NHL coaching carousel 2025: Stars fire Pete DeBoer after another playoff exit, creating late vacancy in cycle

Just when it looked like the NHL coaching carousel had stopped spinning, the Dallas Stars fired it up again by dismissing Pete DeBoer after three straight conference final exits. 

For the second straight year, the Stars fell to the Edmonton Oilers in the Western Conference Final. DeBoer had plenty of success behind the bench in Dallas, but he couldn’t get over the final two hurdles.

That’s why general manager Jim Nill believes it’s time for a a change. 

“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,” Nill said. “We’d like to thank Pete for everything that he has helped our organization achieve over the past three seasons and wish him nothing but the best moving forward.”

DeBoer leaves Dallas with a 149-68-29 record, and the Stars will begin a coaching search well after other top candidates have come off the board. All eight of the other vacancies have been filled this offseason, but Dallas will be an appealing job with so much talent and young players in the midst of their prime.

The Boston Bruins were the eighth team to fill their vacancy by hiring Marco Sturm, who spent the last three seasons with the AHL’s Ontario Reign, the Los Angeles Kings’ affiliate. During that time, Sturm led the Reign to a 119-80-11-6 record and qualified for the playoffs in all three of those campaigns. Prior to that, Sturm served as a Kings assistant from 2018-22. 

Elsewhere around the coaching carousel, the Pittsburgh Penguins hired former New York Rangers assistant Dan Muse. The Seattle Kraken brought in former New York Islanders coach Lane Lambert, the Canucks promoted assistant Adam Foote, and Rick Tocchet returned to the Philadelphia Flyers as the franchise’s new coach.

With Sturm being hired, all of the NHL’s coaching vacancies have been filled.