Stars owner discusses future of head coach Rick Bowness

With the Stars having a particularly inconsistent season and being in a battle for a wild-card spot, some have wondered about the futures of head coach Rick Bowness and GM Jim Nill.  Speaking with Saad Yousuf of The Athletic (subscription link), team owner Tom Gaglardi suggested that no firm decisions have been made either way:

“I think we went into this season and we thought we had a really good team and really expect this team to be solid in the playoffs. If that happens, Rick’s probably somebody we want to continue to build around. Past that, we don’t talk about those things. Summer will come when summer comes. We’ve just decided, we’re not talking about these things right now.

“We’re not talking about anybody’s contract. Let’s focus on the now and getting everything we can out of this season. The summer will come. There will be lots of time to take stock and decide which way we go. If there are changes to be made, we’ll make them then.”

A decision will need to be made on Bowness one way or the other as he’s in the final year of his contract, while Nill is signed through the end of next season.  It appears that the way the Stars perform over the next few months will go a long way toward determining what direction they’ll go.

More from the West:

• Golden Knights defenseman Alec Martinez isn’t quite ready to return from his upper-body injury, notes Jesse Granger of The Athletic. Vegas will have to activate him from LTIR in order to get him in the lineup, which will likely in turn cause winger Max Pacioretty to be placed on there for the time being.  Granger adds that the lineup for Saturday night’s game isn’t finalized yet due to some COVID testing questions.
• The Ducks announced that defenseman Josh Manson suffered an upper-body injury in Saturday’s game against Ottawa. He suffered the injury on a hard hit from Brady Tkachuk in the first period.  Manson, a pending unrestricted free agent, has six points in 42 games heading into Saturday’s contest, but he is second on the team in hits with 111.