Glen Gulutzan was hired as coach of the Dallas Stars on Tuesday.
The 53-year-old replaces Pete DeBoer, who was fired June 6, and returns to the organization that gave him his first opportunity as an NHL head coach. Gulutzan went 64-57-9 in two seasons before he was fired May 14, 2013.
He was an Edmonton Oilers assistant since May 25, 2018, and part of the coaching staff that guided them to the Stanley Cup Final in each of the past two seasons. Gulutzan is 146-125-23 in 294 regular-season games coaching the Stars and Calgary Flames and 0-4 in the Stanley Cup Playoffs.
“When I was a younger guy, I didn’t make many adjustments,” Gulutzan said Wednesday. “I knew one way to play. You’re self-taught, you’re self-learned. Now you bring in all that experience, you check a lot of boxes. So, players are the most important part of this game, no question. It’s not us coaches.
“You have to learn how to deal with them, you have to learn how to motivate them, you have to deal with star players, with guys who are getting 7-8 minutes a night, you have to deal with all those situations. The guy 12 years ago, he never dealt with them; this guy’s dealt with them for the last 12, so that’s the biggest difference. I’ve checked a lot of boxes.”
Dallas (50-26-6) advanced to the Western Conference Final for the third consecutive season in 2024-25, a five-game loss to Edmonton.
Gulutzan also was an assistant for the Vancouver Canucks in 2013-14 and coached Texas of the American Hockey League from 2009-11, guiding it to the 2010 Calder Cup Finals. He worked for Las Vegas in the ECHL and was named that league's Coach of the Year for 2005-06.
“We went through a long list,” Stars general manager Jim Nill said. “Old, young, all different variations. Went through the process. Part of my job as a manager and our staff is we’re always evaluating other teams and what they’re doing, and Glen’s name has come up every time we talked.
“I was at the 4 Nations (Face-Off) around some of the best players in the world, and his name kind of came up. He’s a young man that’s paid his dues and worked his way up. He’s done it the right way. He’s probably the first one to admit that it was probably too soon here, but when you get offered a job you’ve always dreamed of doing, you’re not going to say no to it. In the end, he knew it was probably too quick for him, but he was willing to go backwards and make himself who he is today, and we think that’s the head coach of the Dallas Stars.”
NHL.com staff writer Tracey Myers and independent correspondent Taylor Baird contributed to this report
