Bob Stauffer On Glen Gulutzan Potentially Being The Next Stars Head Coach | Shan & RJ

Bob Stauffer On Glen Gulutzan Potentially Being The Next Stars Head Coach | Shan & RJ

Back Bob Stford joining us here on 1053 the fan. Good morning Bob. How are you? Good. You have to suck the life out of me. E on free agency day. I got about six hour shift coming up on the air. So uh but uh you know coaching is an important thing. And it’s ironic you got a guy from Edmonton on because one of the greatest coaches in the history of your state, Daryl K. Royal uh before he uh even went to Mississippi State or Washington coached the Edmonton Eskimos in 1953. So there’s your useless superolous information before he ended up becoming the legend that he was. I think the stadium’s named after him in Austin, isn’t it? So there you go.
Bob, how is Edmonton dealing with this cup loss versus the last one? Well, I’m going to tell you right now that you had me on uh before the morning of uh game number four of the series, and there was an incident in that game that changed the complexion of what happened with Edmonton, and that’s Mason Marchman ran into uh Zack Heyman and broke uh dislocated Zach’s wrist. There was some other damage in the hand and it knocked him out of the playoffs the rest of the way. And Edmonton was never the same team after. And people will say, “Come on, Bob. You got McDavid, you got Dry Settle. Well, of the active players in the National Hockey League, Zack Heyman has the most goals in a single playoffs. He had 16 a year ago.
Wow.
And against Florida with how they play that, you know, that high pressure physical game, Heyman being out of the Oer’s lineup for Edmonton to have as an, you know, there’s no question Florida was the better team in the finals in in six games, but Edmonton needed Heyman, and that was a huge loss. Um, the series was not as close as it was the year before. Florida deserved to win and I think because Florida deserved to win, it’s less emotional for Reuters fans. Like it was a real hard loss a year ago. Edmonton, you know, almost pulled off something that hadn’t happened since the 1940s. And so I think the fans here were pragmatic about it. They’re like,
you know, we the Oilers have won nine playoff series in the last four years. There’s organizations in the league that have been around for 50 plus years that have never done that. So, and but that’s not why you have me on. You have me on because partially what happened with Dallas. And I remember being in Dallas for game five the morning of and Peter Dbor made a comment about the players can’t or the coaches can’t put the puck in the nets for the players. And I talked to some people in our organization that day and I said if the Oders win tonight and five, I wonder if Dallas is going to have to make a coaching change. And ultimately they did. So I think that’s why he got me on today.
So you thought that was one of the comments. We were focusing obviously on the odder stuff, but um when he said we’re not that type of team to respond after what happened at the AAAC.
Yeah. Basically not wanting to hit in the playoffs. That’s I mean Florida runs over people.
Yeah. Well, he’s a good coach, but for two years in a row against the Oilers, as is to me, and and and so here’s the theory on it. Okay, you guys are the voice of the Cowboys, we talked about this last time in Edmonton, the Oilers have all the oxygen, okay? But even around Canada because McDavid and Dry Settle, they get a lot of noise. Some might say they get too much attention. Well, in Dallas, there’s the Cowboys and everybody else. and the stars start to get coverage as you go through rounds two and three. And Dallas is one of the best organizations in the NHL, best run organizations in the league. I just sensed at times I was a little surprised with Pete given the amount of experience that he had, he seemed a little irritable, like you know, and maybe it was because he could see that the series was sliding a bit. You know, they they blew the 2-1 lead against Edmonton up two nothing in game four in Edmonton in 2024. And then after game one in Dallas, I think there were a lot of people that thought the Stars were going to wallop the Oders and the Oders came back and wrestled the series from them. So I did think I I you know I I talked with key people in our organization and wondered I wonder if they make a coaching change and if they do I guarantee you they’re going to talk to Glenn Donaldson.
Bob Staer Edmonton analyst joining us here 105 through the F. All right. So you bring up Gully 7-year uh assistant with uh with Edmonton. He was here uh as a coach with the Stars. It wasn’t a very good team. He probably wasn’t given a fair shake here. But what are they getting? Well, R.J., for the last seven years, Edmonton’s had the best power play in the league at 26.8%. Now, this year, there was a bit of a drop off, but that coincided with Conor McDavid and Leon Dry Settle not playing uh one of them was out of every one of the final 14 games of the regular season. So, that knocked their power play down. they were like sixth and it dropped it to 13th. But it has been a record setting power play and so he has been a part of that and I think that uh you know Glenn has gone through Todd Mlullen, Ken Hitchcock, Dave Tippet, you guys know a couple of these guys, Jay Woodroft and now Chris Knoblock. So five different coaches. He has been a great teammate, right? Like he’s a head coach in his own right. He’s been a two-time NHL head coach. Uh he was, you know, at no point did he ever sit there and and you know, have any attitude towards Chris who was a rookie NHL head coach. He helped him and he will, you know, he will be missed on the other staff and great guy to deal with. I mean,
I’m going to date myself, but I was already doing university hockey playbyplay before Glenn played for the University of Saskatchewan. Wow.
So, I’ve known, you know, known about him for a long time and watched his career trajectory with interest. And you’re 100% right. Dallas was at a simply different uh place now than they were sort of 12 to if I’m not mistaken there was significant ownership issues back in about 1213 with the Stars. So
they just changed it.
Like you the club you guys are talking about in Dallas. This is a team that a lot of players want to go play for. Like Dallas is a hot like Edmonton’s a hot market when it has McDavid and Dry, right? and and then they got to do a real good job drafting and developing players because Everton ain’t Dallas and so Dallas has got some advantages that some other organizations just like Florida has state tax issues and things like that. Lots of guys talk very fondly of you know the Dallas experience and my experience in terms with with Bellson over the last seven years has been you know excellent. I mean he’s just a he’s just a really good guy to deal with. He’s done a great job on special teams and he was a great team player as a coach because he supported uh the coaches that he worked with whether they were really experienced or relatively inexperienced at the NHL. You know, Jay Wroft and Chris Knoblock had never been head coaches in the NHL. Todd Mlen, uh Ken Hitchcock and uh Dave Tippet, those guys got 40 years of NHL head coaching experience between the three of them. So it shows you how we can coach this with others. So, you know, look, it’s the worst kept secret. Have they made it official yet the stars that he’s coach or is it just
Yeah. Well, it’s the worst kept secret going. We know what’s going to happen. And you’re getting a guy that has already had, you know, has learned from his past mistakes, the ones that he’s made. But I also don’t think, by the way, I don’t think this is the first time Dallas has tried to hire him. I think they tried to hire him a few years ago. Maybe not as the head coach of the NHL team, but maybe to come back into the organization and maybe greater clarity can uh Jim Nil can bring some great greater clarity to that when the announcement in the press conference takes place. Bob, you know, we were just talking about how, you know, maybe some of the prickling nature to Pete Dbor got him in trouble here and, you know, some of his handling of just comments about whether it be, you know, their their play style or the way he handled the Otter situation and then talked about it afterwards. uh in terms of those sort of things, the the a little abrasive nature and some of those issues with the media, are are those kind of things not going to be an issue you’re confident with Glenn Gulletson or or is he somebody who also maybe has a little bit of an edge to him and and can handle players that way?
Well, it’s funny, right? Like I’m and maybe it’s because I like I spent eight years as an SID at a Canadian university. I got a message to anybody that’s coaching right now. If if you think breaking players down and building them up is the way to coach, you should get out of coaching. Yeah,
it’s just I you wouldn’t let your you wouldn’t let anybody do that to your kids. You’d have a little you take them for a little walk and have a little conversation if you saw somebody trying to break your kids down and build them up. No, that’s that’s not how you get the most out of people. And I’m not saying that’s what the board did. I’m just saying that today’s athletes different. The key to success in my opinion to dealing with today’s athlete is to treat them with respect and dignity from the beginning of the relationship. And when you do that, you engender passion from them and then they don’t want to they don’t want to fail you because you’ve treated them the right way right from the beginning. And I have 100% complete confidence that uh Glenn Gson going to Dallas and do that because frankly I mean he’s he’s got about as close a relationship as a coach can have with two of the best players in the world and Conor McDavid and Leon Dryidle. uh you know so you know you know he spent seven years with them through five head coaches so I yeah he’s he to me is today’s coach in terms some might say well maybe you got to be a little a little bit tougher at times but on a day-to-day basis I I you know I think I think you got to make sure that you have a a real positive relationship with people to get the most out of them Bob stars fans who are not in love with this uh hire are saying there’s no way you can argue that Glen Gullson is an upgrade or equal to Pete Dbor on paper. Would you agree with that? I would say that Pete’s had a lot of success in the league. Um it’s it’s hard to saying that if if the color guy from Edmonton is recognizing, geez, I wonder if they’re going to make a change in the morning of game five based on some comments. Uh and they’re gonna have to like I don’t think that Jim Nil want like veteran managers don’t like firing coaches. Okay. And I will also tell you that there’s some challenges economically in some markets out there where you don’t want to just, you know, have to pay a guy out for a year. Um, so I can understand people. Look, Pete Dbor is a good coach. He is. Uh, but it might have and I’m not super close to it in Dallas like I like, you know, Daryl Ray might be a better guy to ask on a on a day-to-day basis, but sometimes it’s just time. And conversely, in Gullson’s case, sometimes you just have to give people an opportunity. I bet you he’s a hell of a lot better coach now than he was when he was in Dallas before. And he’s been he’s been a part of a team that again has done a lot of winning over the last four years, just hasn’t won the ultimate prize. Unfortunately for Edmonton, they’ve lost in the last four playoff years to the team that won the Stanley Cup, which is that’s that’s a hard pill bitter pill for people to swallow. but he certainly has been a contributor to what’s been a pretty good run here in oil country.
Oil Oilers analyst Bob Staer joining us here on 1053 through the fan with Glenn Gooton being brought in with the stars or appearing to be brought in. Uh Bob, you know, a lot of the talk heading into the postseason for Dallas was that they were a finesse team. They were kind of a team that needed things to be open. They weren’t very physical. How do you look at the stars undertones of what the identity will be, how the roster construction might look? What do you look at from that angle? Oh, Sean, I think that’s interesting, right? Like I think the game’s changed. Like I I grew up playing against a guy named Todd Yu and he’s he’s no longer alive. He’s the only guy ever to knock Bob Probert out in a fight in the NHL. And everybody could like literally in junior hockey, which I was not good enough to play when there was only 12 teams in the WHL, every kid on those teams would fight. Now today in hockey, one kid on a junior team, it’s just a complete. Now, Florida had a very aggressive, assertive team, and some people thought that they had their way with Edmonton. I think there were some issues that worked to their advantage in great game three when we had a little bit of a dust up. Um, it’s still intimidation’s always going to be a part of hockey. There’s always going to be a physical nature. You do have a couple players, you know, Bashelle’s going to be a force in the league for to come in the back end. I think you’re going to have to find a way to get add a degree of physicality to your forward groups. Like it can’t just be, you know, Jamie Ben in his mid30s.
Yeah.
Mid to late 30s now, you know, 36, 37. You gota he’s got to have some more. But that’s not on the coach. That that’s going to be on, you know, Jim Nell and uh that the team there in Dallas to add. Bob, before we let you go, um is Ed the latest on Edmonton and the McDavid deal. Do you expect anything to happen there? And is Vegas now with the Marner deal maybe the top contender to Edmonton to get him out of the West? I’d say Dallas is the top competitor to I mean Vegas is Vegas is the top competitor in the Pacific division. Uh I still can’t believe Dallas beat Colorado. Like Dallas didn’t have Hishkin in and they didn’t have Robertson in that series. I I I’m stunned the Stars won that because I I thought stylistically Colorado was going to be a tougher matchup. There’s lots of good teams in the West. Uh fair comment about Marner. We we’ll see. I mean, they’re not going to have to transel. I’m going to be interested to see do they add him to fence because he’s going to be a substantial loss. Um the Oilers will make probably a couple subtle additions, but they have to get Evan Booard resigned and I got him done yesterday. That’s a piece he’s uh you know he’s led the fence scoring three straight years in a row in the playoffs. So he was a critical part of their team. McDavid, you know, look for something over the course of the summer. They didn’t get Leon Dry settle extended last year until September 3rd. I think there would be a little bit more of an impetus to try to get something done a little bit earlier and uh but there’s there’s lots of good teams in the West. So I, you know, it’s there lots of teams that are going to challenge for the conference next year to go out on the Stanley Cup.
Bob, awesome having you on again. Thank you so much. And have fun over the next six hours with your free agency show. Anytime you need a guy to talk about the connection between Daryl K. Royal and Edmonton, let me know.
The great Bob Staer, Edmonton Oilers, color analyst here on 1053. The fan [Music]

Bob Stauffer, Edmonton Oilers radio analyst, joined Shan, RJ, and Bobby to provide in-depth insight on the Dallas Stars’ potential new head coach, Glen Gulutzan. While it’s not official yet, Stauffer called it the worst-kept secret in hockey, as all signs point to Gulutzan becoming the next head coach. He discussed the coaching dynamic between Pete DeBoer and Gulutzan and explained why Gulutzan would be a better fit for today’s NHL player and a strong hire for Dallas.

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