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Ken Hitchcock retires from coaching; who will Dallas Stars hire next?

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Ken Hitchcock announced his retirement from coaching on Friday after 22 NHL seasons and will now take on a role as a consultant with the Dallas Stars.

Hitchcock, who led the Stars to the 1999 Stanley Cup and retires with the third-most wins all-time among NHL head coaches (823), had an original plan of hanging them up following the 2016-17 season with the St. Louis Blues. That didn’t happen as he was fired 50 games into the year, and while assisting other coaches around the league with X’s and O’s talks during his time away, a spark was reignited.

“They thought I was helping them but they were helping me,” Hitchcock said a year ago today during his introductory news conference when he returned to coach the Stars.
[NBC’s Stanley Cup Playoff Hub]

A multi-year deal was signed and Hitchcock’s plan suddenly shifted, but the move to an advisor/consultant role whenever he was done coaching was always in the cards. The Stars ended up missing the playoffs for the second straight season, a sign that a new direction was needed.

In a letter published on Friday, Hitchcock said his goodbyes, thanking the organizations he worked for and the people he worked with before acknowledging hockey fans.

“This great game does not happen without you. Every city I coached in, I was lucky to be surrounded by dedicated, knowledgeable, passionate hockey fans,” he wrote. “I enjoyed being behind the bench but I will miss walking the streets and seeing the fans the most.”

Aside from the wins and the Cup ring, Hitchcock, a slam-dunk Hall of Famer, also won a Jack Adams Award and led teams to two Presidents’ Trophies. Internationally, he coached Canada to a silver medal at the 2008 IIHF World Championships and was an associate coach for the Canadian Olympic team five times, helping them to win three gold medals (2002, 2010, 2014). He also earned gold as an assistant for Canada’s teams at the 2002 Worlds and 1982 World Junior Championship.

Now that there’s an opening, which way will general manager Jim Nill go for a new head coach?

Alain Vigneault is a free man and was in consideration for the Stars job in 2013 before taking himself out of consideration to take the New York Rangers’ offer. Dallas would go with Lindy Ruff.

• Denver University head coach Jim Montgomery came close to landing the Florida Panthers job a year ago. “I’d never say never,” he recently told Sportsnet’s Elliotte Friedman. “But it would have to be a perfect opportunity for me and my family…. Denver is a great place to live, and I work for great people.”

Dallas Eakins, Todd Nelson and Sheldon Keefe have all had varying degrees of success while coaching in the American Hockey League. Eakins and Nelson had brief NHL experiences as head coaches.

• Then you’ll have some usual names in the rumor mill when a job opens up like Dan Bylsma, Dave Tippett and Washington Capitals assistant Todd Reirden, along with any potential future firings that could happen around the NHL in the coming weeks (Bill Peters?).

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Sean Leahy is a writer for Pro Hockey Talk on NBC Sports. Drop him a line at phtblog@nbcsports.com or follow him on Twitter @Sean_Leahy.