have a chance with the Blackhawks and that Jurco isn’t putting a time table on getting comfortable with his new team. Instead, the young forward has the backing of his coach and the front office, who are more than willing to give the promising 24-year-old more than enough time to catch on in Chicago.