Stars fire coach after third straight Western Conference final appearance

The Dallas Stars fired head coach Pete DeBoer after three seasons in which he led the team to three consecutive NHL Western Conference finals appearances, the team announced Friday.

The move comes after the Stars were eliminated in five games by the Edmonton Oilers in the Western Conference finals last week, despite having home-ice advantage. In Game 5, DeBoer was questioned for benching goalie Jake Oettinger after he gave up two goals in the first seven minutes and admitted he didn’t talk to Oettinger about his decision making.

‘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. That’s a pretty big sample size.’

General manager Jim Nill said the Oettinger situation was ‘a component’ of the decision but said there were other things that happen during the season. ‘It wasn’t the final (reason) we made this decision,’ he said.

DeBoer has a year left on his contract. He finished his Dallas tenure with a 149-68-29 record.

‘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,’ Nill said. ‘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.’

The Stars had made major moves to put them in position for a championship run, including a March trade that landed them forward Mikko Rantanen from the Carolina Hurricanes. The Hurricanes received a haul in the exchange, which included forward Logan Stankoven, a conditional 2026 first-round pick, a conditional 2028 first-round pick, a 2026 third-round pick, and a 2027 third-round pick.

Rantanten, who had nine goals and 13 assists during the 2025 playoffs, was immediately signed to an eight-year, $96 million contract extension.

DeBoer, 56, has taken three different teams to the conference finals in the last seven seasons, including the Vegas Golden Knights in 2020, who lost to the Stars and the San Jose Sharks in 2019.

All of the NHL coach openings have been filled after the hirings of the Penguins’ Dan Muse and the Bruins’ Marco Sturm.

Nill said he will be open-minded about who he hires to replace DeBoer.

‘There are some good young coaches out there,’ he said.