Once again fans, in this edition of GMM, we're taking a look at the story of the Dallas Stars away from the ice in 2013-14. We discussed owner Tom Gaglardi and team president Jim Lites in our last post, so now we'll critique the men that Gaglardi hired to lead the charge toward becoming a contender on the ice. To do that, we'll have to start at the end of the lockout-shortened 2013 season, when the rebuild, which had been in the works for years, really began. It was then that owner Tom Gaglardi made a move that changed the perception of this organization throughout the hockey world.
General Manager Jim Nill A+ The new era of Dallas Stars hockey was ushered in full-time on April 25, 2013. That day, Tom Gaglardi fired general manager Joe Nieuwendyk to make way for Jim Nill, the former assistant GM and head of scouting for the Detroit Red Wings. Nill, a master scout, had been instrumental in drafting and developing players like Pavel Datsyuk and Henrik Zetterberg and building a perennial power in the Red Wings. I was actually at a game between the Stars and the Blue Jackets when I received word that Nieuwendyk had been fired. I recall thinking to myself that this new guy must be pretty good because, all things considered, I was fairly satisfied with GM Joe's performance that year. Now, the change at the top was not the result of any ineptitude on the part of Nieuwendyk (the Neal trade notwithstanding), but rather Gaglardi seizing the opportunity to land one of hockey's most coveted figures in upper management. Regardless, the owner could not have made a better choice.
Nill made a number of headline grabbing moves in his first few months on the job, with his first being the hiring of new head coach Lindy Ruff. The Stars had both a number of veteran coaches and a number of up-and-coming bench bosses to choose from. Alain Vigineault, John Tortorella, and Ruff headlined the veterans; while Toronto's Dallas Eakins and the Texas Stars' Willie Desjardins were prime amongst the AHL coaches looking to move up. Initially, the decision to go with Ruff drew some criticism, but this season proved that Nill made the absolute right choice (more on Ruff later). With the new bench boss in place, Nill and Company headed to New Jersey, where they did a masterful job in one of the deepest NHL drafts in years. Simply put, if you would have told me that we would land Valeri Nichushkin with the tenth overall pick, I would have called you out of your mind. And not only did they land the big Russian; they snapped up two players who look like absolute studs in Jason Dickinson and Philippe Desrosiers, as well as a handful of dark horses in Remi Elie, Niklas Hansson, and Cole Ully. I never would have thought that we could improve our prospect pool so much with just one draft. And the best part: Jim Nill was just getting started.
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Never in a million years did I think we'd get our hands on this guy.
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When people discuss the 2013 offseason for the Dallas Stars, they will surely spend the most time talking about the blockbuster trade with the Boston Bruins that brought Tyler Seguin to Big D. Somehow, Jim Nill was able to land the budding superstar Seguin as well as veteran Rich Peverley without gutting the Stars' farm system. True, Loui Eriksson is a bonafide top-six player and Reilly Smith has turned out to be a very good NHL player, but to get something, you have to give up something. And despite getting someone to build a top line around, the Stars did not give up that much. It truly is remarkable, for the Stars went from a team not having anything resembling a top line to having one of the top lines in the sport. GM Jim deserves all the credit for it. The only real dud of a move that Nill made was the signing of Sergei Gonchar to two years of an albatross contract ($5 million/year). A poor decision, yes, but one that Dallas fans can stomach reasonably well, for we can afford him even if we don't want him. Besides, with all the home runs Nill hit last offseason, I think we can tolerate him grounding out every once in a while.
Over the past few years, Jim Nill had his choice of several clubs that wanted to hire him as their GM, most notable being the Montreal Canadiens. Thus, him coming on board here in Dallas tells us that he sees something special in this club. There is immense potential to create a perennial winner, and there is no one better prepared to tap that potential than Jim Nill.
Head Coach Lindy Ruff A Jim Nill had his choice of several coaches to hire in Big D last summer and, based on the choice he made, we can safely guess the criteria on which he made his decision. First off, we were looking for a coach who had experience at the NHL level and was known for his ability to develop prospects into NHLers. Second, he needed to have shown adaptability in his previous position, that is, he proved that he could have success no matter the type of players he was given. Lastly, he needed to want to come to a team like Dallas, which would require both patience and an eagerness to build a winner from the ground up. These are the things that Nill found in Lindy Ruff, the longtime bench boss of the Buffalo Sabres and the 12th-winningest head coach in NHL history. The question was, while Ruff had found success with various groups of players in Buffalo, would he be able to install a system that properly utilized the Stars' abundance of speed while also protecting the puck to limit chances against. Some also questioned his noted strategy of rolling four lines consistently at even strength. This means that, at times, he allows all the lines to play their shifts instead of focusing on the matchups that the opposition is putting out and sending in the lines he views as appropriate. While this strategy keeps players more rested later in games, it can also lead to missed opportunities and mismatches in favor of the opposition. Regardless, Stars fans knew that Ruff had to be an upgrade over Glen Gulutzan, who was simply in over his head during his two seasons at the helm in Dallas.
We would eventually find out that "upgrade" was a massive understatement in terms of describing what Lindy Ruff meant to this team in 2013-2014, but it didn't exactly start off that way. Ruff's insistence on placing Alex Goligoski and Sergei Gonchar together on a defensive pairing was a colossal failure. Fortunately, the experienced Ruff admitted this and juggled the pairings consistently until he found the right fit. Overall, despite having a defense that had not been significantly upgraded since 2013, the Stars were not a liability in their own zone. They got consistently better as the season went along, giving up fewer shots on a consistent basis and ensuring that the team had a chance to win each game. This tells me that Ruff and his defense-oriented assistant coach, James Patrick, had a system in place that was designed to both find a winning combination and help the blue liners grow both as individuals and as a unit. That said, while Ruff was flexible with his lines and pairings, he was not one to jump ship on a certain unit after a bad game. His system fostered a sense of accountability around the Stars, that is, everyone had a role to play and no one could carry this team alone. The slogan was "Everybody Ropes, Everybody Rides" and it could not have been more true.
In all, I think that nothing stands out about Coach Ruff's performance more so than the development of key individuals on the back end. I mentioned in a recent post that I was extremely pleased with the pairing of Alex Goligoski and Trevor Daley, which this team leaned on extensively down the stretch. Both played some of the best hockey we've ever seen them play and I think that we should be very excited to see what this coaching staff can do with some of the prospects that are poised to come up. If Patrik Nemeth, Jamie Oleksiak, and John Klingberg end up developing as quickly and as completely as Jordie Benn did this past year, look out. The Stars blue line could become a top tier unit in a very short span of time (more on this in an upcoming post).
A FEW NOTES:
-The Stars released their full 2014-2015 schedule on Sunday afternoon. Let me know in the comments section which games you are looking forward to the most.
-The 2014 NHL Draft will commence on Friday night in Philadelphia, with the first round broadcast on NBC Sports Network. In the days leading up to it, I will do my best to get you a draft preview as well as a rundown of the Stars' most pressing needs on the ice for the upcoming season.
Christian Bussler
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