The Dallas Stars have fired head coach Peter DeBoer of Dunnville, Ontario on Friday. DeBoer had coached the Stars the last three seasons.
Did not meet expectations
When the Stars acquired Mikko Rantanen at the trade deadline in a deal with the Carolina Hurricanes, the expectations were that the Stars were going to be Stanley Cup contenders, and many hockey experts predicted the Stars to win the Stanley Cup. When the Stars lost in five games to the Edmonton Oilers in the Stanley Cup semifinals, Dallas was unsuccessful in capturing hockey’s greatest prize.
What was another reason why DeBoer was fired?
DeBoer received significant criticism for his actions in game five of the Western Conference semifinals. When the Edmonton Oilers took a 2-0 lead over the Dallas Stars in game five of the series, DeBoer made the signal to pull Stars goaltender Jake Oettinger for backup goaltender Casey DeSmith. It was how the signal was made that was considered questionable. He pointed at Oettinger in disgust, then pointed at the bench. There are some who believed there would be tension within the Stars organization going forward between DeBoer and Oettinger, who is considered one of the NHL’s best goaltenders.
After the Stars were eliminated, DeBoer had the following comments according to Chris Cerullo of russianmachineneverbreaks.com:
“I don’t blame it all on Jake, but the reality is, if you go back to last year’s playoffs, he’s lost six of seven games to Edmonton. And we give up two goals on two shots in an elimination game. It was partly to spark our team, and wake them up.”
Who decided on the firing?
That answer appears to be Stars general manager Jim Nill, who stated, “we believe that a new voice is needed in our locker room to push us closer to our goal of winning the Stanley Cup” according to Cerullo. The comment was made a week after Stars owner Tom Gaglardi stated to the Dallas Morning News that, “he’s a top-three, top-five coach in the league,” and did not think a possible firing was on the Stars’s agenda.
DeBoer is the second coach in 2025 to take his team to a conference final, lose, and be fired. He follows Tom Thibodeau, who was fired by the New York Knicks in the NBA after losing to the Indiana Pacers in the Eastern Conference Finals.
