The first domino has fallen.
Not long after wrapping up a sub-.500 record atop the Dallas Stars coaching staff this season, Lindy Ruff is headed for new horizons.
The Stars announced Sunday that Ruff, hired to lead the team in June 2013 after 15 years with the Buffalo Sabres, will not return for the 2017-18 season.
Here are a few things to know as Dallas begins its offseason search for a new coach and Ruff hits the open market:
The Stars’ coaching change is the culmination of a rapid team decline
The Stars finished 34-37-11 in the 2016-17 campaign, closing it with the franchise’s lowest standings points total (79) since Ruff came to town. The dropoff from last season, when Dallas finished with 109 points and advanced to conference semifinals in the postseason, was a stark one.
So it’s fair to assume the change at the top of the staff is an effort to spark change and immediately revert Dallas to respectable form rather than allow the dismalness of a stale season to linger far beyond 2017-18.
Ruff’s name will be a big one on the open market
Who’s to say just how much blame Ruff actually deserves for Dallas’ stinker of a 2016-17 campaign, but there is little doubting that the soon-to-be ex-Stars coach will offer quite a bit of name recognition as a free-agent coach.
This is the same guy, remember, who took the Sabres to four conference finals and a Stanley Cup Finals, racking up eight postseason appearances before tacking on two more playoff berths with the Stars. The 2006 recipient of the Jack Adams Award, he’s also, of course, a good bet for any future coach-less team’s public relations as an ex-NHL standout and a 2014 assistant for the Canadian Olympic Hockey Team.
