For Jim Nill, the Dallas Stars' Coaching Search May Come Down to Courage and Defiance Alike

Hear me out for a minute or two

A former Edmonton Oilers head coach, a current St. Louis Blues assistant coach, Henrik Lundqvist’s identical twin brother, and Loui Eriksson

We’re just under a week from the NHL draft and just over a week from the start of the annual free agent frenzy, which is to say from all the Twitter dumps of what the players are going to do a few hours before free agency actually begins.

Meanwhile, the Stars still have a very big question to answer: Who’s going to coach them next season?

We’ve talked about candidates for weeks now, so there’s not much need to rehash any of them here. Jim Nill has said the Stars aren’t going to rush things, and considering they’re the only NHL team currently looking for a head coach, that seems prudent. Of course, if Jim Nill was interested in interviewing Manny Malhotra, he’s going to have to wait just a bit longer to see if the Abbotsford Canucks can win one of their next two games in the Calder Cup Finals this week. Abbotsford came a goalpost away from winning the series over the weekend, and the Canucks are still up 3-2 in the series, which is heading back to Charlotte for the the final two games. Game 6 is tonight (Monday) at 6pm, if you’re interested. It’s been compelling hockey.

Aside from Malhotra, the Stars have a veritable landscape of potential candidates. Jim Nill is quite skilled at keeping these interviews quiet, and with no other teams involved in the process, you’re almost assuredly not going to hear about external candidates unless they get hired, or unless their agents (if they have one) want the media to know their client got an interview. Thus far, all we know is that Glen Gulutzan may or may not have been interviewed, and is probably on their list, maybe. It’s a rip-roaring time to be speculating, if that’s your jam.

But rather than handicapping the coaching search yet again today, I wanted to re-frame it. Because once you know exactly what Jim Nill is looking for, then—and only then—can you start to narrow down the pool of candidates. And from Nill’s history, it is quite likely that he has both an open mind and a specific idea with regard to who the best Stars’ coach would be.

That’s the question, right there: What sort of coach do the Stars need? And while it’s not like Nill is going to come right out and give us the Mary Poppins list of qualifications for the perfect coach, I do think we have at least an inkling of what the Stars might be looking for.

Let’s start with what I believe they’re pretty clearly not looking for.