Jim Nill, fresh off his three-peat of the NHL’s General Manager of the Year Award, spoke with media at the Dallas Stars practice center in Frisco on Friday night.
In a brief meeting with Stars reporters, Nill not only discussed his third straight GM of the Year win, but also the team’s ongoing coaching search after the dismissal of Pete DeBoer earlier this month.
Related:Stars’ Jim Nill named NHL’s General Manager of the Year for third straight season
The Stars are “still in the process” of finding a coach, according to Nill, who says that the team is still interviewing candidates for the position. While frontrunners have seemingly emerged in Glen Gulutzan and Neil Graham, Nill says he’s working without a deadline.
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“We’re getting it narrowed down,” Nill told reporters. “I’m not gonna put a timeframe on it. We’ve got July 1 coming, there’s a lot of work to be done. Whoever’s gonna be the coach is going to have to hire some staff, as we’ve seen we’ve had some people leave for different reasons. So, lots of work to be done. As soon as we can, but I’m not gonna rush it.”
July 1 would be the opening of free agency, but it’s unlikely the Stars will be hunting any high-dollar players once the free agency window opens. That’s according to both Nill and to math, as the Stars are working under a very limited amount of cap space after already locking in deals with Matt Duchene and Jamie Benn this offseason.
“July 1st, you gotta be careful, it can be a dangerous time,” Nill said. “It’s not one of those years where we’re gonna be chasing a lot of big names, we’ve made a lot of our decisions during the last year. Adding Mikko Rantanen, signing Wyatt Johnson, Jake Oettinger, Esa Lindell. A lot of those decisions were taken care of during the year.”
Nill is also juggling the Stars’ selections in the NHL draft, of which the team had no picks in the first two rounds. Their first pick will be at No. 94 in Saturday’s third round.
It’s a lot on the plate of Nill, whose campaign for a fourth straight GM of the Year Award looks to already be underway.
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