Admirals coach Stirling reassigned to college-scouting job

The Tampa Bay Lightning have cleaned house behind the bench of the Norfolk Admirals, re assigning head coach Steve Stirling to a full-time college scouting position and declining to pick up the option on assistant Darren Rumble.

Lightning general manager Jay Feaster said the search for a new head coach will be deferred until the completion of the pending sale of the Lightning to film and television producer Oren Koules. Media reports suggest Koules could have control of the franchise by early June.

Under Stirling and Rumble, the often-undermanned Admirals (29-44-2-5, 65 points) finished last in the seven-team AHL East Division and failed to make the playoffs for the first time in franchise history.

Still, Feaster indicated the move had more to do with addressing an organizational weakness in assessing potential prospects.

"For the past 15 years... we have never had a full-time scout to properly mine the talent at the college level," Feaster said. "Given Steve's extensive background and connections at the collegiate level, combined with his coaching history in the AHL and NHL, we are confident he is the right person for the job and we appreciate his willingness to switch gears and assist the organization in this critical endeavor."

Stirling said he agreed with the move.

"If you had asked me five years ago what I'd be doing by now, I would have told you scouting," he said. "I've done it before, and I liked it. I sensed my career path was headed in this direction. So this timing is good for me and good for the organization."

Stirling was a two-time winner of the Division II/III NCAA Coach of the Year award during a 15-season collegiate coaching career. He was named Minor League Pro Coach of the Year by The Hockey News during an eight-year stint in the New York Islanders organization.

But upon joining the Lightning organization, Stirling inherited an AHL team that had won just 52 of 160 games in two years under Tampa Bay's control. In two seasons with Stirling in charge, the Lightning's AHL franchise won 57 of 160 games.

"Everybody likes to win. I like to win. And clearly we didn't win as many games as we'd like," Stirling said. "But I was glad to see it didn't go unnoticed that some of the young guys - a (Blair) Jones, a (Matt) Smaby, a (Vladimir) Mihalik - got a lot of ice time and made some real progress."

Stirling said he has no hard feelings about being re assigned and is excited about devoting his full energy to scouting.

"Of course I'm going to miss coaching," he said. "But this is the time and the place for me to take that next step."

Paul White, (757) 418-1447, paul.white@pilotonline.com