At 64, Halifax's Rick Bowness becomes an NHL head coach again

Halifax's Rick Bowness is an NHL head coach — again.

The 64-year-old Bowness was named interim head coach of the Dallas Stars on Tuesday after the team fired head coach Jim Montgomery for unprofessional conduct.

Bowness was in his second year as an assistant coach with the team.

"The Dallas Stars expect all of our employees to act with integrity and exhibit professional behaviour while working for and representing our organization," Stars general manager Jim Nill said in a press release.

"This decision was made due to unprofessional conduct inconsistent with the core values and beliefs of the Dallas Stars and the National Hockey League."

Bowness has spent more than 40 years in the NHL as a player and coach.

He's been a head coach for five teams — the Winnipeg Jets, Boston Bruins, Ottawa Senators, New York Islanders and Phoenix Coyotes. His last head coaching stint lasted 20 games with the Coyotes in 2003-04.

He has a career record of 123-289-51 as a head coach.

He has coached more than 2,000 games as a head coach and an assistant/associate coach in the NHL. He reached the 2,000-game plateau with the Tampa Bay Lightning in 2015.

While with Tampa, he passed Scotty Bowman for the most games coached in the NHL.

He joined the Stars after the Lightning let him go after the 2017-18 season.

Bowness played 173 NHL games with the Atlanta Flames, Detroit Red Wings, St. Louis Blues and Winnipeg. He scored 18 goals.

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