Edmonton Oilers losing assistant coach Gulutzan to another team
The Edmonton Oilers will be making some changes to their coaching staff, whether they like it or not.
Glen Gulutzan, who has been an assistant coach for the Oilers for the past seven seasons, has officially been hired as the next head coach of the Dallas Stars. The 53-year-old was rumoured to be a top candidate for the job ever since the Stars fired Pete Deboer in early June.
Sportsnet’s Elliotte Friedman confirmed that Gulutzan had been hired.
Hearing Glenn Gulutzan closing in on being next head coach of Dallas Stars
— Elliotte Friedman (@FriedgeHNIC) June 29, 2025
This will be Gulutzan’s third NHL head coaching job and his second in Dallas. He initially broke into the league as the head coach of the Stars from 2010 to 2012. He then moved on to the Vancouver Canucks as an assistant coach between 2013 and 2016.
His last head coaching job came with the Calgary Flames, where he served for two seasons before being fired in 2018. He has been with the Oilers ever since.
Edmonton will now have to fill the void left by Gulutzan’s departure. His main responsibility behind the Oilers bench has been running the power play. Under his direction, the Oilers’ top PP unit became a force in the league, setting a single-season NHL record with a 32.4 per cent success rate in 2022-23.
It will be difficult to find a replacement who can live up to Gulutzan’s work on the Edmonton power play, but it will be a necessary process. This will also provide head coach Kris Knoblauch with his first real opportunity to shape his coaching staff.
Knoblauch opted to keep assistant coaches Gulutzan and Brad Stuart when he was initially hired. With the former now off to be a head coach and Stuart’s contract expiring, there could be wholesale changes behind the Edmonton bench this offseason.
Oilers GM Stan Bowman told the media last week that they expected to make an announcment relating to their coaching staff sometime this week. He did not go into details on what that announcement could include.
It will be up to both Knoblauch and Bowman to decide how to move forward from here.