On Monday, the Dallas Stars brought back a familiar name as their head coach: Glen Gulutzan. Now 53, Gulutzan has gained a lot of experience since his first go-round in Dallas (2011-23). He’s been in the NHL continuously over the last 12 years.
Gulutzan spent three years as a Vancouver Canucks assistant under old Dallas comrade Willie Desjardins. That was followed by two years as the Calgary Flames head coach. For the last seven seasons, he was an Edmonton Oilers assistant coach. The Oilers, of course, reached the Stanley Cup Final in each of the last two seasons under Kris Knoblauch.
On June 6, the Stars fired Pete DeBoer following three straight Western Conference Final trips. Stars general manager Jim Nill sought permission from the Oilers to interview Gultzan. Teams rarely stand in the way of an assistant getting a head coach opportunity elsewhere.
It became official on July 1: “Gully” is back.
Different times, new expectations for Gulutzan
It’s much easier to describe what has not changed in Dallas since Gultzan’s first tenure than run down the massive differences between the Stars then and now. Jamie Benn is still there. Nill was hired as GM during the 2013 offseason. Oddly enough, one of his first duties was to dismiss Gulutzan and bring in a much more experienced head coach, Lindy Ruff.
Over the last 12 years, Nill has watched Gulutzan grow as a coach. The general manager gained a lot of respect for him in the process.
“He’s a young man who has paid his dues and worked his way up,” Nill said at Gulutzan’s introductory press conference.
“He’s probably the first one to admit it probably happened too soon here, but when you’re offered a job you want and have always dreamed of doing, you’re not going to say no to it. But he was willing to go backwards and make himself who he is today. We think he’s the right coach for the Dallas Stars.”
The Stars were a troubled franchise in the early 2010s. The team dealt with bankruptcy and absentee ownership. The franchise sale to Tom Gaglardi started the turnaround process. On the ice, the emergence of Benn as a bonafide major impact player and the 2013 acquisition of Tyler Seguin brought promise of a better tomorrow.
Learning experiences still lay ahead for Gulutzan. As Calgary head coach, he unwittingly made news across Canada for letting frustration get the better of him during practice one day. Things weren’t going well and Gulutzan threw a stick into the empty stands while lacing into his players. He was very apologetic afterwards. However, it set the wrong kind of image in people’s minds. It took seven years after his eventual dismissal for Gulutzan to prove himself ready for his next NHL head coaching opportunity.
Coaching a contender
During Gulutzan’s first tenure, the “pesky Stars” were a scrappy underdog team. They were just good enough to stay in the playoff chase until around April 1 but not good enough to take the next step to reaching the postseason. Things are very different now.
The expectation is no longer for the Stars to overachieve just enough to sneak into the playoffs. Rather, the Stars are a perennial Cup contender now. In the 2020s, the team reached the Cup Final once and the Western Coference Final three times,
Now, the Stars tasked Gulutzan with the job of leading the Stars through the final step. Nothing less than the Stanley Cup will suffice.
Incidentally, Gulutzan is the second two-tenure head coach head coach in the 58-year history of the Minnesota North Stars/ Dallas Stars franchise. The first was Ken Hitchcock. In 1998-99, “Hitch” coached Dallas to the only Stanley Cup championship in team history. He had a one-year stint in 2017-18, missing playoffs after he replaced Ruff.
The prospects for a better second stint than first are better for Gulutzan than they were for Hitchcock.
The Stars hired Neil Graham as an assistant coach, promoting him from the AHL’s Texas Stars. Graham will coach the forwards and the power play. The rest of the staff is largely the same.
Assistant coach Alain Nasreddine returns to direct the defense corps and penalty kill. Jeff Reese remains the goaltending coach. Meanwhile, Patrick Dolan and Chris Demczuk stay on as the team’s video coaches.
😂 that stick toss was epic around the league. I’m sure he’d like to forget it, great job Bill bringing it back to life.
One thing we’ll know for sure is Glen will have the nicest hair on the Stars bench.