Dallas Stars Fire Head Coach Glen Gulutzan After Missing The Playoffs
The Dallas Stars have fired head coach Glen Gulutzan after the team missed the playoffs for a franchise-record fifth consecutive season. The Stars finished at the bottom of the Pacific Division in the Western Conference in 2013 with a 22-22-4 record.
Gulutzan spent two seasons with the Stars after coaching the majority of his career in major junior hockey and in the minor leagues. Last season, he led the Stars to a 42-35-5 record though they fell six points short of a playoff berth.
Glen Gulutzan got the job as the Stars’ head coach after the 2011 season as he led the team’s American Hockey League affiliate, the Texas Stars, to the playoffs in each of his two years as their coach. His success in the minors was capped off by a run to the Calder Cup Finals during the 2010-2011 season in his first year with the Texas Stars.
He came to Dallas in hopes of rebuilding on a franchise that was synonymous with winning when captain Mike Modano led the team to a Stanley Cup victory in 1998-99. Gulutzan’s aspirations never produced on the ice at the top level and the Dallas Stars’ have now fired the coach just weeks after the regular season ended.
Gulutzan’s team was quite competitive in his first year as a coach in the NHL, but any improvements this year didn’t have enough affect on the front office to keep him around any longer.
The Stars finished much worse than they started in 2013 with five straight losses to end the season, which eventually led to Glen Gulutzan’s dismissal. Assistant coach Paul Jerrard was also fired by new general manager Jim Nill, though the team has decided to stick with assistant Curt Fraser and goaltending coach Mike Valley.
“They are both quality coaches and men, but we have decided to go in a different direction with our coaching staff and we wish them well in their next endeavors,” Nill said in a statement about the team’s decision to fire Gulutzan and Gerrard.
Did the Dallas Stars make the right decision by firing Glen Gulutzan and taking the team in a different direction?
