Lost in the shuffle of the season ending, and Jamie Benn's hat tricks, and players potentially leaving the team as unrestricted free agents, is a moment that might never be recaptured.

There's a chance Ken Hitchcock coached his final NHL game Saturday.

He is the third-winningest coach in league history with 823 wins. After Saturday's 4-2 victory over the Los Angeles Kings, Hitchcock leads the Stars with 319 wins and is second in line behind Mike Modano in terms of franchise icon status. He is going to the Hockey Hall of Fame one day.

What's more, he is a heck of a guy with a heck of a story -- and this chapter might be over.

Hitchcock is on a long-term contract with the Stars, but the coaching part of that contract is to be explored after each season. Should the Stars believe there is a better option out there to coach the team, Hitchcock can be promoted to an advisor's position. As we survey the NHL landscape just one day after the regular season, there could be better options out there.

Alain Vigneault has been let go by the Rangers. That's the same Alain Vigneault whom Stars general manager Jim Nill tried to hire back in 2013 before he hired Lindy Ruff. Vigneault will turn 57 in May, so he's almost 10 years younger than Hitchcock. He might be the perfect compromise between Hitchcock's defensive ways and Lindy Ruff's offensive style.

He might be a better option.

Will there be other candidates out there? Possibly. Nill could look at coaches who are let go after the first round of the playoffs, or he could be even more patient. Hitchcock's situation is such that you can study all options and then make a move. There's risk you miss out on a great candidate, but there's also the possibility you wait until the perfect one is there.

Pittsburgh has had success with a coach coming out of the minors. Same with New Jersey. Same with Colorado. Is that something Nill could study in the coming days and weeks? It sure seems like an option.

Of course, Hitchcock should be an option, as well. He took a team that was 29th in goals-against average at 3.17 and pushed it to sixth at 2.71. He took a team that was 30th in save percentage at .893 and pushed it to 13th at .909. He took a team that was 30th in penalty kill at a historically bad 73.9 percent and pushed it to 14th at 80.8.

That's no small task.

And he did that while dealing with injuries to Martin Hanzal, Marc Methot and Ben Bishop. He did that while getting no help at the trade deadline from the front office. He did that while convincing Tyler Seguin to become a better two-way center, while convincing John Klingberg that he needed to become a better two-way defenseman, while harnessing the energy of Alexander Radulov and pushing it mostly in the right direction.

On the flip side, he seemed at odds with Jason Spezza from the start and couldn't get the most out of the $7.5 million center who might still have some gas in the tank. He simply did not seem to want to trust the younger players and painted himself into a corner with big minutes for the pairing of Dan Hamhuis and Greg Pateryn, which seemed to fade at the end of the season. And he pushed the all-in button with players such as Kari Lehtonen during that 1-7-2 slump at a time when a little finesse might have resulted in more third-period energy and a few more points in the standings -- points that could have pushed this team into the playoffs.

There was a lot to criticize about Hitchcock's work this year. There was also a lot to like. And it could definitely lay a foundation for more improvement next season if that's the direction the franchise wants to go. Keeping the coach for another year is an option that has some serious merit.

But you also have to ask yourself if there might be a better option.

Because that's where the Stars are right now after a season like that.

Twitter: @MikeHeika