from Mike Johnston of Sportsnet,

For a handful of bench bosses, though, it could also be a time to fret over job security. With that in mind, here are five coaches on the hot seat heading into the 2015-16 campaign.

Lindy Ruff, Dallas Stars

The Stars averaged a whopping 3.13 goals per game – the Tampa Bay Lightning led the NHL and only scored one more goal than the Stars – yet they missed the playoffs and that doesn’t reflect well on the coach.

With GM Jim Nill making several significant moves like trading for Patrick Sharp, fortifying the goaltending by adding Antti Niemi and replacing Trevor Daley with veteran Johnny Oduya – not to mention the team will have a healthy Valeri Nichushkin – the pressure is on Ruff and his players to get off to a hot start....

Ken Hitchcock, St. Louis Blues

The Blues have been one of the best regular season teams for the past four years yet they’ve had virtually no playoff success. As they found out last year, having the best record in the Western Conference means nothing if you get bounced in the first round. Hitchcock has great regular season numbers – a 708-429-88-97 record is nothing to dismiss – but he hasn’t been able to get his teams over the hump in the post-season since the 2004-05 lockout.

One challenge for Hitchcock will be to figure out how to use captain David Backes....

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