Welcome to my new weekly article, Stars Weekly, where we go over the week that was for the Dallas Stars! Once the season starts, there will be a lot more to cover, but there’s still plenty to talk about as the offseason marches on.
Related: Reviewing the Dallas Stars’ 2025 Offseason
From Olympic camps to new head coach Glen Gulutzan’s approach to the offseason, we have a full plate, so let’s dig in!
Harley & Johnston Invited to Canada’s Olympic Orientation Camp
Last Friday (Aug. 1), Hockey Canada announced the 42 NHL players who were invited to an off-ice Olympic orientation camp Aug. 26-28 in Calgary, including Thomas Harley and Wyatt Johnston, who have both been making a name for themselves in the early parts of their careers.
Harley was expected to be at least in consideration for the 2026 Winter Olympics after his coming-out party at the 4 Nations Face-Off last February, where Canada beat Team USA for the gold medal in the inaugural tournament. For Johnston, it’s hard to know if he will make the team, but it’s a huge honor to even be in this conversation considering the loads of talent that represent Canada in the NHL. Full Olympic hockey rosters must be submitted by Dec. 31.
Harley has 31 goals and 97 points in his last two seasons (157 games), recording a plus-60 and 24 power-play points. In 18 playoff games this past spring, Harley was among the team leaders in production with four goals and 14 points. Joining the likes of Esa Lindell and Miro Heiskanen, Harley has quickly made himself a staple on the Dallas blue line.
Johnston has been one of the most consistent goal scorers for the Stars, and with Hockey Canada’s invitation, he’s starting to catch the attention of the rest of the hockey world. He has 89 goals and 177 points in 246 games, including back-to-back 30-plus goal seasons. He made a name for himself in the 2024 Playoffs with 10 goals in 19 games, but took a step back in the 2025 Playoffs, like most of his teammates did, with four goals in 18 games. What makes him a reliable offensive option, beyond his obvious production, is that in his three seasons, he has yet to miss a regular-season game, playing all 82 in each season.
Glen Gulutzan Addresses First Offseason as Stars’ Head Coach
More than a decade after being fired as the Stars’ head coach, Gulutzan was brought back to take over from Pete DeBoer, who was fired after the team’s third straight Western Conference Final defeat, and second straight at the hands of the Edmonton Oilers, who Gulutzan coached as an assistant for the last seven seasons.
On July 28, the new Stars bench boss sat down with Stars senior staff writer for NHL.com, Mike Heika, to discuss his approach to what is remaining of the offseason. I highly recommend you check out the entire conversation, but I wanted to highlight a couple of topics that I thought were really interesting.
Heika mentioned that in Gulutzan’s press conference, he referenced having 12 years of experience after being fired by the Stars, which has made him a different head coach. Heika then asked him what it is like returning to the Stars organization.
“I’m really excited about this, to tell you the truth,” Gulutzan said. “It really does feel like a bit of a homecoming. There’s a common denominator for me. I’ve known Neil Graham (assistant coach) for years, and I’m getting to know Alain Nasreddine and Jeff Reese (assistant coaches) and I just know they are all quality humans. That’s a great feeling where you really want to come to work every day and be around these people.
Heika asked a very obvious yet necessary question for a head coach to answer. What is on Gulutzan’s to-do list this summer?
“One of the first things I’m doing is getting with my assistant coaches and discussing all of their roles and responsibilities. Because I’ve been an assistant for so long, I understand the nuances of game day and non-game day.” As his time in Edmonton went on, and especially when Kris Knoblauch entered the equation, Gulutzan took on a major leadership role among the assistant coaches, and he’s looking for someone to do the same thing in Dallas so he can focus on the bigger picture.
“You need someone to take that lead, so that’s one of my primary functions right now is sorting that out and making sure everyone knows their responsibilities. Combine that with getting everything ready for training camp, and my days are pretty busy.”
Again, there was a lot of great content in this interview, including how he plans to be different and similar to DeBoer. But there’s one last question and response that I want to talk about here. Heika asked what needed to change in Dallas, and since Gulutzan was the assistant coach of the team that had eliminated the Stars in two straight playoff runs, his response was fascinating.
“What we did in Edmonton was we limited their rush and then we were on our details all of the time – don’t let them tip, limit their chances around the net – so we’ll look at doing those things better here, finding ways to get around what other teams are doing.”
Related: Reviewing the Dallas Stars’ 2025 Draft Class
Seems pretty straightforward, but that’s nothing compared to the next thing he said. “But really, what I would like to do, and what we did in Edmonton, was we were able to adapt and create offense against different defenses. How do we create offense against Edmonton? I think you have to be able to adapt, and you can work on that in the regular season — and the other part is that you have to be relentless on the details. I really do think that was our biggest reason for success against Dallas.”
Looking back, that was a huge reason for the failure of the Stars against the Oilers in the conference final. They showed night in and night out the inability to adapt to what the Oilers were throwing at them. We’ll see what having Gulutzan behind enemy lines does to change the Stars’ fortune in the postseasons to come.
