Andrew's Dallas Stars Blog

NHL Awards: Who wins the Hart?

The NHL awards get handed out tonight in Las Vegas. The list of the finalists are here.

Pavel Datsyuk, Evgeni Malkin and Alex Ovechkin are up for the Hart (MVP). Which one do you think is player “most valuable to his team.”

Steve Ott: MVP

Stars forward Steve Ott was a guest on Jason Gregor’s show on Team 1260 in Edmonton earlier today. Ott was at the airport getting ready to fly to Las Vegas. When asked if he was up for an award, Ott responded he was up for MVP - Most Valuable Pest.

Actually as the Stars’ player rep he is headed to Vegas for NHLPA meetings. Among his thoughts on the game: the officiating in the playoffs was excellent and he would like to see regular season games called the same way. And he’d like to see ice girls in every arena. Here’s the audio:

Tippett on The Ticket

Former Stars coach Dave Tippett was on The Ticket a little while ago for a chat with Norm Hitzges. You can listen here: 

Gustavsson’s visit

Jonas Gustavsson is moving along in his tour of potential NHL teams and he is expected to arrive in Dallas late today and and will continue to get a tour of the Stars’ organization and Dallas through Thursday. Stars GM Joe Nieuwendyk and Les Jackson, now Director of Scouting and Player Development, will be among the tour guides. Don’t expect a rash of media coverage. It’s supposed to be low key.

Update: Mike Heika of the Dallas Morning News has a few more details of the visit here.

Gustavsson’s already visited with the Colorado Avalanche (Denver Post article here) and the San Jose Sharks (San Jose Mercury News article here). After Dallas, it’s on to Toronto for the hard well from Leafs GM Brian Burke.

I previewed the tour the other day, and you can find that here.

Toronto appears to be the front runner in all this, but the Stars weren’t really on the radar with Fabian Brunnstrom and they ended up signing him. In other words, you never know.

If the Stars sign Gustavsson, then they are pretty well set at the goaltending position throughout the organization I think. They’ll have five goaltenders under contract - Gustavsson, Marty Turco, Matt Climie, Brent Krahn and Richard Bachman. That puts two guys in Dallas, two in Cedar Park and one in Idaho.

If they don’t, then they’ll have some more work to do to find a No. 2 guy to play behind Marty Turco. 

Hatcher on NHL Live

Former Stars captain Derian Hatcher, who announced his retirement yesterday, was on NHL Live earlier today to talk about his decision and his new job with the Philadelphia Flyers. He also talked a little about his time in Dallas, and that starts about 5:00 into the interview. You can listen here:

Stars name AHL coach

The AHL’s Texas Stars have a head coach. He’s Glenn Gulutzan, who had been head coach with Las Vegas of the ECHL. Here’s the release from the Texas Stars:

Texas Stars General Manager Scott White announced today that Glen Gulutzan has been named as the hockey club’s first head coach. White also announced that Paul Jerrard has been named as an assistant coach for the Texas Stars.

Gulutzan, 37, comes to the Stars from the Las Vegas Wranglers of the ECHL, where he spent the last six seasons as general manager and head coach. He had tremendous success at Las Vegas, compiling a record of 254-124-55 for a .650 winning percentage, including 100+ points in three consecutive seasons (2005-2008) – a first for any team in the 20-year history of the ECHL. Gulutzan took the Wranglers to the Kelly Cup Finals in 2008 and the Conference Finals in 2009.

The Wranglers qualified for the playoffs in five of Gulutzan’s six seasons at the helm, including their expansion season of 2003-04 when the team went 43-22-7 for 93 points. He was named ECHL Coach of the Year in 2005-06 and has been selected to coach in the ECHL All-Star Game three times, tying the league record for most appearances by a coach.

“Glen Gulutzan is a very talented coach who gets the most out of his teams,” said White. “He is very good at working with young players and developing talent. We are very pleased to have him as the first head coach of the Texas Stars Hockey Club.”

After playing in Europe for his first two pro seasons, Gulutzan played in Fresno of the West Coast Hockey League in 1996-97, setting a team record with 80 assists and 110 points in 60 games. He spent a total of six seasons with Fresno, including the last four as player-assistant coach from 1999-2003. A native of The Paz, Manitoba, Gulutzan also played in the International Hockey League with Utah and Las Vegas, as well as Finland and Sweden.

Jerrard, 43, has a solid history with the Dallas Stars, serving as an assistant coach for Dallas’ primary development affiliate, the Iowa Stars, from 2005-2008. He stayed with Iowa as an assistant coach last season, as the AHL team was affiliated with Anaheim and known as the Iowa Chops.

“We are very happy to add Paul Jerrard as a member of our coaching staff with the Texas Stars,” said White. “He is an excellent hockey coach and we are happy he is back in our development system with the Dallas Stars.”

The Winnipeg native boasts a decade of coaching experience, including two years as an assistant with Hershey prior to coming to Iowa. Jerrard served as the Colorado Avalanche’s assistant coach responsible for video during the 2002-03 season, and coached for four years at his alma mater, Lake Superior State University, and one season as assistant coach with Lowell. He spent 10 years as a defenseman in professional hockey, having been drafted by the New York Rangers in the ninth round (173rd overall) of the 1983 Entry Draft. He was traded to the Minnesota North Stars in October, 1988, and skated in five games for Minnesota. Jerrard played parts of six seasons with Kalamazoo (IHL) and was a member of the 1997 Calder Cup-winning Hershey Bears. He has earned his strength and conditioning certification (CSCS), and is a member of the National Strength Coaches Association (NSCA).

Judge rejects sale of Coyotes to Balsillie

Here’s the initial report from TSN:

Jim Balsillie’s attempt to bring the Phoenix Coyotes to Hamilton has been rejected by an Arizona bankruptcy judge.

Redfield T. Baum’s much anticipated ruling came down Monday night, nearly a week after a dramatic hearing in his Phoenix court.

In the 21-page document he said the court didn’t believe there was enough time to resolve all the various issues before the sale of the insolvent team to Balsillie for US$212.5 million that was due to close June 29.

That nullifies the proposed June 22 auction for the team and other related deadlines.

Report: Richards to get job with Wild

The Minneapolis Star Tribune is reporting this afternoon that San Jose Sharks assistant Todd Richards will be the next head coach of the Minnesota Wild. Former Stars coach Dave Tippett was thought to be a candidate for the job.

The report on Richards is here. 

Crawford: Barnes, Moog staying

Stars coach Marc Crawford was on The Fan 590 this afternoon and indicated that assistant coach Stu Barnes and goaltending consultant Andy Moog are both staying.

“There a lot of good people in the front office and a lot of good coaches that are going to stay. People like Stu Barnes and Andy Moog, and possibly some of the other people,” Crawford said during the interview.

You can listen to the interview here. It starts off with some talk about the NBA Finals and Crawford breaking down some of the action.

Quote of the day

My favorite quote from today’s Stanley Cup celebration in Pittsburgh comes from Penguins goalie Marc-Andre Fleury, who told the Pittsburgh faithful:

“I know I let in some soft ones and you guys still cheer for me, so thank you,”

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