TIPPETT HAS NO INTEREST IN SEATTLE COACHING JOB

Dave Tippett spent 17 years coaching in the National Hockey League. But the 57-year-old, who was replaced as head coach of the Arizona Coyotes after the 2016-17 season, has no inclination of stepping behind the bench when Seattle is granted an NHL franchise.

Nor does he want to become the team’s general manager.

“No, that’s not for me,” said Tippett, who was hired by the Oak View Group last spring. “You start to file away names of people who might have interest down the road. We have a pretty good list.” Tippett would not reveal who is on the list, but he was in Arizona when the team tried to hire Kelly McCrimmon, who is now the assistant general manager in Vegas. With Mark Hunter, Ron Hextall and Chuck Fletcher available — and with Ken Holland’s contract with Detroit expiring after the 2019-20 season — he has a lot of good options.

“The NHL rules allow you to be competitive. Vegas did an unbelievable job with that,” said Tippett. “It’s not like expansion teams in the past, where you felt like you were behind the eightball. You might not have superstars right away, but you have a chance to have a real solid team.” For now, Tippett is happy picking out paint colours (“We’ve got to pick out team colours first,” he said) and helping to build something from the ground up. “I’ve always kind of had a builder’s mentality to me,” he said. “I’ve built motorcycles and cars in the past, so it’s kind of intriguing. You get to help build the culture of an organization. There’s a lot of intrigue around expansion right now, because of what Vegas did last year.”