While the Rick Bowness era in Dallas officially came to a close two days ago, it could have ended far sooner. On the 32 Thoughts segment of Saturday night’s Sportsnet broadcast of the Avalanche-Blues game, Sportsnet’s Elliotte Friedman reported that the Dallas Stars “considered a coaching change” around the All-Star break and had “zeroed in on” former Arizona Coyotes head coach and current TNT analyst Rick Tocchet as their next bench boss. Friedman states that the two parties could not come to terms on a deal at the time, but speculates that he could be a name the team circles back to for its current vacancy.
Tocchet, 58, last coached the Arizona Coyotes in 2020-21 and has most recently been working as an analyst for Turner Sports’ NHL coverage, primarily on TNT. Tocchet also coached the Tampa Bay Lightning for two seasons from 2008-09 and 2009-10. Tocchet’s results as a head coach are mixed, with his teams making the playoffs only once, in the unique bubble situation of the 2019-20 season. But with those mixed results comes the two Stanley Cup rings Tocchet won as an assistant coach for the Pittsburgh Penguins, and there are many coaches who have difficult early tenures only to finally figure things out in a second or third job. While Tocchet never played for the Stars during his illustrious 1,144-game NHL career, it seems that he may end up there as their next head coach.
Now, for some other notes regarding the Dallas Stars:
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