Some Initial Thoughts on Jim Nill and Glen Gulutzan's Preseason Press Conference

We learned something new today. A few things, actually.

On Wednesday morning, Jim Nill and Glen Gulutzan spoke to the media ahead of training camp, which begins in earnest Thursday morning.

There were a lot of questions about disappointment and expectations for the team after last season’s playoff exit, but there were also some pretty candid answers about a few players and situations that I found pretty revealing.

So with that, let’s get to it.

The Vibes, Man

This isn’t just a take, by the way. Jim Nill said this in response to a question about the new members of the coaching staff:

“I think it’s kind of refreshing,” Nill said. “There’s been a great vibe around the dressing room.”

That’s not a slight on Pete DeBoer, at least not intentionally. Nill and Gulutzan have both reiterated that they aren’t planning to “blow it up” when it comes to the team and its strengths, given the recent success Dallas has had.

But it is clear, I think, that the focus has been and will be on bringing a fresher energy to a group that began to feel more and more frustrated in the last two playoff losses to the Oilers—a frustration that culminated late in the regular season, and that even the former head coach seemed to succumb to with his actions on the bench and comments about his goaltender afterward.

“He’s not gonna come in and all of a sudden change everything that’s going on,” Nill said of Gulutzan. “He knows he’s got a good team, but he’s going to put his stamp on it. He’s gonna put his trademark on it. What that is, I don’t know. That’s up to him and the coaching staff. We’ll see.

Then Nill added something that, intentionally or not, brought visions of DeBoer losing some of his composure in Game 5 to mind.

“There’s gonna be situations that arise,” said Nill of what he expects to see out of Gulutzan’s approach. “There’s always that one telling moment during the season, during a game, and we’ll see how he responds. But I’m very confident that they’ll do a good job for us.”

As for Gulutzan, that vibe extends to multiple members of the coaching staff, both in Dallas and down in Cedar Park. Neil Graham and Gulutzan have known each other for a long time, and it sure sounds like Alain Nasreddine will have a bit more freedom to implement his own approach than he did under Pete DeBoer.

Gulutzan mentioned on Wednesday how a lot has changed from when he was last coaching in Dallas over 12 years ago. But then he went on to point out that when all the coaches got together for a few days at the end of August, he was sitting down with extremely familiar faces: Jordie Benn, Max Fortunus, Travis Morin, and Toby Petersen.

Gulutzan has coached all of those players, and he even shared that Morin was “chirping” him during a group dinner, and that Petersen keeps reminding him that Gulutzan was the head coach in Dallas in Petersen’s final NHL season, when Petersen ending up falling just two games short of 400 NHL games for his career after playing just one NHL game under Gulutzan in the 2012-13 season—a big deal, as the 400-game milestone would have, I believe, qualified Petersen for a pretty big increase in his pension payment under the NHL CBA.

It was all in jest, of course. Petersen has been coaching in the NHL for years now, so nobody on that staff is complaining about anything right now. But it does all speak to just how much lighter of an atmosphere has been created by bringing back some familiar faces.

(By the way, Nill also pointed out how Petersen’s NHL career was remarkable for “a guy that was never supposed to play in the league. He’s a good man.” And if you know anything about Petersen’s story, it’s tough to argue with that assessment.)

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Gulutzan and Nill both know that it’s easy for everyone to be positive before the team has played (let alone lost) a game yet. The hardships will come, as they always do (and did in waves last year). But that’s where a deeper sort of grounding comes into play.

“This schedule is hard,” Gulutzan said. “Our travel, it’s hard. You gotta have some fun along the way. You gotta have a little joy in your locker room.”

In fairness, it’s not like the team was walking on eggshells under DeBoer, either, as Nill referenced a “disaster” of a flight situation last year on their road trip to Seattle that led to a comical moment.

“I remember when we were landing, before three in the morning, the guys were doing college chants and stuff on the plane,” Nill said. “You know, when you get in those situations, you get goofy. And that’s kind of how our players are. We’ve got a really good group of guys.”

Now they just have to translate those vibes into results on the ice.

Jason Robertson and Thomas Harley Aren’t Close to Signing Extensions Right Now

Nill was pretty forthright about both players, saying that while he’s been talking with Robertson’s agent for a while now, nothing is really imminent in terms of a new contract.

Nill also pointed out that unlike some players in the news who will be UFAs next summer (think Kaprizov and McDavid), Dallas has two more years of team control—this year and next year—with Robertson.

“I think things really got blown out of proportion, for different reasons,” said Nill of the Robertson trade rumors earlier in the summer.

Nill went on to point out that teams were doing their due diligence by calling Dallas to ask about players like Robertson when Dallas was still over the salary cap. In fact, he pointed out that the Stars acquired Patrick Sharp and Stephen Johns ten years ago by making just such a call themselves.

Nill also went on to say that because of those other big-name players, extension talks around the league are pretty much at a standstill right now. And again, that makes sense if you’re Robertson, because why wouldn’t you wait to see if Kaprizov can reset the market with a big deal before you sign away UFA years?

“With Jason, I don’t blame him. He’s not a UFA, he’s an RFA (next summer). He wants to see what the market is. We want to see what the market is. So things are really kind of on hold, but we communicated all summer. They know our stance. They know what they’re looking for, and I’m confident that we’re going to get something done.”

As a reminder, here’s what Robertson said last week:

“Yeah, I mean, some stuff,” Robertson said when asked if there were any ongoing contract talks with the Stars. “But I’m restricted [a RFA], so it’s not like you can get up and go next year. That was the beauty of when we both did it, right? That’s why we wanted the extra year, that’s why they wanted that [last RFA] year.”

All the more reason for Robertson to have a big year. If he does, there will be a very big payday awaiting him. (And probably a pretty decent one even if he doesn’t, most likely.)

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As for Thomas Harley, the Stars have four more years of team control with him (this year and three more RFA years), so there is a lot less urgency to get anything done. Nill said he wants to be “careful” with any extension talks with Harley, pointing to how big this year will be for him, especially with the Olympics looming in February. It sounds like Nill doesn’t want those talks to become a distraction.

But as you would expect, Nill still wouldn’t mind locking up Harley long-term before then, if it’s possible.

“We’ve talked a little bit,” Nill said. “Just really, kind of off the record. But I’d like to get started on that sooner than later, see where it goes.”

Mikko Rantanen Is Going to Be a Big Part of This Team—Even Without Wearing a Letter

Both Nill and Gulutzan praised Rantanen, with Nill pointing out that Rantanen has shown a lot of leadership, particularly behind the scenes. Gulutzan also said that he sees Rantanen as a player with an elite hockey mind, as well as someone who puts in immense amounts of work.

But for now, that leadership won’t mean shifting around the alternate captaincy letters.

“I’m not too concerned about letters,” Gulutzan said, pointing out that he’s still relatively new to the dynamics of the Stars’ dressing room. “It would be naive of me to say, ‘Oh, I know who the better leaders are.’ So that’ll probably all stay the same. But I can tell you that I’ve formed two leadership groups here, too. I wanna rely on some of these veteran players that I have.”

And it sounds like Rantanen will be a big part of one of those leadership groups.

“In my second discussion with ‘Rants, you can tell that he thinks the game and the parts around it at a very high level,” Gulutzan said. “And I liked a lot of the things he said. So yes, I am gonna lean on him a little bit, too.”

Nill also mentioned that Rantanen was selling his house in Colorado, and that he and his new fiancée had already found a permanent place in Dallas as the superstar winger prepares to begin his first of eight seasons on his contract with Dallas.

“This guy’s a bit of a worker,” Gulutzan said. “He’s a bit of a soldier, and he’s an elite-minded player. So you gotta use him.”

Mavrik Bourque and Nils Lundkvist Are Going to Get Big Opportunities to Start the Year

Gulutzan was asked a general question about how he communicates with young players about how they can earn bigger roles, and he cut right to the chase.

“Yeah, I know who you’re talking about, so I’ll just tell you: Nils and Bourquey, I told them both, I’m giving you an opportunity here,” said Gulutzan.

“And what I see from watching them, I think there’s real upside to those guys. And you need internal growth on your team when you lose players. You know, we lost a couple players here, so at the end of the day, you need internal growth.”

That opportunity may not be a guarantee of 82 games right off the bat, but it does sound like both players will be given a clean slate after sometimes struggling to earn ice time under Pete DeBoer.

“They’re ready to grow, in my opinion,” Gulutzan said. “So I’m going to give them an opportunity here in camp to see what they can do.”

Wingers Might Play More on Their Off-Side in Gulutzan’s System

When asked about filling the holes on the left wing with a potential right-hand shot, Gulutzan was very candid: it might well happen.

“Yeah, and I love it,” said Gulutzan of a righty potentially playing on the left side. “Because the way we play, a lot of times it is easier to be on the opposite wing. And I do want to possess the puck a little bit more.”

Personally, I found this level of candor from Gulutzan already to be a big change from DeBoer, who would occasionally talk small system details, but more often tended to use phrases like “It’s something we’ll look at.” But as has been said already, it is a lot easier to be candid at the start of the season than after adversity hits.

Anyway, who could those players be who might play on their off-hand side? Well, part of it seems to be up to the player(s) to volunteer.

“Some of the stuff we did actually in Edmonton, we would bring pucks back a little bit, hold onto things rather than always just playing forward,” Gulutzan said. “It’s a lot easier, especially in the neutral zone, for guys that are on their off side. So any of these players that would love to play the off side, I’m 100% for it.”

Whether that means time at left wing for a right-shot player like Tyler Seguin, Mavrik Bourque, or even Wyatt Johnston remains to be seen. But it sure sounds like it could be a real option.

Final Thoughts

• When asked about whether he saw some elements of the changes he’s hoping to bring to the Stars’ play during last weekend’s prospect games, Gulutzan pointed to Justin Ertel’s big hit to create a goal in Game 2 of the prospect weekend against Detroit on Sunday. He pointed out that the player finished their check rather than doing a fly-by, which would have been an easy choice. That finishing of a check has been something Gulutzan has mentioned since his introductory press conference over the summer.
  
  And in this case, Gulutzan pointed out how that hit ended up creating an opportunity to score after a turnover happened just up the boards. Ertel gets the puck back, and because his man is recovering from the hit, Ertel has space to find Angus MacDonnell for a big goal to give Dallas momentum early in the period,.
  
  (Skip to 25:50 of the below clip to see the goal.)

  Gulutzan acknowledged that it was just one goal in a prospects game. But for me, the emphasis was telling, I think. Petersen was able to get the message about being harder to play against through to a disparate group of players after the Stars were thumped in Game 1. And Gulutzan loved it.

• Gulutzan also said there will be more of an emphasis on a “role” for players on the fourth line like Radek Faksa or Nathan Bastian—he also included Oskar Bäck’s name, unprompted. So it seems safe to say the days of rolling four lines with similar scoring approaches are probably a thing of the past.
  
  ”What I love about that bottom portion of the roster is everybody has a piece of the pie,” said Gulutzan. “The top guys are gonna touch the power play, and the middle guys are all gonna have PK. And when you have a team—a team—then you want everybody to have a little piece of something that they can grab hold of.”

  
  I’m definitely in wait-and-see mode on that more traditional approach to the fourth line. One of the things about the Stars’ depth in past years has been how many ways they can beat you, with every line having dangerous offensive players on it. But with a lot of scoring depth having departed the team out of salary cap necessity, perhaps a clean pivot to a different approach is better than trying to keep four scoring lines on a minimal budget would have been.
  
  We shall see, as we always seem to do.