Bench boss talk: Glen Gulutzan talks the power play, playoffs, year one and more

The Dallas Stars have been a big part of Glen Gulutzan’s career. After helping defeat the Idaho Steelheads as head coach of the Las Vegas Wranglers in the 2006 ECHL playoffs, Gulutzan earned a promotion from Vegas to the Texas Stars in the AHL and found a place in the Stars’ universe. He helped the lads in Cedar Park get to the 2010 Calder Cup Final, and after two years earned a promotion to head coach of the NHL team.

That experience had its ups and downs, as his tenure straddled a lockout and included the team fighting through bankruptcy off the ice, but it was still a great first step for the young coach. When Jim Nill was named GM in 2013, he decided to go with a more veteran coach in Lindy Ruff, and Gulutzan moved on to become an assistant coach in Vancouver. He then was head coach of the Calgary Flames for two seasons, got fired there and moved on to serve as an assistant in Edmonton for seven seasons.

Gulutzan helped the Oilers get to two Stanley Cup Finals in 2024 and 2025, defeating the Stars in the Western Conference Final both times. When Nill wanted to replace Pete DeBoer last summer, Gulutzan got the gig. He went 50-20-12 this season and helped the Stars finish second in points, ninth in scoring, and second in goals against. However the team lost in the First Round of the playoffs to Minnesota, and that was an unfamiliar disappointment. Now, the 54-year-old is excited about his second season and working on taking Dallas to the next step.

Gulutzan had a chat with Senior Staff Writer Mike Heika last week and here are some of his thoughts:

Q: What has the process been like since last summer? It’s rare for a new coach to step into a Cup-contending team, so how different was that for you?

Gulutzan: Any time you get a team like this you’re excited, and then it’s [about] expectations. It’s excitement and opportunity, and you want to win. It’s been a blessing to come here, but you learn pretty quickly how much work it is and just what a challenge it is. I love it. I think you want to be in this place and you want to do everything you can to meet the challenge.

Q: How did you see the first year? There were some curves along the way, but the coaches and players seemed to navigate them very well at times.

Gulutzan: There were curves along the way, but through 82 it did lay out the way I expected. We did take on more physicality, we did improve our defending, and I just think we managed a lot of adversity, and that was very satisfying. It was a great first step for us.

Q: You improved areas like hits and puck possession, but maybe the most significant improvement came on the power play, where the team went from 17th to second. While you finished second in efficiency at 28.6 percent, you led the league in power play goals.

Gulutzan: I thought it was the strongest part of our game. When you look at the consistency and how strong it was from the start to the end, it really carried us at tough times. And then, in the playoffs, it was fantastic.

Q: How important was it to add Neil Graham as an assistant coach in charge of the power play?

Gulutzan: Grammer does a great job of breaking down the opposition, and I think that was a huge key – our players were always prepared. He was great at pre-scouting and finding weaknesses, and you saw that in the playoffs against Minnesota. We knew just how to attack them. He’s got a good offensive mind, and we had a good group of players who clicked. Really, it was a collaboration between the players and the coaches and it was exciting to watch.

Q: You obviously had record performances from Wyatt Johnston and Jason Robertson on the man advantage, but when there were injuries, you had players like Matt Duchene, Jamie Benn and Mavrik Bourque to step up. With Thomas Harley getting older, is there a chance to create two outstanding units?

Gulutzan: We have a great second unit, but we also have a great first unit, so it’s hard to take that group off the ice. When you’re successful and you keep the puck in the offensive zone, you just go with the flow. You can’t argue with the numbers from last year, but what you can do is mix in the other pieces and you can bring those guys in after a minute and not change the entire unit. If you do that with even two players, that changes the unit and creates all sorts of problems for the other team. So we need to look at ways to fine tune a very good group. We have a lot of players who bring different tools, so I think we are going to see more depth on the power play next season.

Q: Unpredictability seems to be a big part of the man advantage for Neil Graham.

Gulutzan: You look at how we ran even the first unit. Players moved around and that created unpredictability, so I think you can do even more without changing the look and still using the same players. So I think we’re in a great place to use all of our players and give them different ways to be successful.

Q: Jim Nill kept Alain Nasreddine as an assistant coach to run the defense, called up Neil Graham from the Texas Stars to help with forwards and allowed you to bring in David Pelletier from Edmonton to help in a number of ways. How did the coaching staff come together and what was the strength of the group?

Gulutzan: The dynamic of the coaching room was tremendous. There wasn’t one guy who was asking for more or didn’t like his role. Every guy had a voice, and I can honestly say that goes through everyone in the room, video coaches, everybody. I think me having the experience of being an assistant coach, I didn’t want anyone to feel their voice wasn’t being heard. We had a great group with great collaboration.

Q: What was your relationship like with goalie Jake Oettinger?

Gulutzan: Everybody asks me questions about that, and the simple answer is I don’t really have a different relationship with Otter than I do any other player. He’s a great goaltender, great human, I enjoy talking with him, I enjoy talking to both of our goalies. So, I think that’s been great. We’re all just in this together.

Q: But it is a key position for every team and there is a lot that goes into getting your goalies ready for the playoffs?

Gulutzan: Doesn’t it seem it comes down to who gets hot at the right time? That’s kind of the whole playoff thing. You have to adjust and raise your bar for each series, each game. I was watching the Vegas game and Brock Nelson got a breakaway and didn’t score, and then Mark Stone got a breakaway and he made it. That’s just one example, but it shows how tight it is. When you get a bounce, it changes everything in your attitude and in your execution, it just builds on everything. There is so much that goes on behind the scenes to get to that place, so you just have to control what you can control and work as hard as you can so that the breaks will go your way. It’s that way with goalies, it’s that way with the entire team.

Q: What did you learn in the playoff loss?

Gulutzan: You look at Game 1, we weren’t ready to play, we handed them a game, and that gave them focus and hope. So we have to learn from games like that. That’s what we’re doing right now.

Q: What is your focus right now?

Gulutzan: We’re looking a lot at the offensive side of things. Can we create more neutral zone turnovers? Can we create more off the rush? Can we create more in-zone? Can we shoot more off the rush? Can we create more rush chances? We don’t want to neglect the defensive side, but we want to improve our offense. We’re top 10 in the league in every defensive category, can we get to the top 10 in every offensive category? That’s where our energy is right now.

Q: Can you do that and not increase turnovers? You have some players who want to be creative and that can lead to breakdowns at times. Can you walk the line?

Gulutzan: I think if you look at the regular season, we walked the line pretty well. The turnover stuff was probably more in the playoffs. But, for us, this isn’t about how we can be more creative, it’s about how can we be more direct? We have enough zone time, we have enough possession, but how can we be more direct with our intention. You’ve got to let players be who they are, but you have to find a balance, so can you click the dial a little more to this side? We think we can.

Q: What did you as a coach learn from this first year here?

Gulutzan: It’s actually the thing I think about every day right now. The best thing to get you through the sting of the loss is to look forward. I’ve been watching the Stanley Cup playoffs and learning every game. That’s pretty much what my days are right now, tearing things apart and finding ways to get better. It’s a long process, but it definitely has already started.