DALLAS — Former Golden Knights coach Pete DeBoer was fired by the Dallas Stars on Friday after three seasons with the team, getting to the Western Conference final each time but never advancing past that for a shot at the Stanley Cup.
The move came a week since the Stars ended their season in a 6-3 loss at home to Edmonton in Game 5 of the West final.
DeBoer made the curious and much-discussed decision to bench Jake Oettinger after his star goalie gave up two goals on two shots in the first 7:09. Two days later, the coach acknowledged he still hadn’t talked to Oettinger about that decision.
“After careful consideration, we believe that a new voice is needed in our locker room to push us closer to our goal of winning the Stanley Cup,” longtime general manager Jim Nill said.
The Oilers won four consecutive games in the series after the Stars had a five-goal outburst in the third period of Game 1 to win by that same 6-3 score.
Dallas became the first team to reach the conference finals three seasons in a row without winning at least one Cup title under the playoff format that began in 1994. The Stars didn’t even give themselves a chance to play for one.
DeBoer, who turns 57 this month, had a 149-68-29 record in regular-season games and 29-27 in the playoffs with the Stars, whose 113 points during the 2023-24 season were just one off the franchise record set by their only Stanley Cup-winning team in 1998-99. He is 662-447-152 overall in 17 seasons with Dallas, New Jersey, Florida, Vegas and San Jose, plus 97-82 in 10 postseason appearances.
Stars owner Tom Gaglardi said the day after the season finale that DeBoer was a seasoned coach, top three to top five in the league, and that he didn’t see firing DeBoer being on anyone’s agenda.
Something certainly changed since then with DeBoer, who had one season remaining on his contract.
This was the sixth time in seven seasons, with three different teams, that DeBoer took a team to the brink of the Stanley Cup Final. That included the NHL semifinals during the 2021 season with Vegas when there were no conference-based playoffs because of the COVID-19 pandemic.
The Stars last went to the Stanley Cup Final in 2020, the playoff held in the bubble in Canada because of the pandemic. They won the West final that year in five games over DeBoer-coached Vegas. Dallas was led by Rick Bowness, who replaced the fired Jim Montgomery during the season. DeBoer was hired after the Stars moved on from Bowness.
In their 18 playoff games this season, the Stars gave up the first goal 15 times.
Dallas was third in the NHL during the regular season with 3.35 goals per game and shut out only once, in the 79th of 82 games. The Stars averaged 2.5 goals in the playoffs with four shutout losses, including both losses in the second-round series they won in six games over top-seeded Winnipeg.
A scoreless streak of 178:57 on the road, against Winnipeg and Edmonton, was the longest in franchise playoff history. The Stars had two goals over the next three games after opening the series against the Oilers with a win.
Oettinger said last week he was surprised and embarrassed when he got pulled from Game 5 of the Western Conference final after giving up two goals on the only two shots he faced, and DeBoer was still facing questions about that decision two days after the season-ending loss to Edmonton.
“No one’s a bigger fan of Jake Oettinger than me, as a person or a goalie,” DeBoer said. “There’s one motive, and that’s how do we survive this and get it to a Game 6. And I have to live with those consequences. If it works, great, we’re in Edmonton tonight and you guys are telling me how awesome a move it was. And when it doesn’t, I’ve got to stand up here and do this, and I understand.”
Oettinger was pulled only 7:09 into Game 5 at home Thursday night after Mattias Janmark’s goal put Edmonton up 2-0. The Oilers scored again less than a minute after Casey DeSmith took over on the way to a 6-3 win that set up a Stanley Cup Final rematch against Florida, though Dallas got within 4-3 a minute into the third period.
“The reality is if I make one or two of those saves, then I’m still playing in the game,” Oettinger said in his first public comments since. “The way I’m looking at it is, how can I get better from that? How can I can make those saves that I made all playoffs?”
The 26-year-old goalie has been to the playoffs in four consecutive seasons and won six postseason series. That stretch began in 2022, when Dallas took top-seeded Calgary to a Game 7, and Oettinger had 64 saves before Johnny Gaudreau’s OT goal ended the first-round series.
Oettinger had a .905 save percentage and 2.82 goals-against average while facing 503 shots in 18 games this postseason, by far the most of any goalie. Florida’s Sergei Bobrovsky, in one fewer game, has faced 408 shots and the next-highest total is 292. Oettinger had a .909 save percentage and 2.59 GAA in 58 regular-season games.
When DeBoer was asked Saturday about his conversations with Oettinger since the season ended, the coach said they hadn’t had the opportunity yet to have one.
Oettinger was later asked if he had any concerns about their relationship, and he responded by saying the whole experience is something he would learn from and that was going to help him grow to be a better person and goalie.
“My job is to stop the puck. And I feel like I’m one of the best in the world when I’m playing well doing that. So that’s all I’m in a focus on,” Oettinger said. “All the extra stuff is just extra stuff to me. … If I go out there next year and I’m the best goalie in the world, it doesn’t matter. One of you guys could be coaching, it doesn’t matter. Just try to be the best I can be, learn from the experience.”
