Stars Dismiss Coach Pete DeBoer After Western Conference Final Exit

Dallas is making a change.

Pete DeBoer coaches a Stars playoff game against the Jets. / Jerome Miron-Imagn Images

Another short tenure for Dallas Stars coach Pete DeBoer is over.

The Stars are dismissing DeBoer after the team lost in the Western Conference final for the third consecutive year, they announced in a Friday morning statement.

“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 team statement. “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 firing adds another wrinkle to an odd journey for DeBoer—a magisterial big-game coach seemingly incapable of winning the Stanley Cup or remaining with one team long-term.

DeBoer is famously 9-0 in Game 7's, and he has two conference titles to his name with the New Jersey Devils (2012) and San Jose Sharks (2016). Both of those teams, however, lost in the Stanley Cup Final—and DeBoer has never stuck around with one team for more than five years.

A highly public row with goalie Jake Oettinger after Dallas's elimination by the Edmonton Oilers may have sealed his fate, but there's no question his next team is getting someone who knows how to win.

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