Panthers’ Paul Maurice speaks out on Pete DeBoer firing

“After careful consideration, we believe that a new voice is needed in our locker room to push us closer to our goal of winning the Stanley Cup,” general manager Jim Nill said in the official announcement. “We’d like to thank Pete for everything that he has helped our organization achieve over the past three seasons and wish him nothing but the best moving forward.”

Stars players were reportedly unhappy with Pete DeBoer

It was rumored shortly after Dallas’ season ended that the players were not overly pleased with DeBoer’s decisions in the Western Conference Final. Most notably, he made questionable comments after he pulled Oettinger early in the first period of Game 5.

Dallas was unable to recover in the game and eventually lost 6-3, dropping four consecutive tilts against Edmonton after mounting a furious comeback in Game 1.

“Noise out of Dallas re: Pete DeBoer. Per multiple sources, players are not pleased with how he handled several situations during the WCF, along with post Gm5 & exit media remarks,” The Fourth Period’s David Pagnotta reported on Monday. “Told players voiced concerns during internal exit interviews. DeBoer has 1yr left on his contract.”

Nill confirmed on Friday that he had no issue with DeBoer benching Oettinger, but did have a problem with him throwing the goaltender under the bus after the game.

“The events that took place, that’s a component of it,” Nill said. “But there’s other things that take place also. It’s one part of it, but there’s other things that take place during the season. My job is to analyze everything during the year, where things are at, even the prior years … it was a component of it. But it wasn’t the final decision when we made this decision.”

Nill continued: “I got no problem with the pull, at all. If you’re coaching, just let two goals in, you gotta change momentum in that. To change the goalie, I’ve got no problem with that at all. [But] I think everybody had an issue with DeBoer’s comments. I think even Pete, a little bit remorseful of it, a little bit. I don’t think he handled it the way he wanted to. But you gotta remember you’re under the duress, the pressure of everything going on in that.”

The search for the Stars’ new bench boss will begin immediately, Nill confirmed. The franchise continues to look for the coach that will bring them back to Stanley Cup glory for the first time since 1999.