Firing Hitchcock is premature for a Dallas Stars team that is a mess

As the best postseason in sports is here, the Dallas Stars once again are cleaning out their lockers rather than play in the Stanley Cup playoffs.

As of Wednesday morning, a few hours after the Dallas Mavericks' season, the American Airlines Center will be void of sports 'til the fall. Buuuuut ... Justin Timberlake is coming to the AAC, as well as Shania Twain and Hall & Oates, too.

Listening to Shania crush, "Man! I Feel Like a Woman!" is timeless, but it doesn't beat playoff hockey.

Both primary tenants of the AAC are a mess and with the Mavs' season ending on Tuesday night, let's focus on the cow pile on ice that are the Dallas Stars where firing the head coach is a possibility.

While the hiring of coach Ken Hitchcock did not result in the success the owner and the team is desperate for to dump him right now from the Stars is premature.

Nonetheless, pushing Hitch into a consultant position one year after he was hired to coach the team is very much on the table.

Virtually every decision is on the table, according to team sources. If every decision is on the table, then the performances of general manager Jim Nill, and senior advisor Les Jackson, should be reviewed.

The GM is getting a pass when the coach deserves one more year. Hitch' was never more than a two- to three-year coach. The way his contract is structured is essentially a one-year rollover that allows the team to keep him as a consultant when his time as coach is done.

He will be 67 in December, and will forever be one of the most celebrated and decorated members of this franchise who will eventually go to the Hockey Hall of Fame.

Hitch deserves a better finale to his brilliant career, but he knows the game. This may be it.

Meanwhile, the man who officially hired him should be worried, too.

In April of 2013, the Stars hired long-time Detroit Red Wings GM Jim Nill to replace Joe Nieuwendyk as the team's general manager.

Having worked for 15 years in Detroit, Nill was considered to be a Ken Holland starter kit. Holland was the GM of the Detroit Red Wings teams that were consistently one of the best in the league; Nill was his top assistant when the Red Wings won four Stanley Cups.

For years other teams tried to hire Nill, but he didn't leave until a former Red Wings' colleague, Stars team president Jim Lites, convinced him to come to Texas.

The results have been un-Holland; the Stars have now missed the playoffs in three of Nill's five years and resemble nothing like Holland's best Detroit teams.

The Stars are a collection of some bold moves, top-tier talent, no depth, and near constant frustration and disappointment.

One of Nill's first moves was to acquire Tyler Seguin from Boston, and since coming to the Stars the former top pick has become one of the top players in the league.

Other Nill moves, most notably the off-season, expensive, additions of defenseman Sergei Gonchar, goalie Antti Niemi and forward Jason Spezza, have bloated the payroll without bloating the final result.

The bold selection of Russian teen forward Valeri Nichushkin in the '13 NHL entry draft was a very Detroit-like move, without the results. Before that draft, Nichushkin made it known to interested NHL teams he would not play in the minors.

Regarded as a top-three talent, Nill gambled and selected Nichushkin when he fell to the 10th spot. Although Nichushkin showed considerable raw talent in his three years with the Stars, he needed time in the minors.

Meanwhile, two players picked just after Nichushkin - Max Domi of Phoenix and Alexander Wennberg of Columbus - have developed into solid NHL forwards.

Nichushkin spent the past two years in Russia playing in the KHL, and the Stars are hoping he comes back to them for 2018-'19. Drafting Nichushkin was bold, and it has not worked.

This is to say nothing of the lack of results from the Stars' own player development department, which for years was under Jackson.

Jackson is a good hockey man and a dedicated pro, but the results have been a miss.

Firing head coach Lindy Ruff last season and replacing him with a franchise-favorite like Hitch was, incorrectly, thought to be the ideal move at the ideal time. The roster simply was never set up for Hitch.

A season with hope of bringing back the good ol' days of Hitch when the team was contending for the Stanley Cup instead just resulted in another year where they missed the playoffs.

As a result, everything is on the table including dumping the coach when it's apparent the issue is deeper than a Hitch.

This story was originally published April 9, 2018 at 7:28 PM with the headline "Firing Hitchcock is premature for a Dallas Stars team that is a mess."