Vern Fiddler doesn’t look back on his time playing for Glen Gulutzan and think about the team’s bankruptcy. His main memories aren’t about how the team extended its playoff drought from three to five years and seemed a ways away from becoming a contender.
When the former Stars center thinks about the start of his five-year stint in Dallas — and the first two under Gulutzan — he’s instead reminded of his great-grandmother.
Fiddler signed with the Stars as a free agent on July 1, 2011, two months after Gulutzan became an NHL head coach for the first time. He didn’t know much about Gulutzan other than that they grew up a few towns apart in Saskatchewan.
One day that summer before he made the move to Dallas, Fiddler’s phone started to ring.
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“He phoned me from my great-grandma’s home in Kelvington,” Fiddler told The Dallas Morning News in a recent interview. “Went up, took time out of his day to go up and see my great-grandma and meet her. And I hadn’t even met him yet.”
Fiddler said his great-grandma loved hockey, so his new coach made it a point to win her over before even winning over the locker room. He says that 30-minute interaction should tell Stars fans all they need to know about their new coach, who is returning to Dallas for a second time.
“He just cared about us. He cared about our families,” Fiddler said. “You show up to camp after this guy’s went and seen your great-grandma, and you want to go through the wall for the guy.”
The NHL is known for recycling coaches, and the Stars have brought back one of their own. Twelve years after firing him, GM Jim Nill re-hired Gulutzan this summer for another go-around, hoping a decade of experience is enough for a different outcome.
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Gulutzan’s last attempt at coaching the Stars was under challenging circumstances. The team was in the process of switching owners and was controlled by the league. There wasn’t a lot of money to spend on top players. And Gulutzan had never coached in the league before, even as an assistant.
But ask the Stars’ players from 2011-13 about their former head coach, and the memories are fond. They look back on those years and see a ragtag group just trying to get by. But they also remember a coach they say had all the traits necessary to be great — and now has the experience behind him to show it.
“He’s paid his dues,” Fiddler said. “I would imagine he’s more ready for the job than he was 10 years ago.”
A different time
Gulutzan admitted in his introductory news conference in July that he wasn’t quite ready when he became the Stars’ head coach 12 years ago. But no one in the organization, then or now, blames him.
Gulutzan took over months before the franchise filed for bankruptcy as a part of the sale to Tom Gaglardi, when the Stars had already been financially managed by the league for over a year. He was a first-time NHL head coach. In his second season, the league went into a lockout.
“He got thrown into a little bit of a tough situation,” said Stars captain Jamie Benn, who had just started his career in Dallas at the time. “We were just getting by around here. We didn’t have an owner yet. For a rookie coach to get dealt a hand like that, I thought he handled it unbelievably.”
The Stars weren’t in a position to spend, and the players they had weren’t easy to coach, either.
“We had some big personalities on that team with [Jaromir] Jagr and Mike Ribeiro,” Fiddler said. “We had guys that were a little bit challenging. It’s pretty intimidating for a young guy.”
The Stars went 64-57-9 in the 2011-12 and 2012-13 seasons. They finished fourth and fifth, respectively, in the Pacific Division and missed the playoffs both years. It would’ve been easy for players to have bad memories of those years and remember Gulutzan for the losses or the struggles.
But they don’t.
Some remember him as a great communicator. Toby Petersen, who played for Gulutzan both in the AHL and in Dallas, remembers late in his final season when he was approaching 400 career games played. He needed just two more to reach the milestone but spent most of that season in the AHL.
“We were getting some of the younger players more games, which meant as the older guy, I was kind of on the way out,” Petersen said. “He actually brought it up well in advance. Like, ‘How important is it for you to get to 400?’ I said, ‘Well, it’s a nice number to be at, but it’s just a number.’
“He was a good communicator. That’s my big takeaway from that. He didn’t just do it. … He knew I wasn’t going to get a ton of minutes, but throughout the season, he would check in with me and just kind of put me in a position to be a glue guy and keep the ship going in that direction.”
Petersen said those days late in the 2012-13 season laid the foundation for the career he had beyond his playing days. Rather than leaning on him on the ice, Gulutzan gave him some unique tasks that helped send him down a coaching path.
A decade later, Petersen is now the head coach of the Texas Stars, coaching in Gulutzan’s system.
Petersen’s young career wasn’t the only one Gulutzan shaped back in 2011-13. Players from the time say he was always strongest with the younger, less experienced Stars.
One of those players he shaped — Benn — would go on to become one of the most important players and leaders in franchise history.
A welcome reunion
Benn said many of his current Stars teammates were calling and texting him over the summer to ask about their new head coach. It may have been a decade since they last sat on the bench together, but the Stars captain stayed connected to one of the coaches who helped him early in his career.
After playing in all 82 games in Dallas during his rookie season in 2009-10, Benn was sent down to the Texas Stars for the Calder Cup Playoffs, where Gulutzan was head coach at the time. During the inaugural season in Cedar Park, the two made a run to the Calder Cup Finals, losing in six games to the Hershey Bears.
“I think that’s when it started,” Benn said. “He was building some trust with me. It was a unique situation for me, but he made me feel comfortable and is a great teacher of the game. I got to learn a lot from him in the two months I was down there.”
Two seasons later, they reunited in Dallas for two years — in Benn’s third and fourth seasons of what would become a lengthy career.
At the time, Benn was just a young forward. He wouldn’t be named captain or win the Art Ross Trophy until after Gulutzan departed.
Benn lasted, but Gulutzan didn’t. Benn said that decision may have been a bit premature.
“It’s unfortunate that changes were made back then, but everything happens for a reason,” Benn said. “Everything comes full circle. He probably could’ve stayed here a few more years, but that’s how it goes, and sure enough, he’s back here. I think he got dealt a little bit better hand now.”
The two kept in touch over the years, stopping to say hello on road trips when Dallas and Edmonton would meet. But it’s the bond they formed on that playoff run in 2010 and the tough years in Dallas that they say will make the transition even easier this fall.
Jamie’s brother Jordie is watching firsthand. He was a player on those rosters in the early 2010s and now holds a role in the organization in player development and scouting.
“To get back on the ice with my brother and him, that relationship is already there,” Jordie said. “Glen’s such a good guy, so it’s good to see him back out there, and I think Jamie will benefit from it.”
Both Gulutzan and Benn said the reunion has been organic. Both see the same person they saw years ago, but a far more experienced professional.
“I just see a guy who’s developed into a real, real leader. He’s at a different point in his career where he is than where I left him,” Gulutzan said.
Their relationship may look a little bit different now that Benn will miss the start of the season after having surgery for a collapsed lung, but the two already have a head start in working toward a goal that’s been over a decade in the making.
“I think the captain has to be an extension of the coach,” Gulutzan said. “There has to be a relationship there. Working with him is important for me. He’s got the respect of the locker room. He’s got the respect of the league. The one thing I’m appreciative of is that I’ve maintained a relationship with him and the family. That helps.”
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