Dallas Stars to hire Mike Valley as goaltender consultant

Mike Heika is reporting that the Dallas Stars will hire Mike Valley as the team's goaltender consultant. This means that Andy Moog will get an expanded role on the Stars' coaching staff.

When the Stars engaged in a search to fill their bench positions, it was unclear who would fill the final vacant spot after Charlie Huddy was hired to coach the defensemen. Typically a team has two bench coaches and two coaches as the "eye in the sky", and with both Mark Lamb and Rick Wilson departed there was speculation that the Stars would maintain just three assistant coaches.

Now with the hiring of Valley, the Stars have a full complement of coaches and several with solid defensive backgrounds to help balance out Marc Crawford's offensive style. Huddy will work to continue the development of the Stars young defensemen and Stu Barnes will have an expanded role this season working with the forwards and should see time helping out with the special teams as well.

With Valley being hired to become the full-time goaltender consultant for the Stars (if that is indeed his intended role), then Andy Moog moves up to become a full-time assistant coach. Heika suggests that Moog could see time on the Stars' bench during games, as well as spending time as the coach up in the box. His experience will also be valuable with the power play and penalty kill, and the continuity the Stars maintain with several of their coaches will help ease the transition to the new system Crawford will be implementing.

Follow the jump for more info on new coach Mike Valley.

As a player, Valley spent time bouncing between the ECHL and the AHL after playing at the University of Wisconsin in 1996 and 1997. His best season as a pro came in 2003-04 when he played 37 games for the Peoria Rivermen, posting a 2.28 GAA, a .915 save percentage and 20 wins.

He's listed as having over 15 years of goaltender coaching experience, and recently spent time as the Milwaukee Admirals (AHL) goalie coach, as well as the goaltender coach for the Wisconsin Badgers.

What led him to be hiring as the Stars coach most likely has a lot to do with his relationship with Marty Turco. The two played against each other in college, and Valley has helped Turco during the offseason in the past. He has also been working with Turco this past summer, and supposedly he lobbied pretty soundly for the Stars to hire Valley full time.

The excellent website The Goalie Guild had a great article last week about Turco and his quest for a turnaround this season, and even mentioned a certain coach Turco was working with. It's a great read that has some good analysis on what Turco needs to do to get back to his old form.

This should be a good situation with the Stars, as they now have a coach whom Turco is more than willing to work with and listen to. It came out after this past season that Turco and Andy Moog didn't see eye to eye at times last year and it caused some consternation between player and coach. This hiring allows Moog to move into a more expanded role with the Stars and gives Turco a coach he likes.

Good move all around.