Let’s get rolling: Stars “fixated” on continuing Cup pursuit as training camp begins

The hard thing about making the conference finals three years in a row is the heartache that lingers and the tangible frustration of not getting over the top.

The good thing is you can turn that feeling into positive motivation.

As the Dallas Stars prepare to open training camp in Frisco on Thursday, the overwhelming vibe is hunger. Yes, the roster is changed. Yes, there is a new coaching staff. But the bottom line is the craving that carries over – even back to losing in the 2020 Stanley Cup Final – is universal in everyone who steps on the ice in Victory Green.

“It drives you,” new Stars coach Glen Gulutzan said. “As you grow older in this league, you become fixated on: `I just want to win.’”

With the Stars among the final four for three straight seasons and adding a verified superstar in Mikko Rantanen last season, they are mentioned once again as a team that could win it all.

“I think there are six to eight teams that can legitimately win the Stanley Cup,” Gulutzan added. “I was asked if that’s pressure…Well, of course that’s pressure. But I think it’s a real opportunity. It’s not often that you get a job as a head coach in this league where you get a team that has been to the final four three years in a row. That’s an opportunity, that’s the way I’m looking at it this year.”

This year will be an interesting one. The man who helped the Stars to those three final fours, head coach Pete DeBoer, has been fired. He had the best regular season record in the NHL in his time with Dallas, and yet GM Jim Nill decided it was time to change the message. DeBoer was fired in early June and Gulutzan was hired in early July. The 54-year-old started his career with the Stars back in 2009 – first as the AHL head coach and then two years in the NHL – so coming back to this organization is a little surreal. But Nill hired Gulutzan because he knows him so well, and because he is a different coach now. After leaving Dallas, Gulutzan was an assistant coach in Vancouver and then a head coach in Calgary. He spent the past seven seasons as an assistant coach for the Edmonton Oilers and helped them get to two Stanley Cup Finals, defeating Dallas in each of the past two seasons.

“First of all, he’s a good man, he’s a good teammate,” Nill said. “He knows he’s got a good team, but he’s going to put his stamp on it. I’m very confident he’ll do a good job for us.”

At the core of the Stars’ roster is a group of 20-somethings that should be getting better. Jamie Benn, 36, Matt Duchene, 34, and Tyler Seguin, 33, are the veterans, but Miro Heiskanen, 26, Jake Oettinger, 26, Jason Robertson, 26, Thomas Harley, 24, Wyatt Johnston, 22, and Lian Bichsel, 21, are key cogs in this machine.

“What I’m excited about is that we’ve got a group and they are kind of becoming our young core, and it’s time for them to take that next step,” Nill said. “I think that’s what’s going to define a big part of our season, those guys who take the next step.”

Gulutzan will have a big hand in that. He helped run the forwards and power play in Edmonton, and that included coaching superstars in Connor McDavid and Leon Draisaitl. He has a new assistant coach in Neil Graham, and that could mean significant changes in how the players are deployed and what opportunities they might have.

On paper, the team could have some issues because they have more left-handed defensemen than right-handed. Up top, there seems a huge hole on the top six’s left side created by the departure of Mason Marchment. Gulutzan said he and his coaching staff will be open to all sorts of solutions.

“I’m not married to: I have to be right on the roster when it comes to who is playing with who,” Gulutzan said. “I will move things around until I get the best combination.”

Asked if that means that players could play “out of position,” Gulutzan said yes.

“Because of the way we play, a lot of times it is easier to be on the opposite wing,” Gulutzan said. “Some of the stuff we did in Edmonton, we would bring pucks back a little bit, hold onto things rather than always just playing forward. It’s a lot easier, especially in the neutral zone, for guys that are on their off-side, so, any of these players that would love to play the off-side, I’m 100% for it.”

That could make the preseason very interesting. Dallas starts games Saturday against St. Louis and has plenty of time to work with the lineup before the regular season opener in Winnipeg on October 9.

“We’re going to go headfirst into it. It’s good to set a tone,” Gulutzan said. “We’re going to change a few things systematically, but I believe in instinctual hockey. I want these guys on instinct and intensity right away.”

That instinct will include a lot of hunger.

“There’s no quit in these guys,” Nill said. “We’ve done a lot of winning over the last five or six years. They’ll go through it, and you don’t stop because of adversity. We’ve got a bunch of players in there where they’re wired. They want to win, they know how close they’ve been.”

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.