Citing ‘unprofessional conduct,’ Dallas Stars fire coach Jim Montgomery
The Dallas Stars have been one of the best teams in the NHL for the past month but fired their head coach on Tuesday morning.
The club announced that coach Jim Montgomery has been immediately dismissed.
The club released a statement from general manager Jim Nill: “The Dallas Stars expect all of our employees to act with integrity and exhibit professional behavior while working for and representing our organization. This decision was made due to unprofessional conduct inconsistent with the core values and beliefs of the Dallas Stars and the National Hockey League.”
Translation: the head coach really screwed up, and we had no choice.
Sources said the head coach displayed a repeated pattern of unprofessional behavior. That covers a wide array of potential sins, but for the Stars to fire this coach at this moment means it’s no small act.
Nill told reporters during a press conference Tuesday that the team was made aware of “a material act of unprofessionalism” on Sunday.
Club officials convened with lawyers, and the team decided to fire Montgomery. This likely means the team fired Montgomery with cause, and they will not have to pay him the remainder of his contract.
“(Montgomery) was very disappointed,” Nill said at the press conference.
As to what specifically Montgomery did, the club is not saying.
Montgomery was replaced by assistant Rick Bowness, who has been with the team since June 2018. Bowness will be the head coach for the remainder of the season, according to Nill, on an interim basis.
Bowness has been an NHL head coach for Winnipeg, Boston, Ottawa, the New York Islanders and Phoenix Coyotes. He typically took over bad rosters in his previous head coaching jobs. He has a career record of 123-189-48; he’s had a winning record, and made the playoffs once: In 1992 with the Bruins.
The Stars will be the best team he has ever coached.
The Stars opened the season at 1-7-1. They have since then been one of the best teams in the NHL. They are 17-11-3.
There has been no hint of a problem with this team.
Nill said “there is the right thing to do” and that “it had to be done.”
NHL commissioner Gary Bettman announced on Monday that the league has a new policy regarding racism and bullying. He also told reporters on Monday after an NHL Board of Governors meeting that he wants to create a “hotline” for people to report such incidents.
This all comes after Calgary Flames coach Bill Peters resigned last month when a former player alleged the coach used a racial slur against him in the minor leagues more than 10 years ago. Peters was also accused of physical abuse when he coached in Carolina.
The Chicago Blackhawks suspended assistant coach Marc Crawford, who was the head coach of the Dallas Stars from 2009-11, after two former players alleged physical abuse.
Nill said the decision to fire Montgomery is not related to anything regarding the new initiatives by the league or Bettman.
The Dallas Stars’ hiring of Montgomery last year was considered a bold move considering his background as a head coach was in college rather than the NHL. He had been a successful college coach at the University of Denver.
The move worked. The team reached Game 7 of the 2019 Western Conference semifinals in his first year.
In a little more than one year, Montgomery was 60-43-10 as the head coach of the Stars.
In additional moves, the club promoted Texas Stars head coach Derek Laxdal to the role of assistant coach on the Dallas Stars. Neil Graham was named the head coach of the Texas Stars.
This story was originally published December 10, 2019 at 9:58 AM.
