After 14 years and close to 1,200 games with the Stars, Kelly Forbes is happy to focus on the family

The former Stars video coach talks about his career and what's next in this exclusive story for Shap Shots.

Aside from Mike Modano, Kelly Forbes has worked more Dallas Stars game than anyone in franchise history.

Over the course of 14 seasons, Forbes has worked 1,075 regular season games. Add in an additional 79 playoff games and at least 100 preseason games, and it’s been more than 1,200 games for Forbes with the Stars.

And he’s only seen one, a preseason game in El Paso 2021, in person with his own eyes.

“I think that’s gonna be the weirdest part of this, going to a game, actually watching a Dallas Stars game not on a monitor,” Forbes said. “There was that game in El Paso, where I was on the bench, and a couple years back as a staff we were in California and went to an Anaheim game to scout them in person, but 14 years in the NHL, and that’s it for seeing any live hockey in person.”

Forbes was the Stars video coach from 2009 to 2023. He was originally hired by Marc Crawford and worked for seven head coaches, and after the 2022-23 season now, at 43, he made the decision to step away from the NHL to focus on his family and be a dad.