Here are 10 things to know about Glen Gulutzan, who is reportedly in line to become the Dallas Stars’ next head coach.
Related:Dallas Stars closing in on hiring Glen Gulutzan as new head coach1. The basics
Name: Glen Gulutzan (pronounced GULL-it-sen)
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Born: Aug. 2, 1971
Hometown: Hudson Bay, Saskatchewan, Canada
Playing career: 1986-2003
Coaching career: 2001-present
2. Zeroing in
On Sunday multiple outlets including The Dallas Morning News reported that the Dallas Stars are closing in on Gulutzan to be the team’s next head coach.
The Stars dismissed former head coach Pete DeBoer shortly after they were ousted from the Western Conference Finals for the third straight season. Dallas fell to the Edmonton Oilers, for whom Gulutzan was working in an assistant coaching role.
3. First stint with the Stars
Dallas Stars general manager Joe Nieuwendyk (left) holds up a Stars jersey with new head coach Glen Gulutzan during a news conference Monday, June 20, 2011, in Dallas.(Matt Strasen / AP)
Gulutzan has already served as the Stars’ head coach for two seasons from 2011-13, and his firing after the 2012-13 season was one of the first moves Jim Nill made in his reign as the Dallas general manager.
Gulutzan just so happened to take over during a weird time for both the Stars and the NHL. He missed the playoffs both seasons, and in the second of those Gulutzan’s Stars dropped the final five games of the season to fall out of playoff contention. That season got off on a strange note after the NHL lockout pushed the start day back to January.
But while it may have been a messy pair of seasons for Gulutzan in Dallas, there wasn’t much he could’ve done about the circumstances surrounding the team.
5. It’s complicated
No one would call Gulutzan’s initial stint with the Stars an unbridled success, but you might hold off on judgment of his first run in Dallas. During his reign, the team was amid bankruptcy and ownership change and spent over a year being “financially managed” by the league. This severely impacted the team’s ability to sign free agents or make trades, and the Stars were mostly operating at the floor of the salary cap.
Glen Gulutzan coached the Stars when they had no money for free agents or trades and were barely reaching the cap floor. The organization was in shambles at the time. You can’t judge him on what he did in his first tenure here. This is now a different, well-oiled machine.
— Jeffrey Cooperstein (@Jeff_Coop27) June 29, 2025
6. Wunderkind
The reason Gulutzan was hired by the Stars in the first place was due to his sterling record as a coach at the AHL level, especially within the Stars’ own organization.
Gulutzan coached the ECHL’s Las Vegas Wranglers for six seasons, receiving ECHL Coach of the Year honors in 2005-06. He then coached the Stars’ AHL affiliate, the Texas Stars, for two seasons before being hired by Dallas. In those two seasons (2009-11) he took the Stars to the playoffs twice and went to the Calder Cup Finals in 2009-10.
6. Playing career
Gulutzan wasn’t too shabby with the stick, either.
He spent nearly two decades playing at the minor league level in the WHL, WCHL and a few other leagues. He never cracked an NHL roster, but he put together some good seasons including his 1996-97 campaign with the Fresno Falcons in which he scored 30 goals and posted 80 assists in just 60 games. Just goes to show, the guys who get to the NHL and stay there are on a totally different level, talent-wise.
Gulutzan started his coaching career even before his playing career finished: He served as a player-assistant coach for Fresno from 2001-2003.
7. Life after Stars
After being dismissed by the Stars in 2013, he served as an assistant for Vancouver for a short period before landing another head coaching gig in Calgary.
Gulutzan spent two seasons with the Flames, making the playoffs in the first but being ousted in the first round. After missing the playoffs the following season, Gulutzan was fired in 2018.
From Calgary, he moved to Edmonton.
8. Lengthy stay in Edmonton
Gulutzan has served as an assistant coach for the Oilers since 2018, a run that has included two appearances in the Stanley Cup Finals. In both of those seasons, the Oilers bested the Stars in the Western Conference Finals.
If you can’t beat ‘em, hire ‘em?
9. Order up
While with Vancouver, Gulutzan once worked a shift at a Tim Horton’s in support of Camp Day, an effort by the Canadian restaurant chain to promote outdoor physical activity for underprivileged youth.
We might have to “Texify” that a bit upon Gulutzan’s return to the state, perhaps find a cause that gets him behind the counter at a Whataburger.
10. More fiery than he looks
Gulutzan has the look of a clean-cut coach who doesn’t seem as boisterous as some others might be, but don’t let that fool you: He’ll let his team know when the effort isn’t up to snuff.
This clip from a Flames practice in 2018 went viral for Gulutzan’s profanity-laden call to action before he chucked his stick up into the seats.
More on Gulutzan
Dallas Stars closing in on hiring Glen Gulutzan as new head coach
National reactions to Glen Gulutzan’s likely Dallas Stars return: ‘I trust in Jim Nill’
A look at Dallas Stars head coaching history as franchise closes in on Glen Gulutzan hire
Find more Stars coverage from The Dallas Morning News here.