Stars make “difficult” decision to fire DeBoer, begin search for new head coach 

The Stars on Friday fired head coach Pete DeBoer with one year remaining on his contract and will immediately begin the search for his replacement.

GM Jim Nill said the decision was difficult, with DeBoer posting the best regular season record in the NHL during his three years in Dallas and taking the team to three Western Conference finals, but that it was ultimately what was best for the organization.

"I have the utmost respect for him as a person and as a coach,” Nill said of DeBoer. “In the end, it’s my responsibility to make a decision that’s the right decision for the organization moving forward.”

Nill said the remainder of the coaching staff will stay in place and that some could be candidates to be the replacement. Assistant coach Alain Nasreddine, Steve Spott and Misha Donskov each have extensive NHL coaching experience and could help the team move forward.

Nasreddine was an interim head coach for New Jersey during the 2019-20 season. He has been an assistant for the Stars for the past three seasons. Spott was a head coach in the OHL and AHL and has more recently been an assistant with DeBoer in San Jose, Vegas and Dallas. Donskov is a longtime assistant in the OHL and NHL, and has served in various management roles in the NHL. He helped Vegas win the Cup in 2023 and was also part of Canada’s coaching staff at the 4 Nations Face-Off.

Also a candidate is Texas Stars head coach Neil Graham, who has led the Dallas AHL affiliate since December 2019. Texas is currently in the Western Conference Final of the Calder Cup Playoffs.

“We have a list. We talk internally all the time about this,” Nill said of how the team works behind the scenes to be prepared for moments like this. “Even in our scouting meetings, we’ll talk to our scouting staff because they’re out there all the time and ask, ‘Who’s the up-and-coming coach? Who’s in Kitchener or Barrie, Ontario right now that is an up-and-coming coach? Who’s out in Medicine Hat that is an up-and-coming coach?’ As we scout players, we try to do the same with coaches.”

Nill said the decision will be important with the franchise’s mission to continue competing for the Stanley Cup. DeBoer’s teams went 149-68-29 in the past three seasons for a league-best .665 points percentage during the regular season. They also won six playoff series, defeating Colorado twice, Vegas and Winnipeg, but losing to Edmonton in each of the past two seasons. The most recent loss to the Oilers became a point of contention as DeBoer pulled goalie Jake Oettinger seven minutes into Game 5 and made comments afterward that seemed to be blaming Oettinger.

"The reality is, if you go back to last year's playoffs, he's lost six of seven games to Edmonton and we gave up two (goals) on two (shots) in an elimination game," DeBoer said. "It was partly to spark our team and wake them up and partly knowing that status quo had not been working. And that's a pretty big sample size."

Nill said he understood the decision to shake the team up after it got down 2-0 in an elimination game.

“I have no problem with the pull,” Nill said. “If you’re coaching and you just let two goals in, you have to change momentum.”

However, he added that comments after the game and in the season-ending press conference created some amount of tension.

“I think everybody did,” Nill said when asked if he had a problem with the comments. “I think even Pete was remorseful of it a little bit. I don’t think he handled that the way he wanted to. But you have to remember you’re under the duress of everything going on in that.”

Nill had postseason reviews with all of the players and said that helped make the decision.

“What I do at the end of every season, players deserve to be heard,” Nill said. “I’ve been in the business a long time and I interview all of the players and tell them to be truthful with me. But I’ve also been around long enough to know that if a guy is only getting five minutes of ice time, he’s not going to like the coach. I understand that. I take it all in, analyze it and we talk about it internally. Some of it comes into play, some of it doesn’t. You have to really balance those things.”

DeBoer has one year left on his contract. All of the NHL head coaching job openings have been filled, so there is a chance the season starts with him still on the Stars’ payroll. Nill said he has full confidence DeBoer will find another team. The Stars were DeBoer’s fifth team, but he is 17th all-time in coaching wins at 662.

"I'm sitting up here and I just let a guy go who went to the conference finals three years in a row. That's not easy to do,” Nill said. “Pete’s going to win a Cup. Unfortunately it won’t be here, but he’s going to win a Cup. He’s a good coach and he learns every time. He’s been fired a few times, but I think he’s learning each time it happens.”

This story was not subject to the approval of the National Hockey League or Dallas Stars Hockey Club.

Mike Heika is a Senior Staff Writer for DallasStars.com and has covered the Stars since 1994. Follow him on X @MikeHeika.