David Pelletier excited to put personal experiences, training to use in expanded role with Stars

David Pelletier is a deep thinker.

So when you try to draw a parallel between his success as an Olympics pairs figure skater and an assistant coach in the NHL with a question like: “Did that help make you the person you are today?” You shouldn’t be surprised when his answer is: “I mean, who are we, really?”

It might be the ultimate question for Pelletier, who is learning every day.

The 51-year-old native of Sayabec, Quebec is best known as a gold medalist in the 2002 Winter Olympics with partner Jamie Sale’. The two have been honored by several Hall of Fame groups for their work, and it led Pelletier to become a very familiar face in the figure skating world for a couple of decades.

But, in his heart, Pelletier was a young boy who loved everything about hockey and yearned to get back into the sport. He worked for years as a power skating coach and in 2014 was hired by the Edmonton Oilers to be their skating coach. He worked his way up in the organization and eventually befriended assistant coach Glen Gulutzan.

And when Gulutzan was named head coach of the Dallas Stars last summer, he brought Pelletier to Texas as an assistant. Now the man who has learned from thousands of experiences in his life puts that knowledge to work every day for the Lads in Victory Green.

“I just have a lot of trust in him,” Gulutzan said. “He helps us in so many different ways.”

Pelletier said whatever he can do is a result of his life experiences. He was obsessed with hockey as a kid, but his mom loved figure skating and put all three of her sons in lessons. Pelletier showed promise and said pairs looked like fun, so he started on a path that would lead to greatness.

“I never really dreamt of going to the Olympics, but once pairs skating presented that opportunity, I jumped in,” Pelletier said. “I love competing, and this gave me a chance to compete at the highest level. I love the regimen and the routine of being a high-end athlete, and I think that was a big part of my life.”

Pelletier is philosophical about his ability, and said his self-discipline was paramount. In addition to finding the right partner and battling to be great for that partner, he was intense in his own regimen.

“You’re on a team in a sense that you don’t want to let your partner down, but a lot of it was just how bad I wanted to be good,” he said. “You don’t win the Olympic medal in February. They give it to you in February, but you win it in the summer and you win it in your preparation, and you win it all year long – with the decision you make in October to skip a party or not eat badly. You are always an athlete, and you owe it to yourself to give yourself the best chance to succeed. It all adds up.”

Pelletier’s philosophy melds well with Gulutzan’s motto of “be where your boots are.” Both have worked their way up not by chasing the next step, but by doing their current job as well as possible. Gulutzan was an assistant coach for seven years in Edmonton while Pelletier worked his way up from skating coach to something much bigger. He said then-head coach Dave Tippett was the first one to really see the potential in Pelletier.

“Tipp was the guy who said Dave could contribute more than he was,” Gulutzan said. “He wanted him in our meetings, he wanted him on the ice every day, and it grew from there. Tipp liked his take on the game and he liked his relationship with the players. He thought he had the thought process of a champion, just how you should think and compete at the highest level.”

Pelletier said he was putting in the work to learn hockey, and that helped. He would skate with youth players in the morning and at night, and then would build lessons based on his conversations with teenagers and NHL superstars.

“I was working with minor hockey kids too, so I was at work before going to work and I was at work after going to work,” he said. “And I would test my ideas and just try to learn all of the time.”

His “curious” nature helped him navigate the NHL world. Yes, he was a top-end Olympian, but he had the belief that he was there to learn. So he listened a lot and basically only gave his opinion when it was asked for.

“I had my chair at the table, but I knew my spot on the totem pole,” he said. “I talked when I was talked to.”

But he added that his role in Dallas is definitely expanded. He is with the team every day and has the “eye in the sky” position in the press box during games.

“I still stay in my lane, but now, my lane is a little wider and the responsibilities are a lot more,” he said of the move to Dallas. “That’s what I wanted. I was ready for it.”

Pelletier does much of the team’s faceoff work with video and also has a big role in running smaller skate sessions and helping with injured players. He’s on the ice a lot. When he comes down from the press box he offers insight that helps coaches and players during intermissions.

“It is different from Edmonton,” Gulutzan said. “He touches a lot of areas and helps in a lot of different ways.”

And that fits with his life philosophy: be present, be committed and know your lane. When the question of “who he is” was revisited, he said going through the rigors of pairs training and competition definitely helped shape him.

“You deal with a lot of pressure as a young kid and you learn how to structure your schedule, how discipline always wins, and how you can measure yourself under pressure situations,” he said. “We all are an accumulation of the experiences that we have had. I’m not a figure skater who is trying to coach hockey, I’m an accumulation of everything I have done in my life. That’s like the hockey players. They are not just hockey players, they are people who happen to play hockey at a very high level. I think that’s important.”

It’s something that could be very important for the Stars going forward, and Pelletier should play a big role in the process.

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.