The Stars are back in the same familiar spot: loaded, dangerous and still trying to turn a strong regular season into the kind of spring run that has eluded them lately.
Dallas went 50-20-12 last season before a first-round playoff exit, but the core remains intact as Glen Gulutzan heads into his second stint behind the bench. The opener comes Oct. 2 against St.
Louis, and for a team that has made three straight trips to the Western Conference Final before last year’s stumble, the expectation is simple enough. Another long postseason run is the goal.
“We’re excited about the season,” general manager Jim Nill said. “We know we’ve got a good team.”
That confidence starts with the top end of the roster. Jason Robertson is back after scoring 45 goals and adding 51 assists, and he’s joined by a deep group of point producers that includes Wyatt Johnston, Mikko Rantanen, Miro Heiskanen, Matt Duchene and Roope Hintz, all of whom had at least 44 points. Johnston, still only 23, is heading into his fifth season and remains one of the key pieces in the middle of everything Dallas does.
The Stars also have the kind of goaltending that gives a team a real floor. Jake Oettinger went 35-12-6 with a 2.59 goals-against average and a .899 save percentage, while Casey DeSmith finished 15-8-6 with a 2.43 goals-against average and a .907 save percentage. Oettinger’s work over the last five seasons stands out even more in the broader league picture: he has won 173 regular-season games, trailing only Tampa Bay’s Andrei Vasilevskiy, who has 180.
Dallas didn’t go through much upheaval in the offseason. The departures were center Mavrik Bourque and defensemen Tyler Myers and Alexander Petrovic, while the lone addition listed is forward Joel Kiviranta. For a club that already looks a lot like the one that has been competing at the top of the West, the continuity is the point.
The defensive numbers back that up. The Stars allowed 2.71 goals per game last season, second-best in the NHL behind division rival Colorado’s 2.40. Gulutzan also enters this season as a much more experienced coach than he was during his first run with Dallas from 2011-13, a stretch that came during a messy period for the franchise as it dealt with bankruptcy, an ownership change and league control.
Still, the biggest unresolved issue hovering over the team is Robertson. He avoided salary arbitration with a $12 million contract, but he could become an unrestricted free agent next summer. The earliest Dallas can extend him is Jan. 1, and if there isn’t a deal by the March 1 trade deadline, the conversation will shift toward whether the Stars would consider moving him rather than risk losing him for nothing.
That possibility already surfaced once. Dallas had a sign-and-trade framework in place to send Robertson to Seattle during the NHL draft in June, but he did not agree to the reported $120 million, eight-year deal, which would have paid him $15 million per season and was required to complete the move.
There’s also a veteran storyline worth watching in Jamie Benn and Tyler Seguin, who are entering what could be their 14th and final season together. Benn, now 37, is beginning his 18th NHL season and is again on a one-year contract, all of them with Dallas. Seguin, who won a Stanley Cup with Boston as a rookie in 2011 before being traded to the Stars in 2013, has been limited to 47 games over the past two seasons because of hip and knee injuries and is playing out the final year of his $78.8 million, eight-year deal.
“We are where we are and just trying to take advantage of these last opportunities we have,” Seguin said.
In Other News...
Stars Just Got An Early Answer In Their Backup Goalie Battle
The preseason opener gave Dallas an early look at the backup goalie race, and Casey DeSmith made a strong first impression. He handled a heavy workload against St. Louis and gave the Stars exactly the kind of steady, competitive showing they want behind Jake Oettinger, a point coach Glen Gulutzan and teammates were quick to emphasize afterward.
It was also a busy day for the organization beyond the crease, with the club locking in forward Sam Steel on a four-year extension that begins next season. But for the moment, the clearest immediate takeaway is in goal, where DeSmith has already put a little pressure on the conversation and given Dallas something useful to sort through before the games start to count. [Read more 🡒]
Stars Just Cut One Of Their Early Camp Standouts
The Stars trimmed their training camp roster by nine players, and one of the more notable moves was parting ways with Jack Becker after a strong start to preseason. Dallas also waived or released Aram Minnetian, Justin Ertel, Christian Fitzgerald, Ayrton Martino, Charlie Paquette, Connor Punnett, Benjamin Gleason and Kyle Looft as camp begins to narrow toward the teams opening-night mix.
Becker had positioned himself as one of the early standouts in camp, which made his exit more surprising than routine. With the roster now down to 39 players, the Stars can turn their attention to the next stretch of preseason games against the Minnesota Wild, where the remaining hopefuls will keep pushing for spots and the separation between fringe players and true contenders should start to sharpen. [Read more 🡒]
Jason Robertson Is Back But The Stars Still Face A Bigger Decision
Jason Robertson is back under contract, and for the Stars that at least quiets one of the most awkward offseason storylines. The forward agreed to a one-year deal worth $12 million, a move that avoids a scheduled salary arbitration hearing and gives Dallas a firm answer for the moment after a summer full of uncertainty around one of its top players.
The bigger question is still hanging out there. Dallas had previously lined up a sign-and-trade framework involving Seattle before Robertson passed on a long-term agreement with the Kraken, and general manager Jim Nill said the club hopes to begin talks on a longer extension starting January 1. For now, the Stars have Robertson in the fold, but the real test is whether this ends up being a temporary fix or the first step toward keeping him in Dallas for good. [Read more 🡒]