Stars interview Oilers assistant Glen Gulutzan for vacant head coach spot

Gulutzan, 53, is a familiar face to the Stars, having spent two seasons as their head coach in 2011-12 and 2012-13, after spending the two prior years running the bench for their AHL affiliate. He coached them to a 64-57-9 record across 130 games, posting a .527 points percentage, though Dallas missed the playoffs in both years, and was replaced by Lindy Ruff in 2013-14.

His stint in the Dallas organization was predated by six years as the general manager and head coach of the ECHL’s Las Vegas Wranglers.

After his time in Dallas, Gulutzan spent three years as an assistant coach with the Vancouver Canucks, and two years as head coach of the Calgary Flames before joining the Oilers in 2018-19 as a part of Todd McLellan’s staff. Gulutzan has remained with the team since under the likes of Ken Hitchcock, Dave Tippett, Jay Woodcroft and most recently Kris Knoblauch, working with the forward group and running the power play.

The Oilers power play over the time has been the leagues best, posting a league-best 26.8 percentage, and scoring the second-most power play goals in the league. Despite that, the Oilers power play took a step back this year, scoring on 23.7 percent of their chances, the 12th best rate in the league.

Gulutzan was linked to the Stars during the Stanley Cup Final, and last week, Oilers general manager Stan Bowman declined to comment when asked if the Stars had requested an interview with him.

The Stars fired head coach Pete DeBoer a week after they were eliminated by the Oilers in the Western Conference Final in five games. DeBoer put himself in the headlines during the series, once after Roope Hintz had his foot broken by a Darnell Nurse slash, saying if “Connor McDavid gets carried off the ice like that, that it’s not a five-minute major?” and later after pulling franchise goaltender Jake Oettinger in Game 5, throwing him under the bus in post game comments.

“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,” said DeBoer. “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.”