The Stars are heading into training camp with real pressure points, but they’re also carrying a message that sounds a lot like confidence.
Dallas opens camp Thursday in Frisco, and the picture around the team is complicated. The salary cap has squeezed harder than it ever has for this group, enough to force the offseason trade of 24-year-old Mavrik Bourque to Nashville.
It may also mean a daily roster that is a couple of players smaller than what the Stars have carried in past years. On top of that, Tyler Seguin is 34 and coming off ACL surgery, while veterans Jamie Benn, 37, and Matt Duchene, 35, are another year deeper into their careers.
With the schedule stretching to 84 regular-season games, two more than last year, the grind could get real in a hurry.
Still, GM Jim Nill and coach Glen Gulutzan showed up Wednesday with a fairly clear stance: this team has had time to breathe, and that matters.
“We’re excited for the season,” Nill said, pointing to the fact that Dallas went out in the first round of the playoffs last spring and used the long offseason to recover and prepare. “We know we’ve got a good team.
There are always going to be changes but I’m encouraged by talking to these players because a lot of players have never had this opportunity before. I was talking to Mikko Rantanen, he’s never really had a season like this where he could train.
Plus, players who were banged up are healthy now, so we’re excited.”
That optimism is built on the top of the roster, where Dallas still looks loaded. Jason Robertson and Wyatt Johnston each scored 45 goals last season.
Rantanen remains one of the league’s most dependable offensive forces. Roope Hintz gives the Stars a strong two-way center, and Duchene has been a steady veteran scorer during his three seasons in Dallas.
On the back end, Miro Heiskanen, Esa Lindell and Thomas Harley give the team a high-end defensive trio, and Jake Oettinger is usually right near the top of the goaltending conversation.
The big question is whether that core can be even sharper after a summer that gave several key players something they haven’t always had: time.
Rantanen has already been through 105 playoff games before turning 30, including deep runs with the Colorado Avalanche. He also played 18 postseason games two years ago with Dallas. This year, he had six and was able to put in a lot of work over the summer.
Johnston, meanwhile, had a demanding stretch in junior hockey before logging nine playoff rounds in three seasons with the Stars. Gulutzan said the 23-year-old appears to have used the offseason to get fitter.
Seguin’s timeline is the most straightforward one. He went down with an ACL injury in December and has spent the full nine months recovering. If he gets rolling, he could find himself back near the level that produced 17 points in 27 games last season, or even the season before, when he posted 21 points in 20 games.
Benn also drew a positive mention from Gulutzan, who said the veteran is “probably the skinniest I’ve seen him,” adding that it’s a good thing. Duchene, too, looks like he benefited from the hard work of the summer.
That gives Gulutzan room to push for more in his second season behind the bench. He said the staff plans to make some tweaks that could help Dallas generate more offense and improve in the neutral zone.
“If we look at it, we are all disappointed in ourselves last year, myself included,” Gulutzan said, referencing the first-round exit after Dallas finished with the third-best record in the league during the regular season. “We need to max out our potential.
So what’s your potential? We need to do that individually and we need to do that as a team.
I’m judging this year on: Can we make this group of players maximize their potential?”
For all the roster strain and cap pressure, the Stars are choosing to lean into the idea that the hard parts can bring them together.
“It’s the environment we live in. It’s always changing and you have to adjust to it,” Nill said.
“In life, you are going to go through some highs and lows and it’s easy when things are going good. But when things go bad, now you’ve got to come together like a family.”
In Other News...
Stars Are Giving A Familiar Defenseman One More Chance To Matter
The late-summer PTO market keeps giving veteran players one more doorway into training camp, and Luke Glendening is the latest familiar name to step through it. Tampa Bay brought in the 37-year-old forward on a tryout contract, giving him a chance to earn a roster spot in camp and preseason after his most recent NHL stop with the Philadelphia Flyers. With 934 games behind him, Glendening fits the profile of the experienced depth players teams lean on when they want reliability and a known floor.
For Dallas fans, the bigger picture is how common this kind of move has become across the league, with the Stars among several clubs making PTO signings of their own this time of year. It is the sort of transaction that rarely dominates headlines, but can still matter once the games start and injuries, roster battles, and camp performances begin sorting out who sticks. There is always a layer of intrigue with these deals, especially when a team gives a veteran a familiar kind of opportunity and leaves open the question of whether he can turn it into something more. [Read more 🡒]
Stars Give A Familiar Defenseman Another Shot To Stick
The Stars have brought back a familiar name on a professional tryout, signing defenseman Ben Gleason as training camp churns toward its next cut-down point. It is the kind of low-risk move teams make when they want another look at a player who already knows the organization, and in Gleasons case the connection goes back to his first taste of the NHL in Dallas several years ago.
Gleason has spent most of his career in the AHL, moving through different stops while trying to carve out a longer look at the top level. He most recently signed a one-year, two-way deal with the Minnesota Wild in July, so this latest PTO gives him another chance to show he can still earn a place in a crowded defense mix, even if the final call will depend on how much he can separate himself over the next stretch. [Read more 🡒]
Jim Nill Tries To Calm Two Growing Stars Concerns
The Stars have spent the fall trying to keep the focus on hockey, even as questions around a pair of core pieces have started to build. General manager Jim Nill said there have been no extension discussions with Jason Robertsons camp yet, and the reason is straightforward: league rules keep those talks off-limits until Jan. 1. Robertson already went through a tense contract stretch, filing for salary arbitration before settling on a one-year deal, which only sharpened the sense that his next long-term step will become a major storyline for Dallas.
Thomas Harley has become part of that conversation, too, after Dallas failed pursuit of Zach Werenski briefly put the young defenseman in the spotlight. Nill made it clear Harley remains important to the club, a reminder that the Stars are trying to balance present contention with the need to protect their emerging talent. For a team built to win now, keeping both Robertson and Harley on the same page may end up mattering just as much as anything that happens on the ice. [Read more 🡒]