Dallas Stars fire coach Pete DeBoer after losing in the West final for a 3rd year in a row

FRISCO, Texas — Dallas Stars coach Pete DeBoer was fired Friday after three seasons with the team, getting to the Western Conference final each time but never advancing past that for a shot at the Stanley Cup.

The move came eight days after the Stars ended their season in a 6-3 loss at home to Edmonton in Game 5 of the West final.

DeBoer made the curious and much-discussed decision to bench Jake Oettinger after his star goalie gave up two goals on two shots in the first 7:09. Two days later, the coach acknowledged he still hadn't talked to Oettinger about that decision.

General manager Jim Nill said he had no problem with DeBoer's decision to pull Oettinger, or that the two didn't talk in the immediate aftermath of such a big decision.

Nill and his now-former coach agreed that DeBoer could have handled postgame comments better. DeBoer pointed out after the season-ending loss that his goalie had lost six of his past seven starts against the Oilers going into the game.

Amid reports that some players expressed concerns about DeBoer in their exit interviews, Nill said the input from players and the fallout from the Oettinger move were not the only factors in the decision.

''The events that took place, that's a component of it,'' Nill said in a news conference a few hours after the announcement. ''But there's other things that take place also. My job is to analyze everything, where are things at, even the prior years. It was a component of it, but it wasn't the final decision.''

The Oilers won four consecutive games in the series after the Stars had a five-goal outburst in the third period of Game 1 to win by that same 6-3 score.

Dallas became the first team to reach the conference finals three seasons in a row without winning at least one Cup title under the playoff format that began in 1994. The Stars didn't even give themselves a chance to play for one.

''This was very hard,'' Nill said. ''You've been to the third round, three years in a row, and to sit up here, and have to make this decision. In the end, I know what I have to do for the organization. And that's not disrespecting Pete. Pete's a great coach, great coach. He's a good man. I respect him so much.''

DeBoer, who turns 57 this month, had a 149-68-29 record in regular-season games and 29-27 in the playoffs with the Stars, whose 113 points during the 2023-24 season were just one off the franchise record set by their only Stanley Cup-winning team in 1998-99. He is 662-447-152 overall in 17 seasons with Dallas, New Jersey, Florida, Vegas and San Jose, plus 97-82 in 10 postseason appearances.

Stars owner Tom Gaglardi said the day after the season finale that DeBoer was a seasoned coach, top three to top five in the league, and that he didn't see firing DeBoer being on anyone's agenda.

Something certainly changed since then with DeBoer, who had one season remaining on his contract.

''We talk through things, and we're trying to calm the waters, too,'' Nill said when asked what changed in the wake of Gaglardi's comments. ''It's an amazing business. So we got to the third round, and it feels like we've missed the playoffs five years in a row. I find it amazing, the mindset, but that's the world we live in nowadays.''

This was the sixth time in seven seasons, with three different teams, that DeBoer took a team to the brink of the Stanley Cup Final. That included the NHL semifinals during the 2021 season with Vegas when there were no conference-based playoffs because of the COVID-19 pandemic.

DeBoer has reached the Cup final twice, losing with New Jersey in 2012 and San Jose four years later.

''He'll be all right,'' Florida coach Paul Maurice said. ''He's a good coach. I think you get elite teams, you've got to push them real hard to get to where they get to, and then at some point you need a summer off, pick your spot. He's going to be OK.''

The Stars last went to the Stanley Cup Final in 2020, the playoff held in the bubble in Canada because of the pandemic. They won the West final that year in five games over DeBoer-coached Vegas. Dallas was led by Rick Bowness, who replaced the fired Jim Montgomery during the season. DeBoer was hired after the Stars moved on from Bowness.

In their 18 playoff games this season, the Stars gave up the first goal 15 times.

Dallas was third in the NHL during the regular season with 3.35 goals per game and shut out only once, in the 79th of 82 games. The Stars averaged 2.5 goals in the playoffs with four shutout losses, including both losses in the second-round series they won in six games over top-seeded Winnipeg.

A scoreless streak of 178:57 on the road, against Winnipeg and Edmonton, was the longest in franchise playoff history. The Stars had two goals over the next three games after opening the series against the Oilers with a win.

Mikko Rantanen, acquired just before the trading deadline in March and immediately signed to a $96 million, eight-year contract extension, leads an otherwise young core that includes forwards Jason Robertson and Wyatt Johnston and defenseman Miro Heiskanen.

Oettinger also is signed long-term, just getting started on a $66 million, eight-year contract, which means any changes to the roster are likely to be on the fringes. The most notable free agent is forward Matt Duchene, who had three goals and nine assists in 37 playoff games over two seasons with the Stars.

No matter the roster changes, the new coach will inherit the expectation of a deep playoff run.

''It's a pretty good team, let's be careful,'' Nill said. ''Because you can go backwards awful quick in this business. You gotta be real careful.''

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AP Hockey Writer Stephen Whyno in Edmonton, Alberta, contributed to this report.

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