The Dallas Stars have fired coach Pete DeBoer following their loss to the Edmonton Oilers in the Western Conference Final, the team announced on Friday. That was the Stars’ third consecutive conference final loss and second straight defeat at the hands of the Oilers.
Stars general manager Jim Nill said in a statement the team needed a “new voice” in order to get over the hump and win the second Stanley Cup in franchise history.
“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,” Nill said.
The Stars hired DeBoer in 2022, and they had quite a bit of success in his three seasons behind the bench. Under DeBoer’s tenure, Dallas won the Central Division in 2023-24, and the team never finished lower than second.
However, DeBoer was never able to push the team past conference final. In 2023, the Stars went down to the Vegas Golden Knights in six games, and they have now fallen to the Oilers in back-to-back years.
This season’s exit wasn’t particularly close, either, with Edmonton rattling off four straight wins to take the series in five games. In Game 5, DeBoer made the questionable move to pull franchise goaltender Jake Oettinger less than 10 minutes into the first period after falling behind 2-0.
DeBoer’s explanation for that decision was a little puzzling, and Oettinger admitted it was “embarrassing.”
DeBoer leaves Dallas with a record of 149-68-29 and a playoff record of 29-27. The Stars will now begin the search for their next coach with eight other teams having already filled vacancies this offseason.
While a number of top candidates have already come off the board, Dallas does have the advantage of being a desirable job. Aside from being the fourth-winningest team over the last three seasons, the Stars have a majority of their young talent signed for the foreseeable future.
For DeBoer, it will be interesting to see whether he gets another opportunity. Each of his last two tenures (Dallas and Vegas) have lasted just three seasons. It seems unlikely DeBoer would get another job prior to the start of the 2025-26 campaign, but he may be first in line for any in-season firings that may occur.
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