For nearly a year, Gulutzan has been making plans to make a return to Texas.
Grace Gulutzan, that is. The teenager is a first-year softball pitcher and utility player who will be taking her talents to Hill College, about an hour south of Dallas. Itâ€s a bit of a homecoming. Grace spent four pre-school years in the Lone Star State while her father, Glen Gulutzan, was coaching the AHLâ€s Texas Stars and then the NHLâ€s Dallas Stars.
“She went to kindergarten in Dallas, so she didnâ€t remember much about it,†Glen said. “But sheâ€s excited to go and play softball.â€
Months after Graceâ€s commitment, another spin of the NHLâ€s coaching carousel will have parents Glen and Nicole landing close at hand. One day after the Boston Bruins filled the last of this springâ€s eight other off-season coaching vacancies in early June, three-time reigning GM of the Year Jim Nill made the difficult decision to open another. Nill fired then-coach Peter DeBoer June 6, despite the Stars coming off a 106-point season and their third trip to the Western Conference final in as many years.
When the announcement came down, Gulutzan was a bit too preoccupied to give the opening a second thought. At the time, he was busy running the vaunted Edmonton Oilers power play as one of Kris Knoblauchâ€s assistants behind the bench. But once the Florida Panthers eliminated the Oilers June 17, the interview process unfolded at warp speed.
“Iâ€m calling him and getting permission from Edmonton to interview him, and I need to get him down ASAP,†Nill said. “He agrees to come down, and we had an interview.â€
Two weeks later, Gulutzan was being introduced to the media as Dallas†new coach, in the same market where heâ€d started his NHL coaching career 14 years earlier.
Gulutzan, 54, was born in The Pas, Man., and grew up in Hudson Bay, Sask. Heâ€s now tasked with getting the perennially contending Stars to take that final step. “For a guy that was devastated after you lose (the Stanley Cup), I was so impressed with how he conducted himself and how he spoke about situations,†Nill said.
“Character matters with your team and, most importantly, your head coach. Your head coach is your leader. I look at Glen, and, ultimately, what brought me back to him was his leadership and his ability to have a team-first mentality. You win and lose as a team.â€
Todayâ€s Stars are one of the NHLâ€s model franchises, and they are built to win now. That was decidedly not the case during Gulutzanâ€s first go around in Texas. When he was hired to coach the organizationâ€s brand-new AHL club in Austin in 2009, a bumpy transition was underway from then-owner Tom Hicks to current steward Tom Gaglardi.
But when opportunity knocked after six years at the helm of the ECHLâ€s Las Vegas Wranglers, a then-38-year-old Gulutzan made the leap. He and Nicole – along with the coupleâ€s four young children – moved to the Austin suburb of Cedar Park. “It was a very exciting time in my life because I was coming from the ECHL,†Gulutzan said.
The Texas Stars aimed to enhance hockeyâ€s footprint in the state after the organizationâ€s affiliation in Iowa fizzled out. And the Austin startups were an instant success. In his first season, Gulutzan took the new fan base on a ride all the way to the Calder Cup final. During that post-season, the team was led by a 20-year-old Jamie Benn, who had been assigned to the AHL after a 22-goal NHL rookie campaign in Dallas. Benn then led Texas with 26 points in 24 playoff games.
For a guy that was devastated after you lose (the Stanley Cup), I was so impressed with how he conducted himself- Stars GM Jim Nill
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This fall, Gulutzan will reunite with Benn as the latter returns to Dallas for his 17th season – and his 13th as captain. After logging 49 points in 2024-25, the 36-year-old Benn needs another 44 to join Mike Modano as the only other player in franchise history to reach 1,000 points.
“Iâ€ve kept in touch with Jamie over the years,†Gulutzan said. “That relationship has maintained because I certainly respect Jamie and everything heâ€s done. I loved him as a player.â€
Benn and Gulutzan got within two games of the Calder Cup in 2010. And while each has also now reached the Stanley Cup final during their respective NHL career, neither has won it all.
“For me, the biggest thing with Jamie, going right back to Austin, is ‘Letâ€s finish this thing off,††Gulutzan said.
Gulutzan spent two seasons in Austin before the Stars promoted him to the NHL bench, where he spent two more working with Benn and one of the leagueâ€s lowest-paid rosters. Gulutzanâ€s Stars put up a record of 64-57-9, with the 2012-13 owners†lockout limiting his second year behind the bench to just 48 games.
Once Gaglardi was comfortably settled into his ownerâ€s chair in the spring of 2013, he lured Nill and his four Stanley Cup rings away from Ken Hollandâ€s management group in Detroit. Nill elected to start fresh with his own veteran coach, Lindy Ruff, triggering an odyssey for Gulutzan that would see him work with some of the most storied names in the coaching fraternity.
“Twelve years ago, Jim actually sent me on a reconnaissance mission,†Gulutzan joked at his opening presser. “That was up through Western Canada – Vancouver, Calgary and Edmonton. He didnâ€t tell me until about a week ago that he was bringing me back, and the mission was over.â€
First stop: three seasons with the Canucks. Running the penalty kill, Gulutzan assisted John Tortorella and worked with fellow assistant Mike Sullivan for a year, then spent two seasons under his own former assistant coach from the Stars, Willie Desjardins.
“When I got let go in Dallas, the chance to work for a veteran coach was very appealing,†he said. “It was a real good learning experience for me to be with John and to see a veteran guy who had won a Stanley Cup. And, obviously, Mike Sullivan was there as well – two Cups himself. That year was a real growth year for me.â€
Tortorella lasted just one season in Vancouver, and Sullivan left with him. But when new team president Trevor Linden tapped Desjardins as his first coaching hire, Gulutzan was kept on by his former colleague.
In 2016, the Calgary Flames came knocking with another head job. But again, the environment was challenging. In a period of transition, the Flames had missed the playoffs in six of the previous seven seasons. In Bob Hartleyâ€s final year, they sank to 77 points.
When Gulutzan arrived, a strong, young nucleus was forming around Johnny Gaudreau, Sean Monahan, Rasmus Andersson and freshly minted sixth-overall pick Matthew Tkachuk. That group returned to the post-season in 2017, but a miss one year later spelled the end of the road for Gulutzan again. He left Calgary with a record of 82-68-14.
Next stop, Edmonton. Todd McLellan brought Gulutzan in to help improve a power play that was coming off a last-place finish (14.8 percent) in 2017-18 despite having heavy hitters Connor McDavid and Leon Draisaitl. By November, the Oilers fired McLellan and replaced him with Ken Hitchcock. After that, Dave Tippett, Jay Woodcroft and Kris Knoblauch were, in turn, each handed the keys to Oil Country. But even though most bench bosses are eager to bring in their own people when they start a new job, Gulutzan stayed on through those four regime changes, watching each new hire put their unique stamp on the Oilers as he continued to finesse the teamâ€s superstars into one of the leagueâ€s most consistently lethal power-play units.
Twelve years ago, Jim actually sent me on a reconnaissance mission. He didnâ€t tell me until about a week ago- Glen Gulutzan
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Gulutzanâ€s success came from teaching his players how to combine Xâ€s and Oâ€s with natural impulses. Itâ€s a coaching style he plans to replicate in Dallas.
“The biggest thing for me is putting together a system to make the players the most instinctual they can be,†he said. “When theyâ€re playing on instinct, playing a little bit of road hockey, thatâ€s when you get the best performance.â€
While many new coaches look to turn around underperforming rosters, Gulutzan is now taking over a Stars squad full of thoroughbreds, including Jake Oettinger in net, Miro Heiskanen and rising star Thomas Harley on the blueline and a high-IQ forward group made up of savvy vets like Benn, Matt Duchene and Mikko Rantanen and a younger wave led by Wyatt Johnston.
Gulutzan doesnâ€t have to reinvent the wheel. And in a league where parity predominates even while the Panthers reign as todayâ€s big cats, heâ€s happy to leave the ‘Cup or Bust†mantra back in Edmonton. After getting a first-hand look at Floridaâ€s bruising style in the past two Cup finals, Gulutzan believes the Stars†best path to success isnâ€t a copycat approach.
“I donâ€t think every team can play that way,†he said. “And I donâ€t know if that style would suit us the best.â€
Still, every winner serves up takeaways that can be applied.
“If weâ€re going to make the next step, Iâ€d love to use that hockey IQ we have,†Gulutzan said. “But I also know thereâ€s one degree of heavier-grinding, finishing-your-check, holding-onto-the-puck hockey that needs to come into play. Because every round ramps up a bit. I think you have to build that into 82 games. You canâ€t just turn it on at the end.â€
This article appeared in our 2025 Meet the New Guys issue. The cover story for this issue features the newest Vegas Golden Knight, Mitch Marner, as he looks to shine in the desert. We also include features on new Jets forward Jonathan Toews, Canadiens D-man Noah Dobson and more. In addition, we take a look at the top ‘new guys’ from each NHL division.
You can get it in print for free when you subscribe to The Hockey News at THN.com/Free today. All subscriptions include complete access to more than 76 years of articles at The Hockey News Archive.
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