The Dallas Stars are bringing again Glen Gulutzan as their head coach 12 years after he was fired by the group, a supply confirmed to ESPN amid a number of stories Sunday.
Gulutzan, who was serving as an assistant coach with the Edmonton Oilers, replaces Pete DeBoer, who was fired by the Stars earlier this month after three seasons. An official announcement is anticipated shortly by the workforce.
Gulutzan inherits a gifted roster that is been runner-up within the convention for 3 straight seasons. That features star winger Mikko Rantanen, whom they acquired on the commerce deadline and singed to an eight-year, $96 million extension.
The 53-year-old Gulutzan coached the Stars from 2011 to 2013, going 64-57-9 and lacking the playoffs in each seasons. He had been employed to exchange Marc Crawford, after teaching the Stars’ AHL affiliate for 2 seasons and the ECHL Las Vegas Wranglers for six seasons.
Two weeks after the Stars employed him in 2013 to run the workforce, present common supervisor Jim Nill fired Gulutzan, saying the workforce determined to “go in a special route” after which employed veteran coach Lindy Ruff.
Twelve years later, Nill has rehired Gulutzan as his head coach, hoping he can lead the workforce to the Stanley Cup.
After being fired by Dallas, Gulutzan moved on to be an assistant coach with the Vancouver Canucks below John Tortorella and Willie Desjardins, earlier than being employed by the Calgary Flames in 2016 as head coach. He lasted two seasons there, making the playoffs as soon as, earlier than being changed by Invoice Peters.
He moved on to change into an assistant coach with the Oilers for seven seasons below 4 totally different head coaches. Gulutzan had a very good relationship with star heart Connor McDavid and ran the workforce’s energy play, which was No. 1 within the NHL (26.8% conversion fee) throughout his time in Edmonton.
Dallas started trying to find a brand new coach after firing DeBoer, who posted a .665 regular-season factors share and led the Stars to the Western Convention Finals in three straight years. The Stars misplaced to Vegas in 2023 after which to Edmonton within the following two seasons.
Of their Sport 5 elimination by the Oilers in Might, DeBoer pulled beginning goalie Jake Oettinger after giving up two targets within the first 7:09 of the sport, later calling out Oettinger for the workforce’s lack of success in opposition to Edmonton.
Nill known as that scenario a “element” of his resolution to fireplace DeBoer, who had yet another 12 months left on his contract, however that there have been “issues that happened in the course of the season” that factored into it.
Nill stated his assistant coaches “had performed an important job” and hoped they’d proceed to be a part of the Stars. Gulutzan, nevertheless, must herald new staffers after assistant coach Steve Spott left for the Boston Bruins and coach Misha Donskov took a job with Hockey Canada.
Nill lately stated that assistant coaches Alain Nasreddine and Jeff Reese will return subsequent season.