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Dallas Stars mid-season report card: Coaching and management

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On Tuesday we broke down each player currently on the Dallas Stars roster with our mid-season report card.

Today we’re taking a look at the decision makers, the coaches and management.

I originally had planned on including the coaches and management with the players, but after 5,000 words on the players and realizing I needed a different format for the front office, it turned into a separate story.

So, let’s take a look at the coaches and management:

Kelly Forbes, video coach

Forbes was arguably the most successful Stars coach last season when the Stars struggled. While the team wasn’t winning on the ice, he was consistently winning challenges and making the right call on whether or not Lindy Ruff should challenge a play. Forbes hasn’t been as busy with challenges this season, but he’s still made the right call when it was needed.

Grade: A

Jeff Reese, goalie coach

Reese has helped Kari Lehtonen step into a back-up role and turned the Finnish goalie into one of the better back-ups in the NHL. He’s also become a sounding board that discusses key plays and moments with Ben Bishop after each game. The goaltending isn’t an area of weakness anymore.

Grade: A

Curt Fraser, assistant coach/eye in the sky

Fraser took a lot of heat on social media last season. The Stars power play struggled, he took the blame, and “fire Fraser” was a bit of a rallying crying for a subset of fans. This season he moved into an eye in the sky role, watching games from the press box and meeting with Ken Hitchcock during each intermission. It’s worked well so far and Fraser has been a conduit to some of the players for Hitchcock.

Grade: A

Stu Barnes, assistant coach/offensive coordinator

Barnes returned to coaching this season and took over power play and forward responsibility from Fraser. The Stars power play is clicking at 20.2 percent through 43 games and is 13th in the NHL. That number has dropped throughout the season, and the Stars haven’t drawn many power plays — eighth-least in the league with 129 — so there are still consistency issues to get hammered out.

Grade: B

Rick Wilson, assistant coach/defensive coordinator

They call it “Hitch hockey,” but the Stars system really should be called “Rick and Hitch hockey.” Dating back to the mid-1990s, Fraser has consistently been at Hitchcock’s side and helped define the Stars defense. This season Wilson has helped shape a defense that limits chances against, and yet with that defensive mantra, the Stars still have the NHL’s leading scorer amongst defensemen.

Grade: A

Ken Hitchcock, head coach

The Stars are in playoff position at the bye week and have a new mentality from past seasons under Hitchcock. It’s a winning system and the Stars in a strong position to be a playoff contender in the second half in the loaded Central Division. Their have been some head-scratching decisions when it comes to lineups, but the end result has the Stars were they want to be at this point.

Grade: B

Mark Janko, assistant general manager

Janko is in his first season as the assistant general manager and is responsible for the numbers and lingo that confuse the rest of us — the salary cap, collective bargaining agreement, and other salary arbitration. The Stars have an ideal cap situation heading into next season.

Grade: A

Scott White, assistant general manager

White is also the general manager for the AHL-affiliated Texas Stars, which is in playoff position at this point and have been forced to rely on depth AHL players in the bottom-six, players that White is responsible for acquiring and signing. He also was the person behind the trade of Ludwig Bystrom for Reece Scarlett, a move that worked out well and helped solidify the AHL defense.

Grade: A

Jim Nill, general manager

Nill did most of his work in the offseason, making a splash by signing Alexander Radulov and trading for and then signing Ben Bishop. Those signings have worked out well, while two other notable signings — Marc Methot and Martin Hanzal — have some questions marks caused by injury. He eventually fixed the Stars glut of defensemen, but got a minimal return for Jamie Oleksiak and lost Patrik Nemeth on waivers. Stars are a better team than they were last season, and things seem to be headed in the right direction.

Grade: B

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