Pete DeBoer has coached his team to the Western Conference Final six of the last seven seasons.
DALLAS — The Dallas Stars fired coach Pete DeBoer after the team made it to Western Conference Final, the team announced Friday.
The search will begin for the next head coach of the Dallas Stars, effective immediately, the team said in a release.
DeBoer earned a 149-68-29 record in 246 regular-season games over three seasons with the Stars, leading the club to three consecutive Western Conference Final appearances. He posted a 29-27 record in 56 Stanley Cup Playoff games.
“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 General Manager Jim 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 made it to the Western Conference Final in all three seasons under DeBoer, but lost all three times. Dallas lost to the Vegas Golden Knights in 2022, then against the Edmonton Oilers in the past two seasons.
The firing comes after DeBoer pulled Stars goaltender Jake Oettinger in Game 5 against the Oilers, and the team was eliminated from the playoffs after a 6-3 loss. The Stars netminder called the experience “embarrassing.”
In fact, this is not the first time — nor the second — DeBoer has been fired after leading his team to the conference final.
Pete DeBoer coaching history
DeBoer-led teams have made the Western Conference Final in six of the last seven seasons:
- San Jose Sharks: 2018
- Vegas Golden Knights: 2019 and 2020
- Dallas Stars: 2022 to 2024
DeBoer was fired by the Sharks after a 15–16–2 start to the 2019 season. Just a over a month after being fired by the Shark, DeBoer was hired as the head coach of the Vegas Golden Knights, replacing Gerard Gallant. DeBoer and the Golden Knights lost to the Dallas Stars in the Western Conference Final that season.
DeBoer led the Golden Knights back to the Western Conference Final in 2020-21, where they lost to the Montreal Canadiens.
Vegas then missed the playoffs in 2021-22 and DeBoer was “relieved of his duties” in May 2022.
Again, DeBoer remained on the market for only about a month and was named the Dallas Stars head coach in June 2022, replacing Rick Bowness.
The DeBoer era with the Stars was arguably the second-most successful in team history, behind only the Ken Hitchcock-led Stars team that qualified for the playoffs five straight seasons, made three Western Conference Final appearances, and made back-to-back Stanley Cup Final appearances, including winning it all in 1999.