Terry Murray talks here about his new coaches, assistants Mark Hardy, Jamie Kompon and Nelson Emerson and goaltending coach Bill Ranford, why he picked them and how they might work together…

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Question: You have your coaching staff together now? What was the theory behind putting that particular staff together, and how do you think those guys will complement each other?

MURRAY: Well, starting with Billy (Ranford), the goaltender coach, he’s a hell of a goaltender with a lot of experience in the game. I’m real happy with what I’m hearing whenever I talk to him. With Nelly (Nelson Emerson), with him doing his thing on the video side of things and the development side of things. It’s tremendous. He has great experience and ability in the game. Jamie (Kompon), when I met him and got the opportunity to sit down and talk to him, the passion that he shows and the work ethic he shows just came jumping out at you. He just talks the right way, and I know he has the experience because he has been around the game. He has experience in other organizations and he has been around the game and he brings that love and that passion to the rink every day. That was really important. He’s at that time, I thought, and after talking with Dean and Hexy, he’s at the time that he deserves an opportunity to be pushed up to an assistant coach.

With Mark (Hardy), I really thought that was a no-brainer. The conversation was upstairs, and we were talking about a lot of different people. Obviously there was a list of names that were out there, but when Mark’s name was brought up, that really was a no-brainer to me, to at least try to make contact and talk and see if there was some interest on his side of it. when he came in for his interview, I got an opportunity to sit down and talk to him for about an hour, and it just came pouring out. I mean, he’s an L.A. King. He’s got that love in his heart. It was so clear. He loved it as a player. He’s got a great reputation as a player around the league, and certainly as a L.A. King. His passion as a coach, and for this organization, it’s there. And if it could happen, that he could come back, in my conversation with Dean it was clear that that would be the right thing to do. We’ve got to thank Chicago for that too, because they gave us the opportunity to talk to him. Dale Tallon was tremendous in his cooperation with it, and let us bring him back this late in the summer. He very easily could have said, `No, I’ve got my plans and I need him to stay around and do the things that I need for my organization to be successful.’ Dale was great about it, very unselfish.

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Question: Have you thought about how those guys might work together or what their responsibilities might be?

MURRAY: Well, we need to get together as a staff. Everybody is kind of all over. Mark is just moving in, he’s coming in on Saturday. Now Jamie is away for a break and Nelly is busy, so we need to get together and go through that. I have a plan in my mind that I want, but I just need the opportunity to discuss it with them.