Dallas Stars fire head coach Pete DeBoer

“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,” General Manager Jim Nill said in a press release. “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.”

Following the team’s Game 5 loss to the Oilers on May 29, DeBoer didn’t hold back when asked about goaltender Jake Oettinger, who let in two goals on two shots, getting pulled in favour of Casey DeSmith after just 7:09 of gameplay.

“I didn’t blame it all on Jake, but the reality is if you go back to last year’s playoffs, he’s lost six of seven games to Edmonton,” DeBoer said. “And we give up two goals on two shots in an elimination game. It was partly to spark our team and wake them up, but also knowing that the status quo had not been working. That’s a pretty big sample size.”

In three seasons with the Stars, the 56-year-old DeBoer recorded a 149-68-29 record in 246 regular-season games. He led the team to three consecutive Western Conference Final appearances, posting a 29-27 record in 56 playoff games.

Earlier in the playoffs, DeBoer became the first coach or manager in North American professional sports history to earn nine Game 7 victories, doing so after the Stars defeated the Colorado Avalanche 4-2 in Game 7 of their first-round matchup. His record in Game 7 contests is 9-0.

DeBoer has coached a team during every NHL season since the 2008-09 campaign. During that time, he’s compiled a record of 662-447-152 in 1,261 career games with the Stars, Vegas Golden Knights, San Jose Sharks, New Jersey Devils and Florida Panthers.

Before getting his start at the professional level, DeBoer took an assistant coaching job with the Detroit Whalers in 1994-95 and spent the next 14 years in the Ontario Hockey League. Between 1995-96 and 2000-01, he led the Detroit/Plymouth Whalers to two OHL Final appearances and was named OHL Coach of the Year in 1998-99.

DeBoer would take over the Kitchener Rangers in 2001-02, and the following season would lead the team to both the J. Ross Robertson Cup and the Memorial Cup, their first championships since 1982. The team would win another OHL Championship in 2007-08 before losing in the Memorial Cup Final to the WHL’s Spokane Chiefs.