Ken Hitchcock lays out plans for Dallas Stars assistant coaches

CHICAGO — Dallas Stars head coach Ken Hitchcock shed some light on responsibilities for his assistant coaches in an interview on Friday.

Stu Barnes will run the power play, Rick Wilson will run the penalty kill, and Curt Fraser will be in charge of “big-picture” elements and game planning.

That could mean Fraser will watch the game from the press box for a different vantage point, but that detail still has to be finalized out.

“(Fraser) is going to be working with me,” Hitchcock said. “So (Fraser) is going to be responsible for the game plan and the game plan’s evaluation. Post game and then in between periods (Fraser) on a period-by-period basis.”

Hitchcock and Fraser are now in the middle of turning over the power play responsibilities to Barnes, who has spent the past couple seasons away from coaching.

“Some things have changed in the National Hockey League from when Stu was running the power play, but not a lot,” Hitchcock said. “We’re in unique position where we already have a group of five that’s very successful. We know what that group is and that is going to be easier transition wise than it would be for other teams and other coaches.”

While Barnes is working on the power play, Hitchcock is confident Wilson will be able to shore up the Stars issues on defense.

“I think he thinks the game in very aggressive common sense manner,” Hitchcock said. “And I looked at it in two ways. Who’s going to grow the young defenseman the quickest? Who is going to stabilize their mindset? And who is going to bring back the penalty killing quickly? And Rick was the guy that stood out to me immediately.”

Why is that?

“He has this method of relentless teaching,” Hitchcock said. “He doesn’t do it through conflict. He stays with it so he gets you with a proper base in your game before he starts working on your skill. He works on your competitive level and the systematic approach to playing the game and then he starts to develop the skill from there.”

Hitchcock also looks at the AHL coaching staff as a key part of his staff. He’s not going to dictate exactly how the Texas Stars are going to be coached, but he said it’s important that Texas Stars head coach Derek Laxdal and assistant coach Karl Taylor are using the same terminology that the NHL coaches are using.