The Dallas Stars are heading into 2026-27 with the same heavy expectation they seem to carry every year: contend, push deep, and finally break through to the Stanley Cup Final. After three straight trips to the Western Conference Finals, last spring’s first-round loss to the Minnesota Wild stung. Dallas still has the kind of roster that keeps it in the conversation, but the margin for error is getting tighter.
There is some room for understanding, though. The Stars were hit hard by injuries, especially after the Olympics and on the way into the playoffs.
And over the last four seasons, only the Florida Panthers and the Edmonton Oilers have played more hockey than Dallas when regular season and postseason games are both counted. That kind of mileage matters.
Even so, a team with elite forwards, a strong defense group and one of the better goaltending setups in the league still comes with pressure. Two players sit above the rest in that department: Thomas Harley and Jake Oettinger.
Harley’s name was already familiar to Stars fans, but his profile jumped even higher after the 4 Nations Face-Off in February 2025. He backed that up with a strong finish to the season and a playoff run, then landed an eight-year, $84.7 million extension last fall after producing 31 goals and 97 points across his first two full NHL seasons in 2023-24 and 2024-25.
Last season didn’t go nearly as smoothly. Harley finished 2025-26 with six goals and 36 points in 70 games, then went scoreless in six playoff games. That’s the kind of drop-off that brings attention fast, especially when the player in question is now in the first year of a deal that makes him the third-highest paid player on the team by annual salary.
There are reasons for some patience. Harley has logged 289 NHL games, regular season and playoffs combined, since spring 2023.
He also played for Team Canada at both the 4 Nations and the Olympics. That’s a massive workload for a 25-year-old defenseman.
On top of that, he broke his foot last November and never seemed to fully regain his form afterward.
Still, the leash on him won’t stay long. Dallas needs him to look like the player who earned that contract, especially with the blue line thinner than usual.
Esa Lindell and Miro Heiskanen form a dominant top pair, and Lian Bichsel with Tyler Myers should give the Stars a dependable third pair. In between, Harley and Nils Lundkvist are going to be leaned on for puck movement and offense almost as much as their work in their own end.
Beyond that, there isn’t much depth to lean on.
If Harley wobbles or misses time, there isn’t much behind him to absorb the blow. The Stars can live with some growing pains, but not for long.
Oettinger’s situation is different, but the pressure is just as real. It may sound odd to say that about a goalie who has won 35 games or more in each of the last four seasons, but his 2025-26 was uneven and finished with a .899 save percentage, the worst of his career. The ups and downs carried right into the playoffs.
At his peak, Oettinger is one of the NHL’s best. There’s no real argument there.
He can look top-five, top-10, or somewhere in that range depending on the night. The problem is that too often he gives up the wrong goal at the wrong time, and those moments put extra strain on the defense and the rest of the team.
He’s also an extremely athletic goalie who tends to rely on his skill instead of using his 6-foot-6 frame to its fullest.
“Otter’s outlook 🦦”
After a 35-win season, Jake Oettinger enters his seventh NHL campaign focused on finding greater consistency and helping lead the Stars on another deep playoff run.
The expectations around him are clear. After the season, Oettinger said, “I want to win a Stanley Cup,” the 27-year-old said after the season.
“I want to win the Vezina Trophy, and I want to be a starting goalie for Team USA at the Olympics. None of those three things happened.”
General manager Jim Nill put the focus even more plainly: “He knows he needs to get better,” general manager Jim Nill said of Oettinger. “Not better, but more consistent.”
That’s the bottom line for Dallas. Harley needs to bounce back.
Oettinger needs to tighten up. The Stars can point to a lot of proven pieces elsewhere on the roster, and Jason Robertson’s one-year, $12 million deal doesn’t carry the same pressure in this context.
Robertson has 213 goals and 490 points in 456 regular-season games with Dallas, including 45 goals and 96 points last season, and he’s going to get paid one way or another. The Stars also have $41.6 million in cap space next season, so there’s room to handle him if needed.
But the real spotlight sits on Harley and Oettinger. Dallas has built itself into a team with real expectations. Now it needs those two to match them.
In Other News...
Stars Fans May Soon Need A New Way To Watch Games
The Dallas Stars are heading into the upcoming season with a healthy national spotlight, thanks to 13 games on national TV, but the longer-term picture for how fans actually watch the team may be changing soon. Reports have the Stars among the clubs likely to leave Victory+ for a different streaming setup, part of a broader shift around NHL local broadcasts as teams look for new distribution homes.
What that means in practice is still coming into focus, but the timeline is already starting to matter for viewers who have gotten used to one place for game nights. The expectation is that the Stars will shift their broadcasts to Amazon Prime beginning with the 2026-27 season, and there is also the possibility of another platform being involved, leaving one more piece of the television puzzle unresolved for now. [Read more 🡒]
Dallas Stars Are About To Honor Two Franchise Cornerstones
The Stars are preparing to add two more familiar names to their Hall of Fame, with the selection committee tabbing Marty Turco and Les Jackson for the 2026 class. Turco goes in as a player, while Jackson is being recognized in the builder category, a fitting split for two figures whose fingerprints have been on different eras of the franchise in very different ways.
The formal induction will come during Dallas Stars Hall of Fame Weekend in mid-December 2026, when the organization plans to celebrate the class over several days. It is the kind of honor that tends to bring the franchises past back into focus, and for Stars fans it also serves as a reminder that the teams identity has been shaped not just by the names on the ice, but by the people helping steer everything around it. [Read more 🡒]
Stars Win-Now Approach Is Fueling A Debate Fans Know Well
The Stars have spent the last few seasons living in the space every contender knows well: good enough to expect a long spring, but still looking for the extra push that gets them beyond the Western Conference Final. In chasing established help and trading away draft capital along the way, Dallas has built the kind of win-now roster that usually comes with a thinner pipeline behind it, and the latest prospect evaluations reflect that tradeoff.
Still, a low-rated prospect pool does not automatically mean a barren future, especially for a team that has tried to stay in the race every year instead of starting over. The bigger question is whether enough of those younger players can turn into real NHL contributors to keep the Stars from having to pay the full price for every veteran upgrade down the road. [Read more 🡒]