The NHL coaching market is tricky. It’s full of coaches who have developed their specific methods and systems, which can be great or horrible depending on a team’s makeup.
For the Dallas Stars, it’s a huge decision that has the potential to make or break their upcoming season. That’s largely because of a difficult adjustment they’ll have to make on a team that struggled to find its identity last season.
Defense First
Last season, under Hitchcock, the Stars were a defensive-minded club. That’s how Hitch teams are built. They’ve always functioned like that because his teams were a very direct representation of his philosophy.