serious question: do you watch hockey outside of the Stars? Glen Gulutzan has been a head coach before and has been an assistant coach running the PP with the Oilers for the last almost decade. I think he's going to be quite good, personally. I was sure they were going to bring Neil Graham all the way up, but making him an assistant right now makes sense.
as far as the roster, I think there is a reason we are considered one of the contenders again this season. for reference, here is our opening night roster last season (and who is not on the roster this season)
Forwards (12)
Oskar Bäck, Jamie Benn, Colin Blackwell, Mavrik Bourque, Evgenii Dadonov, Matt Duchene, Roope Hintz, Wyatt Johnston, Mason Marchment, Jason Robertson, Tyler Seguin, Logan Stankoven, Sam Steel
Defensemen (7)
Mathew Dumba, Thomas Harley, Miro Heiskanen, Esa Lindell, Nils Lundkvist, Ilya Lyubushkin, Brendan Smith
Goaltenders (2)
Casey DeSmith, Jake Oettinger
Additions: Nathan Bastian, Lian Bichsel, Radek Faksa, Vladislav Kolyachonok, Mikko Rantanen
Obviously Rantanen, Bichsel, and Faksa are known commodities at this point and Rantanen (Stankoven) and Bichsel (Dumba) are massive upgrades over the players they replaced. Faksa and Bastian are both depth players and aren't expected to score a ton, which makes Marchment really the only uneven loss that I see (Dadonov disappeared most games so I don't think he'll be all that missed). But I assume the brass expect the rest of the roster to pick up his 47 points - and leave his PIMs at the door. Rantanen can make up those points on his own. I think the fact that Nill didn't make more moves shows how nearly solidified this roster is. The real question mark for me is Lundkvist - the previous coaches didn't trust him for some reason. If he can be 75% of the first round prospect he is supposed to be, he'll be a massive upgrade both in his puck pursuit but in scoring as well. We need more goals from the blueline this season.