The Dallas Stars fired Peter DeBoer as head coach last Friday, just like most of us were expecting. Dallas had lost in the Western Conference final for the third straight year. Even more pressing was the decision to pull Jake Oettinger from net and comments made afterwards and at locker clean out day.
The only real surprise was that the Dallas Stars took this long to make the decision. Perhaps they wanted to wait a few days to make it look like it wasn’t just a knee jerk reaction? Your guess is as good as ours.
Firing DeBoer interesting provides a lot of clarity of where the Stars go from here. His relationship, then as head coach, between him and Oettinger was immediately called into question. Spittin’ Chiclets wasted no time comparing it to the infamous scenario that lead to Patrick Roy being traded to the Colorado Avalanche.
General Manager Jim Nill said DeBoer’s comments, not necessarily the decision to pull Oettinger, were a “component” of the decision to fire him. With DeBoer gone the Stars and fans don’t have to worry about Oettinger’s unquestioned status as number one. The decision to change coaches could be interpreted as a vote of confidence for Oettinger, as well.
Trade rumors involving star forward Jason Robertson have been heating up. Granted most of the rumors were coming from the unverifiable world of hockey fans on social media, but where there’s smoke there is fire. Rumor has it the Stars were considering a Robertson trade to clear cap space. After DeBoer’s standoff with Oettinger, you couldn’t help but think maybe there was something there at play as well.
According to a TSN article the Star have no plans on moving Robertson. With a new coach coming soon it would be an odd choice to move your star player while the rest of the team is still very much in cup contention mode. You have to imagine any new coach would want Robertson. Everything about Robertson being moved seems unlikely (but we will say there’s always a chance anything can happen) but even more so with DeBoer out of the picture.
So far we’ve pretty much summed up Oettinger and Robertson are staying put both with the team and their respective roles. Could this be a changing of the guard though in Dallas? Longtime Stars captain Jamie Benn is an unrestricted free agent this summer. The Stars need every bit of cap room they can get. With a new coach coming now might be the most organic time for the team and Benn to part ways. Benn has been durable but has had diminishing offensive returns with his age. He’s only score more than 60 points once since the Stars 2020 cup run.
Benn said he plans on playing next year and could only see himself playing with the Stars. Then head coach DeBoer said he was “praying” Benn would be back. While that was an excellent statement of support for Benn it’s from a coach who himself is no longer with the organization. No matter how much Benn, the fans, and fellow Stars players want Benn to stay too much seems to be working in the Stars favor to facilitate a clean breakup.
Would the Stars like to keep him around in a perfect world? Absolutely but in the world of the NHL cap it just might not make sense. If Steven Stamkos can leave the Lightning then Benn leaving the Stars wouldn’t be such a surprise. It’s a business decision, and this scenario sets them up to part as friends. Moving on from Benn could indicate a culture change for Dallas. Finding their new bench boss will go a long way in determining what that culture could be.