Gulutzan says the Stars were right not keeping him as coach 12 years ago, and now bringing him back

DALLAS (AP) — Glen Gulutzan believes the Dallas Stars have twice made the right decision about his coaching career, first not keeping him as their head coach 12 years ago and now bringing him back in that same role.

The Stars reintroduced Gulutzan as their coach Wednesday, with he and the franchise both in much different places than back then. One of Jim Nill’s first decisions after becoming general manager in 2013 was to make a coaching change after spending a couple of weeks talking with Gulutzan about the players he had for two seasons in his first NHL job.

“There was a little bit of a relationship formed. Now our last meeting was, `Hey, I’m not going to renew you, and hand in your keys’,” Gulutzan said Wednesday when sitting next to Nill, who is still the Dallas GM. “At the end of the day, Jim was right. This is a league where you’ve got to get some wounds on you, some scars. ... You’ve got to gain experience.”

Gulutzan, who turns 54 next month, has that after coaching with three different teams in Canada. He was an assistant the past seven seasons with Edmonton, including the last two making the Stanley Cup Final after beating Dallas for the Western Conference title, after two seasons as Calgary’s head coach and a stint as a Vancouver assistant.

“I’m kind of piecing it together a little bit, so 12 years ago Jim actually sent me on a reconnaissance mission, and that was up through Western Canada,” Gulutzan said with a smile. “He didn’t tell me until about a week ago that he was bringing me back.”

Not only was Gulutzan a first-time NHL head coach when hired by the Stars in 2011, that was when the franchise was going through bankruptcy and an ownership change, and basically run by the league.

Gulutzan’s two seasons wrapped up a franchise-long streak of five consecutive missed playoffs before Lindy Ruff took the Stars back. They had been in the postseason 10 of 11 seasons before that, including their only Stanley Cup title in 1999 and another Western Conference championship this next year under Ken Hitchcock, the only other person to have two stints as Dallas’ head coach.

The current Stars are coming off three consecutive seasons that ended in the West final, and six playoff appearances in seven years with a Stanley Cup Final appearance in the Canadian bubble during the COVID-impacted 2020 playoffs.

When Nill decided in the wake of the latest playoff loss to fire Pete DeBoer after three seasons, the GM said he interviewed numerous coaches at all levels. His process kept coming back to the coach he didn’t keep in 2013.

“Speaking with people he worked with, he worked for, all I ever heard about is he’ll go through the wall for you. He’s organized, he’s professional, he cares about people,” Nill said. “His resume and experience over the years have prepared him for this opportunity. ... It’s one thing to have success, but you’ve got to go through tough times. Everybody does. And it’s those tough times when you find out who you are, and that’s what Glen has done.”

There were also opportunities to work with coaches like John Tortorella, Hitchcock, Dave Tippett and Kris Knoblauch.

Gulutzan was 64-57-9 with the Stars from 2011-13, then went to Vancouver before an 82-68-14 record as head coach of the Flames from 2016-18. He then joined the Oilers staff, and was part of 79 playoff games over the past five years.

The only player still with the Stars from Gulutzan’s first tenure is captain Jamie Benn, who recently signed a contract to return for a 17th season.

Nill met with Gulutzan a few days after Edmonton’s season ended with a Game 6 loss to Florida in the Stanley Cup Final.

“I was so impressed for a guy that was devastated after you lose, how he conducted himself, how we spoke about situations,” Nill said. “The job resume when you’re a head coach in the NHL is X’s and O’s. It’s strategies, it’s game plans. We all know that, but ultimately in the end, character matters.”

It was still a bit surreal for Gulutzan to be back in the Stars’ home arena, where he was a first-time NHL head coach in his early 40s, and only about six weeks after being in the opposing locker room following Edmonton’s loss in Game 1 of the West Final.

“I was on the other side cursing the team out when they beat us in Game 1, and now I’m sitting here,” he said. “But for me, it still feels like home. So it’s an easy adjustment.”