What I learned during draft weekend about the Stars coaching search, the Red Wings goalie tandem, and other things

A quick hitter on things I gathered, remotely, from my living room.

Normally the NHL Draft is one of the most important networking events of the year, especially for people in my position.

The NHL descends upon a city, everyone from agents to coaches and management intermingle, and you start to learn quite a bit about how the next NHL season might shape up.

That’s truthfully one of the reasons that so many media members, like myself, were frustrated with the decentralized draft. We lost our chance to run into our sources in person, to write-off networking beers as “work expenses,” and to feel like we were actually in the room where it happened.

Yes, I want an in-person draft for selfish reasons, I’m willing to admit that. My job is easier if I’m able to be there and connecting face-to-face.

That being said, here is what I was able to scrounge up this weekend on various fronts about the draft, some moves featuring the Dallas Stars coaching search.

On the Stars coaching search

Let’s start with the Stars coaching search, which seems at this point to be a decision between Neil Graham and Glen Gulutzan.

I’ve been able to confirm that both have interviewed for the job, I also know that Gulutzan has done his interview in-person in Dallas.

Gulutzan makes the most sense to me, but I’ve spoken to some people around the Stars organization who have indicated that there’s a real strong internal push for Graham to get the job.

Graham, résumé wise, doesn’t clear the bar for me. He’s been a good AHL coach and loyal to the Stars, but he also hasn’t won anything at either the AHL or ECHL level.

Graham is the type of coach you hire during a rebuild, someone you give the time to grow into an NHL role, not someone you hire when you believe you are in a Stanley Cup window.

So if the Stars hire Graham, it’ll be a major vote of confidence from Jim Nill, who has told me before that “no one knew Jon Cooper would be Jon Cooper when he was hired.”

I’m personally not comparing Graham to Cooper, I don’t think that’s fair, but the point here is that sometimes a person can take an opportunity and run with it when given the chance.

Either way it seems like the Stars are taking their time to get the hire right in their minds. It could happen soon, it might not. But the Stars aren’t really going to be big-game fishing on July 1 either way and who is coaching the team isn’t going to sway the decision of fringe free agents.

Other Dallas housekeeping notes

Jim Nill said he didn’t have many concerns about a potential offer sheet for Mavrik Bourque, even before the Stars signed Bourque to a one-year extension last week.

The Stars have also interviewed Alain Nasreddine for the head coaching job.

Nill said he didn’t fired Steve Spott, but he did kind of lay it out that he wasn’t going to have a home in Dallas.

Nill didn’t mind the logistics of the decentralized draft, but as an old scout he prefers in person.

On the Red Wings new goalie tandem

The Red Wings made their goalie move, acquiring John Gibson from the Anaheim Ducks in a draft-day trade.

Gibson will form a veteran tandem with Calm Talbot, with Gibson as more of the set No. 1 goalie after the deal.

It was always unlikely that Sebastian Cossa would be an NHL option this season, but this likely locks in another full AHL season for Cossa, who at 22 has now played 84 games with the Grand Rapids Griffins.

The Cossa case is an interesting one and I spoke with a goalie coach from a different NHL team, who noted that Cossa is reaching a weird spot in his development where NHL games would probably be better for his development than only AHL reps.

The case, they made, was that Cossa is technically close to being an NHL goalie. The consistency isn’t there yet, which is important, but there’s something about being “forced to swim in the deep end,” that tells you whether a goalie is going to make it or not.

After the draft Steve Yzerman said he would still talk to Alex Lyon, but his body language told a different story about potentially bringing back the journeyman as a third goalie.

Yzerman did speak at length about Michal Postava, who was signed recently out of Czechia, and how he could be part of the tandem that pushes Cossa in Grand Rapids.

On the goalie front, Yzerman confirmed that Head of Goaltending Scouting and Development Phil Osaer was leaving the organization to go into the business world after helping with this draft. It means the Red Wings goalie department will have lost both it’s head of development and it’s goalie coach, Alex Westlund, who was fired after the season.

On that front, I wrote about Westlund’s departure last week.

What do NHL teams actually need from their goalie coach?

Other Detroit housekeeping notes

Yzerman said at this point he doesn’t expect to use any buyouts.

He also said the Red Wings will have to higher a new amateur scout to cover the USHL after Kevin Gibson was hired away to be the GM in Waterloo.

I asked about 2022 draft pick Dmitri Buchelnikov, who Yzerman said he hopes is one year away from coming over to North America.

The Red Wings also lose the rights to former Michigan State captain Red Savage if they don’t sign him before August 15. Yzerman kind of deferred that decision publicly to assistant GM Shawn Horcoff.