DeBoer fired as Golden Knights coach after three seasons

Peter DeBoer was fired as coach of the Vegas Golden Knights on Monday.

The Golden Knights (43-31-8) finished three points behind the Nashville Predators for the second wild card into the Stanley Cup Playoffs from the Western Conference, failing to qualify for the postseason for the first time since joining the NHL as an expansion team in 2017-18.
Vegas was 98-50-12 in three seasons under DeBoer, who was hired to replace Gerard Gallant on Jan. 15, 2020.
"We deliberated on this long and hard," Golden Knights general manager Kelly McCrimmon said. "We did not make this decision quickly. And once [president of hockey operations] George [McPhee] and I were aligned in terms of what we thought the best course of action would be, we met with our owner, Bill Foley, late last week. Bill offered his support for our decision."
Assistants Steve Spott and Ryan McGill were also fired. Ryan Craig and Misha Donskov will be retained as assistants, and goalie coach Mike Rosati will be able to interview with the new coach, McCrimmon said.
McCrimmon said there is no timetable to hire a new coach.
"We haven't put any work into who those candidates are yet," he said. "These were independent decisions, which the offseason allows you to do.
"We're going to go through a process where we hire the best possible candidate we can hire and bring him in here to lead our team."

DeBoer is the fourth coach to be fired since the regular season ended, following Jeff Blashill by the Detroit Red Wings (April 30), Mike Yeo by the Philadelphia Flyers (May 3) and Barry Trotz by the New York Islanders (May 9); the Islanders hired Lane Lambert as coach Monday. The Winnipeg Jets announced May 2 they would have a coaching search and Dave Lowry, who replaced Paul Maurice as coach Dec. 17, could be interviewed for the job. The Chicago Blackhawks are conducting a search that includes Derek King, who replaced Jeremy Colliton as coach Nov. 6.
The Golden Knights advanced to the Stanley Cup Final in their inaugural season before losing to the Washington Capitals in five games and have not been able to get back to that level since.
With DeBoer as coach, Vegas was 22-17 in the playoffs, reaching the 2020 Western Conference Final before losing in five games to the Dallas Stars, and the 2021 Stanley Cup Semifinals, where it was upset by the Montreal Canadiens in six games.
The Golden Knights' four-season playoff streak was derailed by injuries and inconsistency this season with forwards Mark Stone and Max Pacioretty, defenseman Alec Martinez and goalie Robin Lehner among the players to miss extended stretches.
"We've got a 4 1/2-month offseason, which I think is going to be extremely important for our group," McCrimmon said. "We missed the playoffs, which is humbling for a team no matter what the reasons were for how that happened, and I think what it's going to give us is an opportunity in the fall to be incredibly rested, rehabbed, recharged, excited, and as we went through it, I felt that we could enhance that by having a new voice leading our team into next season. The decision was made based on next year. The decision was not made based on [2021-22]."
DeBoer is 513-379-123 in 14 NHL seasons with the Golden Knights, San Jose Sharks, New Jersey Devils and Florida Panthers. He coached his 1,000th NHL regular-season game March 24 against the Predators.
He is 68-55 in the playoffs, including qualifying in six straight seasons before missing this season. He coached New Jersey to the 2012 Stanley Cup Final, when it lost in six games to the Los Angeles Kings, and coached San Jose to the 2016 Cup Final, when the Sharks lost to the Pittsburgh Penguins in six games.
NHL.com columnist Nicholas J. Cotsonika contributed to this report