Peter DeBoer once again created his own head-coaching demise.
The now-former Dallas Stars coach again struggled to manage his team’s goaltending and effectively sealed his own fate with his pulling of Jake Oettinger and postgame comments after their season was ended in Game 5 of the Western Conference Final.
DeBoer was let go Friday morning, just eight days after he called out Oettinger and his team in a scorched-earth press conference after Dallas’ 6-3 loss to the Edmonton Oilers.
DeBoer led the Stars to the conference final in each of his three seasons behind the bench and has coached a team to the NHL’s Final Four in six of the past seven seasons. Still, he has never won the Stanley Cup and hasn’t guided his team to the Cup final since leading the San Jose Sharks there in 2016.
Why Did The Dallas Stars Fire Peter DeBoer?
Stars general manager Jim Nill said all the right things when the team released a statement announcing DeBoer’s firing.
âAfter 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,â Nill said. âWeâd 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.â
Still, the scuttlebutt around the team since his postgame tirade has been that DeBoer sealed his fate by pulling Oettinger, Dallas’ franchise goalie, after he surrendered two goals on two shots in Game 5. He then burying the goalie, who is signed for $8.2 million through 2033, during his postgame availability.
âWe were in a 2-0 hole right away, and I didnât take that lightly and I didnât blame it all on Jake,â DeBoer said. âBut the reality is if you go back to last year, heâs lost six of seven to Edmonton, and we gave up two goals on two shots in an elimination game.
âIt was partly to spark our team and wake them up and partly knowing the status quo wasnât working.â
DeBoer had one more season remaining on his contract.
Why Did Peter DeBoer Deserve To Be Fired?
The Stars’ coaching vacancy is the only left, since all other coaching moves were made before the third round.
Still, Nill undoubtedly chose to let go of DeBoer due to his mismanagement of goaltending, which continues a public trend that has been going on with DeBoer-coached teams for at more than a decade.
As coach of the New Jersey Devils in 2013-14, DeBoer struggled to transition the organization from Martin Brodeur to Cory Schneider. Schneider, who the Devils traded a first-round pick for at the 2013 draft, had a .921 save percentage and 1.97 goals-against average in 45 games.
Brodeur finished with a .901 save percentage and minus-12.3 goals-saved above average, including his six goals against on 21 shots in the Devils’ 7-3 Stadium Series loss at Yankee Stadium to the New York Rangers that year. New Jersey missed the playoffs by five points.
DeBoer was caught in a more high-profile goaltender debate while coaching the Vegas Golden Knights in 2020, when he started Robin Lehner over franchise goalie Marc-Andre Fleury in the playoffs. Fleury had carried Vegas in goal, but Lehner, who Vegas acquired from the Chicago Blackhawks in February 2020, started 16 playoff games for the Golden Knights at the bubble playoffs in Edmonton.
Lehner carried Vegas to the conference final, ironically before it lost to the Stars, but Fleury’s agent Allan Walsh made waves when he posted an image of a sword through Fleury’s back on Twitter that captivated the hockey world.
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