FULL PRESS CONFERENCE: Dallas Stars fire Pete DeBoer | Jim Nill speaks with media

FULL PRESS CONFERENCE: Dallas Stars fire Pete DeBoer | Jim Nill speaks with media

Well, I wanna uh welcome everyone. Um, Today was a tough day. Uh, I spoke with Pete, uh, this morning at 9 o’clock. Uh, great conversation. Uh, he’s very professional and, and he understands and, uh. We have a very good relationship, so uh but that’s what makes it probably the hardest, um. I wanna, I wanna thank Pete, uh, first of all, he’s a great man, he’s a great coach. And he had, he had great success here in Dallas and have the utmost respect for him as a person and a coach. In the end it’s my responsibility to make a decision that’s. The right decision for the organization moving forward and uh after. A year end review talking to players, uh, exit interviews, medicals, everything we go through, uh. Uh, we got together as an organization. I got together with Pete, talked to everybody, and I just think it’s just time right now, uh, to make that next step. And uh it’s a decision we have to make and uh like I said we’re very careful with our decision and uh we look look forward to moving to the next step. uh I’ll start the process now of interviewing coaches and uh go from there. I’m gonna really open it up to uh questions now, go from there. A lot is going to be made about the comments that had at the end of season media availability and after the game I lost about Jake Auder’s performance specifically. How much did that and the potential, I guess, strain between the players and the coach play into your decision? That The events that took place, that’s a component of it, but there’s other things that take place also it it it’s one part of it, uh, but there’s other things that take place during the season, uh, as I mentioned, my job is to, uh, analyze everything during the year where things at, even the prior years, uh, but it was a component of it, uh, but it wasn’t the final uh decision when we made this decision. How much did that player input play a role in the decision? What, what I do it end of every season, players, uh, they, they deserve to be heard. Uh, I’ve been in the business a long time and, uh, I, I, I interview all the players. I tell them to be truthful with me, but I’m also, I’ve been around long enough to know if a guy’s only getting 5 minutes ice time, he’s not gonna like the coach. I understand that. So I take it all in. I analyze it, uh. We talk about it internally. Some of it comes into play, some doesn’t. — Did you have to really balance those things off
— the Ottinger stuff in the end he was just one component was he in trouble even if he won the Edmonton? That’s, you know, I, I don’t know that, you know, until you get to the end to the situations that I really can’t answer that, you know, it’s something I would have analyzed, uh, but you know it did come into play, uh, but that’s would have been something I would analyze more so I really can’t say whether or not. Um, the day after he wasn’t inclined to make a change. What, what changed between then and now. Uh, we, we talked through things and uh. We’re trying to calm the waters too. You, you wanna, you know, you end the season. It’s, it’s an amazing business. So we got to the 3rd round and it feels like we’ve missed the playoffs 5 years in a row and, uh, I, I find it amazing the mindset of, but that’s the world we live in nowadays, um, so when the season ends. You wanna calm the waters, you wanna sit back and analyze everything, and that’s what we did and made some other decisions. What is gonna happen with the staff and then what’s the process of hiring into that? Do you have a vision of what you need for a new coach. We’re just starting that process now. uh, have a vision. We’re gonna be very wide, uh, open minded. uh, the other coaches, everything’s fine with them. I, I plan on them being part of this. They’ve done a great job. They have a year left and, uh, they did a good job also, done a lot of winning. You said that you felt like it was time for a new voice in the room. Does that mean that any I guess like a nazarine or SA or somebody like that is not that new voice or are you gonna look at internal candidates as well as external? Uh, I’m gonna look at everything. I’m gonna look internally. I’m gonna look externally. Uh, it’s different when you have a voice as an assistant coach, whereas you have a voice as a head coach, so I, I could be open minded to all this. — You feel
— like. — Pete lost
— the room. No, it, you know, it was, you know, Pete and I were talking and we were talking during the season after the four nations. It was a grind. It was a grind now for different reasons, uh, a lot of injuries, major injuries to the team, uh, you know, the schedules are grind as it is anyways, and, and every team goes through grinds. That’s the way it is, but it, uh, you know, the injuries really hurt us and it just Pete felt like he was pushing every button he could in that and I respect that he was and so I, I respect that. Um, and so that’s, you know, comes into the decision making too. What was your reaction when he pulled that from where you were in the arena? I mean, yeah, I, I’m, I’m glad that’s brought up. I got no problem with the pole at all. Uh, if I’m, if you’re coaching, we’ve just let two goals in, you gotta change momentum in that, um, so to change the goal, I got no problem with that at all. I, I think everybody did. Uh, you know, I think even Pete a little bit remorseful of it, a little bit, uh, so I, you know, I don’t think he handled that the way he wanted to, uh, but you gotta remember you’re under duress, the, — the pressure of everything going on in
— that he express any of that in your talks today? Yeah, I’ve been talking with Pete all week, so we’ve had some great discussions in that, yeah, Jim, were you surprised that you know when he came in this room two days after that loss that he still hadn’t spoken with. Yeah, I, no, I’m not surprised. I, I’m in, I’m, I’m down in that room and that, and there’s a process that goes through that. I get back to, we played the game Thursday night, Friday, you. Your head’s spinning. You just lost it. What it takes to get into the 1st, 2nd, 3rd, 4th rounds, it, it’s, it’s depleting and all of a sudden you go from Friday’s nothing and uh Saturday we’re having, uh, exit interviews and he comes to sit here is where I’m sitting right now and you guys start seeing to talk to Jake and it’s just like, well no I haven’t no I haven’t but there’s a lot going on in Jake’s head, a lot going on in Pete’s head, so. Kind of an unfair, I guess, uh, judgment on that, that situation. I’m not coming up short 6 times in a row. What do you evaluating that aspect of his journey and. Ha Well, I know there’s a lot of coaches on the NHL would love to have that resume. Uh, he’s he’s, he’s a great coach and, uh, he’s disappointed hasn’t made it either, uh, but that’s what keeps you going and, uh, you know, he, he’s gonna move on. He’s gonna coach another team and, uh, probably do the same thing. He’s been fired a handful of times over the past decade. I think that it is. It, it’s a, it’s a tough gig. Coaching is a tough job and, uh, uh, the athletes nowadays, the money involved, uh, the pressure that goes into it now, it’s, it’s a tough job and it’s, uh, you’re, you’re dealing with, uh, 20 to 30 players in that room all the time and. These, these guys are thoroughbreds. They’re, they’re wired. They’re the best in the world and they wanna, they want the race time. They want this. It’s a tough job coaching, uh, and, and I, I, I give a lot of respect to all the coaches HL and it is a tough, tough job. for that resume, we think that’s some of the hardest decisions. When we factor that in, how hard is it? This was very hard. You stand up here and you’ve been in the, uh, 3rd round 3 years in a row and, uh, to sit up here and have to make this decision, but in the end I know what I have to do for the organization and that’s not disrespecting Pete. Pete’s a great coach, uh, great coach. He’s a good man. I respect him so much, uh, but in the end I have to do what I think is right for the organization moving forward. Is there with the team that’s been this close, is there an inclination to go to a veteran coach as opposed to somebody. Yeah, we were talking about that internally, but, uh, I wanna be open minded. There’s some good young coaches out there, you know. I’m, I’m gonna use an example, you know, Jim Montgomery I brought in here and did a great job for some other circumstances things happen, but now you see the job he’s doing in, you know, he did in Boston and did in Saint Louis, so. Much like the players are different from 15 years ago, I think the coaches are different from, uh, the past and that. Uh, these guys are all, they’re career coaches, they’re well schooled, uh, they live and diet and You know, eventually there’s gonna be another. Where’s the next Pete De Boer, you know, where’s the next Scotty Bowman? They’re out there somewhere and so we wanna be open minded that. Along those lines this team 3 straight conference finals. There’s almost an expectation that’s where next season starts in the conference finals. How hard is that to do? You know what the roster is. You know what, no, it’s a great question. It, it, it’s hard. It’s hard to do, uh, but that’s uh, that’s our goal again, get back at it and, and that didn’t just to back up the other question asked about what type of coach with our assistant coaches are very experienced. We got a good staff here, very experienced, so, uh, I’m not, I’m not too worried to bring experienced guy in great being inexperienced guy, I guess inexperienced term in that he’s got great support, so just to kind of. Verify that. Jim, you basically have less than a month between the draft and free agency. What’s the process for making alterations to your roster to improve it, but you’re also trying to find out what your style of player or what your philosophy is gonna be because now you have to install a new head coach. What is that process? Well, we got, you know, I’m, I’m starting the coaching process right away. Uh, if you wanna ride, you can ride with me down to Austin. Our farm teams still playing, so come down there with me and we can patch it over in that. So we’re busy with that also, which is great, you know, those guys are getting development down there, um, and then we’re having our, we have our scouting meetings coming up here next Thursday and Friday. So that’s when we’ll really kind of sit down and say, OK. You know, we got some decisions to make signing guys, we got, uh, you got cap issues we’ve talked about different things going on so it’ll be a hectic 3 weeks here, but, uh. Well, we’ll get it done. We got, I got a great staff here and, uh, yes, well, yeah, well. We’ll see. No just kidding. You know you’re always welcome. You’re always welcome. Like, yeah, I’ll get the big suburban. We’ll all pile in. Jason Robertson, uh, contract expires at the end of next season. Have you guys broach the subject of extensions or like. Yeah, we’re not allowed to yet. Uh, we just gotta wait, uh, and he’s just to clarify things, so he’s still restricted the year after, so it, it, uh, but you can’t do anything till July 1st. So like I said, we’ve got this going on. I got scouting means going on, so that that that definitely he’s he’s a good player, so it’s somebody that, uh. Like I say, we’ll see where the signings go. Do we, how do you fit in the cap? Those are things, those are decisions we have to make moving forward here. Jim, speaking of leadership, we were in this room last September, uh, talking about Jamie Ben entering the last year of his contract. He said as long as you’re the GM of this team, you want him to be as I talked to Jamie exit interviews and uh. He wants to, he wants to continue playing, and I want him back and now what we just have to work on the contract and he’s been very patient. He knows our situation. He’s kind of unique. We can, he can be bonused, uh, so that really changes his contract’s status for us which helps us. With Matt similarly, I know he said he’s kind of looking for more security. Does that maybe try some out of you guys’ plans, or is that something that’ll depends what what he wants for security and how much money he wants. Those are the things we have to juggle. That’s why we’re meeting next week. Those are things we, we, we’ve got to juggle here and. Uh, the calculator starts stops at that 955, and after that it goes red numbers. So those are things we gotta, we gotta figure out. I’d love to have Matt back and he was our leading scorer and, uh, he’s a good player and a big part of our dressing room. You also mentioned being open minded coaching search and driving down to Austin, of course. Neil Graham’s down there. When you look at a coach like that he’s had a lot of success, he hasn’t coached in the NHL before, but is that something where you want him to get experience on the NHL bench before taking that job, or would he be? I, I think he’s probably gonna be a candidate. He’s done a good job. Some we gotta look at, and, uh, like I said, all he’s done gone down there, all he’s done is won and developed, and that’s not easy to do in that league. It’s, uh, it’s a, it’s a tough league and we’ve had different rosters. We’ve gone from, you know, the Bork’s and Stan Coven’s and Harley’s young, some of the best young prospects in the, in the world there to now a little bit, uh, more of the free agent style and older and he just, he keeps winning and he keeps developing players. We got some young kids down there. Uh, that we signed as free agents out of college and now they’re playing great and, uh, so he just, he does a good job, really good job. What, what’s your take on from the end of the Winnipeg series when this team was on a high to the disappointment in the series? What, what, how did you? Well, every series is unique in itself, um. Every series is a grind, you know, you gotta remember who we played. You know, we played Colorado in the first round. They could still be playing. That’s how good they are. They could be a Stanley Cup champions. Winnipeg Jets, same thing could be Stanley Cup champions, best team in the league all year, you know, and then, and they don’t get enough respect to win the President’s trophy in this league. That’s hard to do, and, uh, you know, I talked to them. After the series and then they said, you know, the reason they won this president trophy is because we’re chasing them all year. They were, they weren’t gonna let us catch him and, uh, so that’s a compliment to us too that we did it. So every series is different, uh, and then we hit the Edmonton series and I just felt like we never got it going, but we never got our game going. Now I wanna give a little bit of credit to the opponents and, uh, you know, watching them play the old Edmonton Oilers used to be a team that they get up by 2 goals and they want to make it 5 goals and you could maybe expose them because of that. Now I watch them play. They get up by 1 goal. They’re happy to, to, to, they, they buckle it down and away they go. So I gotta give some credit to them. I watched the game. They just won in overtime. They gave, uh, Florida 4 shots in goal in the 3rd period. Sounds familiar to what happened to us. So let’s give some credit to them and credit to Florida, who’s a def defending Stanley Cup champions, two really good teams. Uh, when you think about the change you want moving forward and what didn’t work just now with, with, how much of that do you feel like his style of play versus culture? I don’t think I don’t see a culture problem, um, you know, that’s what’s great when I go through the exit interviews. And we made a bunch of trades this year and I love to bring in new players in and and and ask them, talk to them and say hey you guys have been on other teams, you know, good teams, bad teams, whatever, you know how can we be better? And the first thing they say is this room is here is unbelievable. They’ve never seen such uh the leadership in it, uh, the calmness in it, uh, how they stick up for each other. So when you hear those things something’s pretty good there culture wise and, and you gotta be careful with it, uh, tinkering with it. So not worried about that. I think we need to be open to some different styles, um, like. You know, we, we didn’t score a lot of goals in the, in the playoffs in, uh, that last round really the whole playoffs. Do we need to look at something different in the offensive zone? Uh, do we need to look at something different how we move the puck? Those are things we gotta sit and discuss. That’s what I’ll, those be some of my questions as I speak with the next, uh. Uh, potential candidates and go from there and you see a lot of teams. Make decisions hastily and rely on player input, but as you just mentioned this group, you know, a lot of leadership, veterans that have been doing this for a long time. Is there concern or any fear that maybe you’re relying too much on player input to make this decision, or is it because of that group? You feel confident and convicted. Well, I Like I said, I’ve been around a long time, so I know what’s sincere and what’s not in the room with the input. But I also go back to just how can I back that up when I’m saying to you? We’ve been one of the top 510 teams in the league over the last 4 or 5 years, so something’s going right like if it if it wasn’t there’d be a hole in the dike here somewhere. So a lot of things we’ve 3 years straight Western Conference. Doesn’t seem to hold much pedigree anymore, but that’s hard to do, so that’s where. I listen like I said, I, I know when there’s, there’s noise out there when somebody’s self-serving, but I also know when guys are sincere and what they believe in, and, and I backed it up with the results of what the team’s done. That’s all I can do. And, and what you said is also true. You gotta be careful you on both ways you can, uh, start tinkering. You can start. I remember back in my Detroit days we’d lose what we’re going through we’d lose in the two years in a row in the 2nd round or 3rd round or losing the finals. And everybody wanted to blow it up, you know, we were too slow. We weren’t big enough. We were da da da and I remember Kenny and I sit down and said, you know what, it’s a pretty good team. Let’s be careful because you can go backwards awful quick in this business. You gotta be real careful. Every NHL opening that we see, there’s a tendency for the same set of coaches to get rehired. I guess from your perspective, would you even look at or consider a European coach given how many European players you have on your team? Yeah, no, we’ve we’ve discussed it. The year when we hired Pete we actually interviewed a European coach and uh so we’re open to that um you gotta make sure they get a little bit of experience because it just put yourself, you know, the first time you’re working and you start traveling around to these rinks and you don’t know how you know where do you get in the dressing room at how do you get in the back door and you remember players are watching this too. They, they wanna see does this guy know what he’s doing so it’s, it’s a fine line, but we have, we’ve looked into those, yes. Jim, you mentioned just now. Cast it a light net then. Are you 2 or 3 steps already down the searching now because I’d imagine you already had built a list of names, you know, 3 years ago. It’s, you’ve done this recently, yeah, yeah, we, we, — I
— guess. Yeah, I don’t know if it’s easier. I wish I wasn’t doing it, but we, uh, we, we have a list, and we, we talk internally all the time about this. We even in our scouting meetings we’ll talk to our scouting staff and we ask them, you know, these guys scouts are out there all the time, who’s the up and coming coach, you know, who’s in, who’s in Kitchener or Barry, Ontario right now that’s an up and coming coach who’s out in medics and hats and up and coming coach? We’re always as we scout players, we try to do the same with, uh, coaches. How much did you come out of this process feeling that a conference final was the ceiling for P? No, I, yeah, I. I, I don’t look at it that way. Yeah, no, Pete, Pete’s Pete’s gonna win a cup, uh, you know, unfortunately won’t be here, uh, but he, he’s gonna win a cup. He, he’s a good coach. He is a good coach, I think he learns every time, you know, we talked about his res he’s, he’s been fired a few times. I think he’s learning each time when that happens. Uh, he’s open minded that way, so. — He’s a good coach
— you came up as an executive in the Scotty Bowman era in Detroit. I, I wonder what your definition of coaching stability is. Do you feel like that’s kind of eluded you in your time here and how much would you like to have a coach that’s here? Oh, I’d love to have somebody be here that long. It’s just, it, it’s just it’s a tough business. It is a tough business, uh, and it’s, and it’s getting different now to money comes into play now, uh, you know. Coaches are making big money. There’s different different factors come into play and it’s, but it’s, I get back to it’s. Coaching and I’m not only talking about hockey, I think at every level it’s a tough job nowadays with the and I don’t wanna say the new athletes, but they’re these they’re they’re they’re um they’re well educated, they know what they’re doing, um. And they know where they wanna get to. When you think back on this past week weighing this back and forth there you thought that you would bring you Yeah, no, it was going, it was going back and forth. It’s tough. I get, I get back to I’m sitting up here and I just let a guy that went to the conference finals 3 years in a row and, uh, not easy to do and I wanna be careful. You can take a step backwards as, as I talked about with players. You can take a step backwards pretty fast and so. Uh, in the end we had internal discussion. I, I talked to Pete, uh, kept, you know, talked to all the staff and that, and in the end we had, we had to make a decision that we thought was best for the organization. What was Pete’s reaction? Pete was very good, very professional, um. He, he was very good, you know, he’s, uh, like I said, he’s a good person with him and I had a great relationship. We still have a great relationship and, uh, he handled it very well. You talked about maybe looking at some things and wanting to tweak them is one of those things the response to places like like the slashes on rope hints, is that something that maybe you’d like to see more? No, yeah, I’m not, I’m less worried about that, you know, I can address that. You remember we’re in, we’re in the Stand Cup play, you know, trying to get the Stanley Cup finals, and yeah, there was a slash, uh, it’s penalized for it. Now it ends up ends up breaking his foot, so it’s worse than what we thought. But you remember during those games, I think the game was 2-1 at the time, and you start doing something stupid you get to the point in the playoffs, you start doing things stupid, it’s gonna cost you and so you really, it, it’s a fine line. The the players weren’t happy about it. Don’t worry, they’d love to go, but in the end. You gotta try to win if we get up maybe 40, 50 different story, but we never, never got that opportunity. Uh, Tyler Sagan had a shoulder injury. Uh, it was bothering him. Uh, he can he’ll get rehabbed now, uh, you know, and he. You remember he came back from a, from a tough injury and, and it’s amazing actually how he played so he’s gonna have a whole summer now to do, do what he’s gotta do. Talked about Rupe’s injury. Uh, that was a broken foot. Uh, it was amazing the blood. The biggest problem with Rupez was we couldn’t get to stop bleeding, and they were, uh, had to take out vials of blood for about 2 days straight. That’s why he missed the one game. It uh the word broke the bone. It just kept bleeding, so he. It, it was, it just, you know, the way it broke, it just, uh, kept bleeding, bleeding, so they had to take out vials so that and then, uh, Liam Bisel, uh, shoulder sur uh shoulder injury, excuse me, and then he’s he’s 2 a year and a half ago remember he broke his ankle. He had a plate put in and uh he’s getting that actually getting out today has been taken out today. Have you had a chance to speak with Jake about that moment and just where his confidence and how he’s comprehended that? Yes, yeah, no, I, I, I spoke with Jake. We had good conversation, yeah. Well, I think you guys saw him. I think he’s disappointed, you know, he, he’s got a lot of pride, you know, he. That’s what I, I talked about these guys being wired. He’s got a lot of pride and, and I don’t think he understood if he was gonna get pulled and stuff too. Those things happened, but it was just the, the, uh, I guess the piling on, uh, that. He wasn’t comfortable with, which I, I can’t blame him. — Oh
— go ahead. Every time you’ve made an offseason coaching change, it’s been after missing the playoffs or getting knocked out in the first round. Now you’re making one after making 3 straight conference finals. Does this one feel significantly different than all of those? They’re, they’re all different, all for different reasons, you know, they’ve all got, you know, either it was a situation where I just didn’t believe in the coach anymore, uh, uh, situation where He wasn’t the right fit for the team or a situation where it’s just timing and just it just doesn’t feel right and we gotta move on. — We have time for
— 3 more questions. Pete said after game 5, he said he wasn’t sure if he would call this year’s team the best team of the 3 that he coached. How did you view this team, uh, How did you view this team over the last 3 years? Did you think this is the best team? I think when you look at it skill-wise, yes, it was a good team, real good team. Uh, now you gotta remember we didn’t, uh, Miro didn’t come back until late in the second round, and Robo was really never himself until probably the last 2 or 3 games. So major those are two of your best players, so that, that hurts and that’s part of the. The process of winning, you gotta get a little bit lucky sometimes too, and we thought we were getting lucky because we’re starting to get healthy, but we, we didn’t quite get up to speed against demonton. Personnel wise. What more can this team do to kind of get over that? That you just keep, keep getting at it, you know, remember the age of our group, you know, the Wy Johnson’s probably the first year that Wyatt, uh. Went through a little bit of controversy in the playoffs, you know, he, he, he, he wasn’t himself, but the league knows him now and that’s where he’s gonna take the next step. So we, we had different situ we had a lot of guys that, uh. For different reasons didn’t get their game going and they’re gonna learn from that and and come back at it. OK, one final question here about Miko and what role does he play going forward? Obviously he’s a big centerpiece of everything for the next 8 years. Well, Mika was as advertised maybe more. um, what really impressed me with Miko was his leadership. um, you know, overall the Finns are pretty quiet group when you see him around in that. Uh, he’s pretty, pretty vocal. I, I really enjoy, he’s, he’s wired. He’s very disciplined. I haven’t seen, he’s a discipline and athlete who I’ve ever seen. He, he’s, he knows what he’s doing. He’s got a plan, uh, his preparation, uh, pretty impressive, and, uh, like I said, he’s, he’s everything we, we thought he’d be and, and we saw in the playhouse. Thank you. We appreciate your time. All right, thanks everybody, thank you and, uh, enjoy the summer.

Dallas Stars General Manager Jim Nill spoke with the media after the team announced the firing of Pete DeBoer.