RUFF LIKELY TO BE NEXT NHL COACH ON CHOPPING BLOCK
To hear Lindy Ruff, one of the best coaches in NHL history, say the 7-1 loss to the Edmonton Oilers this week was maybe the worst game he’s coached with the Dallas Stars — calling out his veterans for their poor play — it sounds like a bench boss at the end of his rope.
The Warburg, Alta., native has won 729 NHL games as a coach, which puts him fifth all-time, but he’s probably Dead Man Talking in Dallas in his fourth year there.
If that’s the case, does general manager Jim Nill do what Montreal seems to have a penchant for — bring back a coach who has been fired once before, like it did with both Michel Therrien and Claude Julien?
If Nill goes for another voice, is the popular choice Ken Hitchcock?
Hitchcock, fourth in career wins with 781 — one back of New York Islanders legend Al Arbour — would close the circle with the Stars if he was brought back. Coaching this team was his first NHL head job 21 years ago when then-GM Bob Gainey promoted him from their farm club.
Hitchcock, fired in St. Louis a couple months ago, has gone underground. The always voluble 65-year-old isn’t talking right now about any job, but the hockey world knows he wants to coach again, somewhere. He’s feeling good, he’s watching NHL games on TV.
He’s like Mike Keenan, who was just hired on to coach a KHL team in Beijing, and Iron Mike is 67.
Hitchcock would have his hands full, of course, if he went back to Dallas. They have the worst goaltending in the league and a young defensive corps that makes errors, with forwards who were able to out-score those mistakes last season when they had 50 wins, but unable to do so this year.
Hitchcock won a Stanley Cup with Dallas in 1999, beating Ruff’s Buffalo Sabres. He’s got the name, the resume, the desire. Plus, Stars owner Tom Gaglardi also owns the junior team in Kamloops, B.C., where Hitchcock coached years back.
The only other job that would be ideal for Hitchcock? Coaching a major college hockey team at a U.S. school. Two games a week, lots of practice time. He got many of his coaching ideas watching University of Alberta Golden Bears coaches Clare Drake and Billy Moores.
The others in the running in Dallas? I’m hearing ex-Oilers coach Ralph Krueger — who keeps saying he’s happy running soccer club Southampton FC in England’s Premier League, but loved his hiatus with Team Europe at the World Cup getting that vagabond group of players to the finals — would be high on Nill’s list. Krueger did a great job with the young Oilers during the lockout in 2012-13, and is perfect as an explainer of why players have to do things. His name has come up in Vegas, too.
The other name is Gerard Gallant, fired in Florida.
Ruff, who just turned 57, looks completely worn out and in need of a break.
SHORT SHIFTS
It’s easy to say the Colorado
Avalanche want multiple pieces if they’re to trade forward Matt Duchene around the June draft — a defenceman, a draft pick, a very good prospect — but the easier deals to make are one-for-one like the Columbus Blue Jackets-Nashville Predators deal last year that saw centre Ryan Johansen head to the Preds for defenceman Seth Jones.
The team with the most defencemen is Nashville, but they aren’t moving Roman Josi, P.K. Subban, Ryan Ellis or Mattias Ekholm, the best top four in the NHL.
The Ducks are the one team with the depth to do it with their top four of Cam Fowler, Hampus Lindholm, Sami Vatanen and Josh Manson, plus the younger Shea Theodore, Brandon Montour and Jacob Larsson, 19, who is playing exceptionally well for Frolunda in the Swedish Elite League.
I don’t imagine Justin Schultz will be signing for US$1.4 million again when he’s an unrestricted free agent on July 1 for a second time. More like three years, US$12-million, although the Pittsburgh Penguins would have to find some money for Brian Dumoulin, too. That US$4 million per season is the going rate for point-producing defencemen these days.
Tough guy Kyle Sheen, who took a flying elbow at Ryan Smyth in a senior playoff game between Stony Plain and Lacombe last week, played for the Kootenay Ice in 2001-02 when they won the Memorial Cup. Sheen was the team’s beat cop. Jarret Stoll was on that Kootenay team.
Magnus Paajarvi is playing now in St. Louis like he did in his rookie NHL season in 2010, when he had 34 points for the Oilers. He’s on the puck, skating, making plays. He turns 26 next month. He seems to have a good thing going with Ivan Barbashev.
When Oilers’ assistant coach
Jim Johnson took a deflected puck right between the eyes Sunday when Montreal was here, he also broke his nose. Eight times he’s done it. Seven as an NHL defenceman. First as a coach.
Under turning back the clock:
Ex-Oilers centre Mats Lindgren coached Adam Larsson at Skelleftea in the Swedish Elite League before Larsson came over to the NHL. Larsson had no idea Lindgren played 199 games for the Oilers in the late 1990s.