The Dallas Stars fired coach Pete DeBoer on Friday.
DeBoer coached the Stars for three seasons and had one year remaining on his contract. The search for a new coach begins immediately.
“After careful consideration, we believe that a new voice is needed in our locker room to push us closer to our goal of winning the Stanley Cup,” Stars GM Jim Nill said in a press release.
“We’d like to thank Pete for everything that he has helped our organization achieve over the past three seasons and wish him nothing but the best moving forward.”
DeBoer had a 149-68-29 record in his three regular seasons with the club and a 29-27 playoff record.
Under DeBoer, the Stars advanced to three straight Western Conference finals. Most recently, they were eliminated by the Edmonton Oilers in five games.
During Dallas’ 6-3 loss in Game 5 against Edmonton, there was a moment between DeBoer and Stars goaltender Jake Oettinger that could’ve led to the team firing the coach.
To start the game, the Oilers scored two goals in just over seven minutes, so DeBoer called a timeout. After the timeout, players skated back toward their positions, including Oettinger.
However, as the Dallas netminder turned to go back to his crease, DeBoer called him back. Casey DeSmith filled in for the rest of the contest.
DeBoer told reporters post-game the decision to pull Oettinger was partly to wake the team up, but he also said the status quo wasn’t working.
"I didn't blame it all on Jake, but 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.
Sportsnet’s Elliotte Friedman reported on the 32 Thoughts podcast that players reacted negatively to what happened.
“They were really bothered by how Oettinger was treated,” Friedman said in their June 2 episode. “They felt he was treated wrong.”
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