June 21: The team has now officially announced DeBoer as the next head coach of the Stars. While the team did not release financial information or term, LeBrun reports that it is a four-year deal worth $4.25MM per season.
General manager Jim Nill released the following statement:
Pete brings a wealth of experience to our dressing room, and we’re thrilled to name him our next head coach. Every team that he has taken over has not only shown immediate improvement but has been ultra-competitive in the Stanley Cup Playoffs. He has taken five teams to the Conference Finals, and two of those to the Stanley Cup Final, in his 14 years as a head coach. His resume displays the high standards he sets and his ability to get his team to play up to that level consistently. We’re excited to welcome Pete and his family to Dallas.
June 19: A pair of coaching vacancies have been filled in recent days with Vegas and Philadelphia finding their new bench bosses. It appears Dallas is on the verge of doing the same as Sportsnet’s Elliotte Friedman reports (Twitter link) that the Stars are expected to name Peter DeBoer as their new head coach. ESPN’s Greg Wyshynski adds (Twitter link) that an official announcement is not expected to come tonight with Pierre LeBrun of TSN and The Athletic notes (Twitter link) contract terms are still being discussed.
DeBoer was a fairly late entrant into the coaching market this spring as Vegas waited a couple of weeks before making the decision to part ways with him. He had a pretty successful run with the Golden Knights he led the team to a 98-50-12 record in 160 regular season games, good for a .650 points percentage. Vegas also had two good playoff runs with him at the helm as they went 22-17 over that stretch. However, it was the fact that they didn’t make it to the postseason that resulted in his departure with Bruce Cassidy taking over that job on Tuesday.
Meanwhile, the Stars have been on the lookout for their next bench boss for the past month after the team and Rick Bowness mutually agreed to part ways with their assistant coaches also departing. Dallas finished in the top Wild Card spot in 2021-22 (four points ahead of Vegas) and gave Calgary a pretty good run in the first round before ultimately falling in seven games which led to them changing things up.
The fact that the Stars are looking for a win-now coach doesn’t come as much of a surprise as they largely have a veteran core in place with a team that’s built more for the present than the future. Under Bowness, Dallas has consistently been one of the stronger defensive teams in the league but they have also found themselves in the bottom half of the league offensively with Tyler Seguin and Jamie Benn both taking considerable steps back in recent years. Considering both are on the books at a high price tag ($9.5MM for Benn, $9.85MM for Seguin), finding a coach that can coax more out of them offensively would certainly help their chances moving forward.
Dallas GM Jim Nill feels DeBoer is the coach that can bring out more offensive production without drastically compromising their defensive principles. There is some recent cause for optimism on that front based on his time with the Golden Knights as Vegas was in the top half of the NHL in both goals scored and allowed in each of his three seasons with them.
DeBoer sits 27th all-time in games coached at 1,015 and is 26th in wins with 513 and assuming this contract becomes official, he’ll have a chance to improve those numbers on a Stars team that should once again be in the playoff mix in 2022-23. He’ll become the fifth different head coach for Dallas since 2013 when Jim Nill took over with the others being Lindy Ruff, Ken Hitchcock, Jim Montgomery, and Bowness.
Photo courtesy of USA Today Sports Images.
lmao idiots
Why? Like what a stupid move
Hope this works.
Swing and a miss. This one is going to cost Nill his job. What a bad hire.
The guy has regularly coached winning teams for a decade and has taken two teams to the Cup Final,. Yet he is a bad hire for Dallas?
Yeah he’s a retread who’s taking a roster that’s less talented than the one he didn’t make the playoffs with last year.
His teams haven’t won sh*t. Hard for Peter to drink without a cup. Should have hired Savard.
Such a stars move. Mediocre safe hire, like all the others outside of Monty, who was easily nill’s best hire.
In other words, the usual bull$hit that a coach who hasn’t won a Cup is worthless, which leaves out all but six guys in the last decade.
By your standards, after all, Savard is a loser: he’s never led a team to the Cup. Montgomery is a loser: he’s never led a team to the Cup.
Hell, by your standards, there are only two guys available who aren’t losers: Claude Julien and Randy Carlyle. (Bet you’d find some reason to complain about Dallas hiring them as well.)
How many retreads have won their first cup after their fourth stop in the last 20 years?
@Nha Trang
Isn’t Trotz available? I do believe he won a Cup with Washington in 2018.
And well … Seguin and Benn are both in their thirties. Players in every sport decline as they age, some earlier than others. Sucks to be hooked into those gigantic deals, but no one forced Dallas to agree to max term.
how does this guy keep doing it?
Another retread being hired in the NHL. Shocker!
Should improve the Stars offensive side of their game at least.
4m a year for that
4m a year for that clown
this guy keeps getting hired and fired…. New Jersey, San Jose, Vegas and now Dallas all in the last 7 or 8 years or so….. lets see if he last 2 seasons here like his track record.