DALLAS — Ken Hitchcock is officially back as the head coach of the Dallas Stars.
On Thursday the team held a press conference to introduced the 65-year-old as the new coach, confirming earlier reports that Hitchcock would indeed be filling the vacancy left by Lindy Ruff.
It’s a multi-year contract for Hitchcock and includes a clause that will allow him to move into a consulting position after he’s finished coaching at some point.
Some notes from the Thursday:
-Jim Nill confirmed he interviewed three candidates for the job, but it became clear Hitchcock was his first choice.
-The consulting position was Hitchcock’s idea. He wants to finish his career in Dallas and is dedicated to joining the organization.
-Hitchcock was still set on retiring after getting fired by the St. Louis Blues, but plans changed after he started talking to lots of coaches, at all levels, and turned into a de facto consultant during his unemployment (you can read more about that in my NHL.com story).
-Hitchcock plans to turn Tyler Seguin into a true No. 1 center. (I’ll have a story on that at WFAA).
-Hitchcock isn’t ditching the Stars exciting style. But he is adding more structure (I’ll have a story on that over at FanRag Sports).
-Hitchcock will lean heavily on his assistant coaches, and he’ll start to interview them next week. Curt Fraser will be one of those interviewed.
-Hitchock used the word millennials quite a bit in his presser and attended a symposium about how to work with millennials. He said that should help him coaching and working with today’s NHL players.
I’ll have more on the hiring and Hitchcock later, but this is just a list of initial notes.
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