Dallas Stars face their most difficult decision of the offseason

Since the 2008-09 season, the Dallas Stars have reached the postseason five times. That’s five playoff appearances in the last thirteen years. More recently, the franchise has achieved a postseason berth in three of the last four campaigns. In two of those runs, they lost to the eventual Stanley Cup champions.

Also in that thirteen-year run, the Stars have managed to rifle through a litany of head coaches–seven to be exact. Furthermore, they’ve now had four bench bosses in the last six seasons. To be fair, the organization’s track record has been pretty poor when it comes to long term stability behind their bench.

Inconsistency in the Dallas Stars’ franchise has stunted the growth of the team.

The bottom line, of course, is winning. To that end, the Stars haven’t done enough of that for well over the past decade. But if you look at the more recent sample size, their returns have been pretty gratifying, specifically under the tutelage of former head coach Rick Bowness.

Now, I know there’s an irritatingly vocal section of the fan base that loathes the man with most every ounce of their being, but his overall results speak for themselves. Heck, under Bowness, the Stars somehow managed to come within two wins of the Stanley Cup in the 2020 Edmonton bubble. Of all the squads I’ve seen over the years, I’ve never been prouder of a particular bunch.

The shortened 2020-21 season didn’t help matters when the Stars missed the postseason, but they managed to bounce back this year, make the tournament, and then take the whiny, second seed Calgary Flames to seven games before bowing out in overtime.

Also, if we’re piddling about the head coach, it must be noted that the Stars’ 98-point mark this season was the second highest point total in the thirteen-year span I detailed earlier. For a head coach that a lot of folks claimed had no idea what he was doing, he sure seemed to get a lot out of a roster that is currently a hodgepodge of mismatched parts.

Make no mistake, this is what the new guy is going to inherit, at least for the time being. Who knows when the kids in the farm system will be ready to go? Moreover, who knows if the success they’re having in the minors will translate to the NHL? Signs point to ‘yes’, but we’ll never know until they’re firmly ensconced with the big club and given an opportunity to shine.

Then there are the proverbial twin elephants in the room, and those are the contracts of Jamie Benn and Tyler Seguin. Both players make top NHL dollar, but their point production fell off some time ago. Unfortunately, those two contracts are immovable no matter which way you slice it. So the next head coach is going to have to navigate those waters while trying to keep up the recent trend of playoff appearances.

In other words, the Dallas Stars simply have to guess right this time around when it comes to their new guy. There can’t be any feeling out period, no slow start, no clawing back into playoff contention after tanking away the first half of the year. And he must do this all in the NHL’s Western Conference where 98 points was only good for the seventh seed.

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It’s a tall order, for sure. We’re counting on a front office that’s had relatively little success to make the correct coaching decision for this particular roster. If they somehow pull it off, then (most) all is forgiven. If they cannot, then we’ll all be having the same discussion in another two or three years.