Let’s get this out of the way when it comes to the Ducks, their desire to make a coaching change and the resulting search that’s in development mode – their dream candidate never did become available.

The search to replace Bruce Boudreau might have ended in short order had Claude Julien been set free from Boston. But that never became a possibility when the playoff-absent Bruins brought back the 2011 Stanley Cup-winning coach for a 10th season.

Besides, the Ducks would have had to hope Julien would not have wanted to jump right into Ottawa’s opening behind the bench and surveyed the NHL landscape. So it was a pipe dream.

In the present, the Ducks are doing what General Manager Bob Murray said he’d do during his April 29 news conference to address letting Boudreau go after five seasons. They’re going to take their time.

The fact that Minnesota quickly snapped up Boudreau and Ottawa grabbed Guy Boucher when Boudreau opted for the Wild doesn’t faze Murray. Remaining assistants Paul MacLean and Trent Yawney are very much on the Ducks’ list and conversations have been had with both.

It isn’t clear if either MacLean or Yawney has had a formal interview. But it does appear clear that Murray is set on looking at some options outside the organization, with the likely goal of having a new coach in place by next month’s entry draft.

Travis Green is the candidate who might be ready for his first NHL coaching opportunity. Green, 45, has not been an assistant at that level, but he’s found success as a head coach in junior hockey and the American Hockey League.

Serving as acting coach for a suspended Mike Johnston with the Western Hockey League’s Portland Winterhawks in 2012-13, Green coached them to a 37-8-0-2 record and won the WHL title. Vancouver hired him to coach its AHL team in Utica (N.Y.) and Green guided the Comets to last year’s Calder Cup final.

Green also has some Ducks ties, having played 108 of his 970 NHL games with them over two stints in the 1997-98 and 1998-99 seasons and the 2006-07 season. A Canucks spokesman said Vancouver GM Jim Benning would not comment on whether the Ducks have asked for permission to speak to Green, but they showed interest in him early last season when the team got off to a slow start under Boudreau.

Hockey analyst Pierre McGuire for the NBC Sports Group knows Green well and calls him a “good hockey man” who learned from Al Arbour while playing for the New York Islanders and Johnston when he started his coaching career at Portland.

With the success of former University of North Dakota coach Dave Hakstol in his first season in Philadelphia, McGuire said it is one model that teams could be “trying to copy” when it comes to new hires. Green, who stayed at Utica in 2014 instead of taking on an assistant role under Johnston with Pittsburgh, fits that model.

“You’re talking about a person who had done some very good work at lesser levels but still high levels and was able to get a lot done,” McGuire said. “And I can tell you that he had a fantastic, tremendously good year in Philadelphia.

“So you never know. You just never know. It depends on the model they want to choose. It really does.”

Ottawa not only opted for Boucher but brought in longtime NHL head coach Marc Crawford as his top lieutenant. Minnesota also went with an established name. Calgary is the other team looking for a coach and reportedly is eyeing former Wild coach Mike Yeo.

It isn’t known yet if Yeo is a candidate for the Ducks. Bob Hartley, whom Calgary fired on May 3, is not on their list despite being the 2015 Jack Adams Award winner in guiding the Flames to a surprise second-round playoff berth.

“That’s the biggest thing for Bob and Dave to figure out there,” McGuire said. “What model do they want to follow?”

Randy Carlyle would be the old model, and he shouldn’t be dismissed. Some ill feelings resulted from Murray going out and getting Boudreau to replace him in November 2011 even as he coached a home game – and won – before his firing, but time has healed those wounds.

Carlyle, 60, continues to maintain a home in Southern California and is a frequent visitor to games at Honda Center as a scout. And his name is back in the coaching carousel. He was on Minnesota’s radar and is expected to interview with Calgary next week.

While it became clear at the end of his six-year-plus run that the Ducks – in particular stars Ryan Getzlaf and Corey Perry – had grown tired of Carlyle and needed a more player-friendly coach, Carlyle’s prodding in the early days pushed a talented team over the top in 2007.

Negatives would be that his demanding ways wear on a team over time and that his dump-and-chase style of hockey goes against an NHL that is increasingly about puck possession, with teams using more analytics to shape their rosters and systems.

Only Getzlaf, Perry and Cam Fowler remain from when Carlyle last coached the Ducks. The franchise remains an established winner that should be in the playoff mix again in 2017, so Carlyle might be the type who can push the Ducks’ stars to delivering in the biggest moments.

It is why McGuire believes an established hand might be the better fit for a team he calls high-end with “big personalities.”

“You can’t be bringing in a coach that doesn’t have a track record, I don’t believe anyways,” McGuire said. “It’s hard to bring in a coach that has never really established anything in the National Hockey League. That makes it really difficult.

“But there are models out there. I think back to when the late Pat Quinn was brought into Toronto and cut such a wide swath through the dressing room that the players had to pay attention and they did. And they had a lot of success.

“You look at when Scotty Bowman went into Detroit. You look at Mike Keenan when he went into New York. I think that’s where that team is right now. They’re close. They’re really close.”

Contact the writer: estephens@ocregister.com