Where they are now: Richard Matvichuk

When we first approach longtime NHL defenseman and Dallas institution Craig Ludwig about his old teammate Richard Matvichuk, Ludwig responds right away.
"Oh, you mean my (blanking) step-kid?" Ludwig jokes.

"He was like my kid from the moment he got here."
And there is more than a little paternal pride when Ludwig, who played alongside Matvichuk in Dallas and then helped Matvichuk as he transitioned to the coaching ranks a few years ago, talks about the now 44-year-old native of Edmonton and the path he has chosen.
Ludwig recalls the kind of exuberance Matvichuk showed as a player -- exuberance that sometimes led the hard-nosed defenseman to bite off more than he could chew. Like the night he complained about another hard-as-nails player, Rob DiMaio, while sitting on the Stars bench. Ludwig warned him that DiMaio was no slouch and that he was a lefty, which made him more unpredictable in a fight.
A little while later, after DiMaio had cleaned his clock, Matvichuk returned to the bench and acknowledged that, perhaps, Ludwig was right.
It's an anecdote that speaks to the process of living and learning.
Matvichuk, who finished his NHL career with 796 games and a Stanley Cup ring, courtesy of the 1999 run to the championship in Dallas, is now well onto Phase Two of his post-playing career in his second season as head coach of the Western Hockey League's Prince George Cougars.
When we catch up with Matvichuk, the father of three boys is transitioning from helping his 10-and 13-year-olds with their All-Star baseball summers, to getting the Cougars coaching staff, which includes former teammate Shawn Chambers, up to speed for the coming season.
Beset by back injuries, Matvichuk's final season, 2007-08, was spent in the American Hockey League. He took a break from the game, heading to British Columbia where he settled in the resort village of Big White southeast of Kelowna. For four years, he was a firefighter for the area that boasts some of the best skiing in Canada.
"I really loved doing that," he said.
But as time passed, he longed to return to the game that had seen him selected No. 8 overall in 1991 by the Minnesota North Stars -- two years before they would pull up stakes and move to Dallas.
"Hockey was all I knew," he said.
Back in the Dallas area, he began helping Ludwig with some of the top youth teams in the Dallas area. Ludwig recalls Matvichuk, who had no formal ties to the team in the beginning, laying into some of the kids during one of his first appearances on the ice.
"I just let him go," Ludwig recalled with a laugh.
When an opportunity for a group of former Stars players, including Ludwig, Mike Modano, Ed Belfour and others, to become involved with the ownership and operation of the Central Hockey League's Allen Americans, Matvichuk got his first taste of minor pro coaching acting as an assistant.
Ludwig, in management with the team, would often show up early at the rink to go over tape and prepare for the day. Most mornings, he'd find Matvichuk already at work.
The Americans won back-to-back championships with Matvichuk a part of the coaching staff and that led to his first head-coaching gig with the ECHL's Missouri Mavericks.

In his second year, Matvichuk's squad went 52-15-5, although they were bumped in the second round of the playoffs.
Last year marked Matvichuk's first as a WHL head coach.
It goes without saying that the mentality of the players at that level, and the coaches who must guide them, is different than when Matvichuk left home at age 15 to play in Saskatoon.
Now, players are so visual they don't want to be told they want to see. They're adroit at multi-tasking, and they don't all respond to a swift kick in the pants -- which was pretty much the go-to moves for coaches when Matvichuk was learning the game.
"They are listening (even if they don't look like it sometimes) and they are getting it," Matvichuk said. "That's the scary thing.
You have to be pretty much everything as a coach at this stage, Matvichuk said: Friend, mentor, motivator.
Lucky for Matvichuk, he has a pretty good mental rolodex of coaches that helped and guided him along the way on which to draw.
From Bob Gainey to Ken Hitchcock to Dave Tippett to Claude Julien and Larry Robinson, there's several lifetimes worth of coaching experience that Matvichuk's NHL coaches provided.
"I was actually very spoiled," Matvichuk said.
He recalls playing for Hitchcock and Rick Wilson, who handled the defensive duties (and does so again this season in his return to the Stars' coaching staff) -- and perhaps the most profound lesson he learned from them was to make sure he knows his players.
"They taught me I have to be involved with every player, individually," Matvichuk said. "They have to trust me just as much as I trust them."
Matvichuk makes no bones that, at some point, he'd love to get back to the NHL. But just as he's trying to impart the importance of patience and the process of becoming a better hockey player to his teenage charges, Matvichuk also understands the importance of his own learning curve.
Whether that means a trip to the AHL at some point, or if there's an assistant job that opens up at the NHL level, there are still steps to be taken and dues to be paid.
"I think he gets it," Ludwig said. "There's no question he's dedicated and committed."
"I just think he's doing the right things right now."
For now, Matvichuk will set curfews and talk with his players about girlfriend problems and try and figure out the best way to make use of the bus trips -- the shortest of which is the six-hour, round-trip drive to Kamloops, while the longest is a marathon 18-hour, round-trip to Portland.
"Hockey is kind of the easy part of it," he said with a laugh.
"For me, it's about putting the time in to get back to where I want to be."
This story was not subject to approval of the National Hockey League or Dallas Stars Hockey Club. You can follow Scott on Twitter at @OvertimeScottB, and listen to his Burnside Chats podcast here.