Scuttlebutt around the NHL has it that former Los Angeles Kings head coach and current ESPN hockey analyst Barry Melrose could be soon returning behind the bench.

Despite his recent assertion that no one has approached him it’s been speculated for several weeks that Melrose could in fact become the new bench boss of the Tampa Bay Lightning.

Those rumors gained speed recently when a Toronto Star article, calling it “the worst kept secret in hockey” claimed that incoming Lightning ownership OK Hockey, led by Hollywood producer Oren Koules, would fire current head coach John Tortorella and replace him with Melrose.

The Tampa media has suggested it’s all but a done deal while also casting doubt over the future of GM Jay Feaster in the process.

I can understand why a new ownership of a hockey club would want to bring in their own people. As the old saying goes, a new broom sweeps clean, and despite the 2004 Stanley Cup on the respective resumes of Tortorella and Feaster, the Lightning have been on a slow but steady decline since the NHL returned from the lockout, so naturally a new owner would want to change things up.

It would be too bad in Feaster’s case, for despite the flak he took for locking up too much money in Vincent Lecavalier, Brad Richards and Martin St. Louis, whilst allowing Nikolai Khabibulin to walk, quite frankly, he had no choice. The Lightning were defending Stanley Cup champs and they simply couldn’t allow their three best players, who’d also shone for Team Canada in the 2004 World Cup of Hockey, to be potentially lost to free agency or contract holdouts or a potential offer sheet.

Feaster’s hands unfortunately were tied by the unwillingness of the current ownership to keep pace with the rising cap, as well as the very salary cap that was supposedly designed to help teams like the Lightning.

Tortorella had to make do with the roster Feaster provided him, but he also has a demanding, vocal, and occasionally abrasive coaching style. It worked well for a while but after six seasons the Lightning players might be growing weary of that style and could perhaps benefit from a coaching change.

Plenty of good coaching options are available in Ron Wilson, Joel Quenneville, Pat Quinn, Craig Hartsburg, Paul Maurice, Bob Hartley and Pat Burns, who’ve all coached in the NHL within the last five years, most of whom have experience coaching under the NHL’s new rules.

So why would Oren Koules consider hiring an analyst who hasn’t coached in the NHL in thirteen years?

Apparently Koules knows Melrose and it’s from that connection that Melrose could be in line for that coaching job. Melrose is a notable hockey analyst with ESPN and has been working with them for years, but does that qualify him to return behind the bench of an NHL franchise today?

Melrose has had coaching success in Junior “A” , coaching the 1988 Medicine Hat Tigers to the Memorial Cup, and in the AHL, coaching the Adirondack Red Wings to the 1992 Calder Cup. He joined the LA Kings as head coach in 1992-93 and that club went to the Stanley Cup Finals before falling in five games to the Montreal Canadiens.

After that, the success ran out for Melrose, as the next two seasons with the Kings weren’t happy ones as the team missed the playoffs both seasons. Following that he went into his current role as an analyst.

It’s been nearly a decade and a half since Melrose was last behind the bench coaching an NHL franchise. The game has changed considerably since then.

Does Melrose have what it takes to coach in today’s game? Maybe, maybe not, but for a franchise that has fallen from Cup champion to bottom feeder in four short years, hiring a guy who hasn’t coached since Wayne Gretzky was in his heyday would be a heckuva risk, one this franchise shouldn’t be taking.

If the new ownership does fire Tortorella the Lightning will need an experienced, steady hand behind the bench, not someone whose NHL success was limited to a miracle run to the Stanley Cup finals fifteen years ago.

No disrespect to Melrose, but hiring him doesn’t sound like a good hockey decision; rather, it smacks of sensationalism, more about generating “buzz” than in rebuilding a struggling team.

Such a move could also have significant consequences regarding the future of Vincent Lecavalier, the Lightning’s franchise player.

Despite the pining of Montreal Canadiens fans for Lecavalier to sign with the Habs, Lecavalier loves living and playing in Tampa Bay, and although he’s eligible for UFA status in 2009, he’s willing to entertain a long-term contract extension from the Lightning.

However, the potential moves that the incoming ownership makes could have an adverse effect upon those potential negotiations. Lecavalier might decide to adopt a “wait and see” posture over the summer and perhaps into next season to get a sense of the direction the new ownership is taking the Lightning.

If it’s not a good direction, that might give Lecavalier second thoughts.

Melrose recently brushed aside the rumors, admitting that while he’d love to return to coaching in the NHL he's happy in his current role. For his sake and that of the Lightning, I hope he sticks with his current job, because I don't foresee a happy ending for either side.

As more than one pundit noted, no one affiliated with this story have yet to outright reject the possiblity of Melrose as the Lightning's new head coach.

It wasn’t all that long ago, less than ten years in fact, when the Lightning was considered the laughingstock of the NHL. It took that franchise years to build itself up from a joke to a champion, due to strong management and coaching.

It would be a pity if an over-eager, inexperienced owner were to turn them into a laughingstock again.