The Dallas Stars have skill — tons of it — one of the best goalies on the planet, and a GM who has been named the best at his job three years running and made The Blockbuster Trade of last season by bringing in Mikko Rantanen and extending his contract.
What they don’t have is a Stanley Cup Final appearance since the 2020 bubble, despite advancing to the third round three years in a row now.
Is it a lack of snarl? The Stars lost Mason Marchment in the summer and seem to have a little less of that now. Is it an issue with coaching? They replaced Peter DeBoer’s strong track record with Glen Gulutzan’s relatively unproven one as a head coach. Do they somehow need more skill? This is a still-developing team with young players whose best days have probably not arrived yet.
The Stars are becoming dangerously like the San Jose Sharks from a decade ago — a talented team filled with skill that can even win a playoff round or two, but is missing some ingredients to finish the job. Can they find it this season? Or are they still just a step below the cream of the crop?
Our look at 32 teams in 32 days continues with the Dallas Stars.
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Hockey fans already know the name, but this is not the blog. From Sportsnet, 32 Thoughts: The Podcast with NHL Insider Elliotte Friedman and Kyle Bukauskas is a weekly deep dive into the biggest news and interviews from the hockey world.
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Newcomer to watch: Radek Faksa
It’s not as though the Stars had a shortage of capable centres on the roster, so it was a little surprising when the team signed Faksa to a three-year UFA deal for $2 million against the cap. Perhaps the front office was comfortable with knowing Faksa and the depth he’ll add. The 31-year-old spent nine years in Dallas before the team traded him to St. Louis a year ago to shed his cap space ($3.25 million). So now they get him back, at a reduced rate, and he’ll no doubt bring a defensive presence to the fourth line. He’s not flashy, but he’s defensively sound at even strength.
Under-the-radar player to watch: Mavrik Bourque
On a team that has been to three consecutive conference finals, there aren’t many “under the radar” players who haven’t been examined by now. But in Mavrik Bourque there’s the potential for a player to have a significant breakout. Last season Bourque was largely stuck scraping for a role in the bottom six during the regular season, and then was scratched often in the playoffs. An injury in the pre-seaosn led to him having a slower start, so he never really entered into the Calder Trophy discussion as some projected that he may. Year 1 ended with 11 goals and 25 points, but in Year 2 under a new head coach, Bourque should have a better chance to stick alongside Roope Hintz or Wyatt Johnston on one of the top two lines. He is a former AHL MVP and scoring champion and could double his NHL production as a sophomore. He’s also up for a contract extension, too, which could be well-timed.
Top Prospect: Emil Hemming
The 29th overall pick in 2024, Hemming came to North America for the first time last season and scored 18 goals and 48 points in 60 games for the OHL’s Barrie Colts. A sturdy winger, Hemming will be at Stars rookie camp this week and, given how deep the Stars are and how recently Hemming was a draft pick, it’s likely that he’ll return to Barrie for another season of development. However, since he was drafted out of Europe, it is an option for him to go to the AHL if the Stars believe that’s the better avenue for him as a prospect.
The Stars went big in adding Rantanen last season, and then signed him to a long-term extension with a $12 million AAV. Prior to Rantanen’s arrival, Robertson was Dallas’ biggest scorer, still in his mid-20s and presumably up and coming. However, he’s finished 29 points shy of his career best two years in a row now, so how will the Stars front office value the player? How will the player deliver in a contract year? And will this scenario end in an extension, or a trade? Robertson will be an RFA at the end of the year, but just one year away from being eligible for UFA status. An extension probably comes with a big commitment in both dollars and term, and while Robertson is still a dangerous scorer who hit the back of the net 35 times last season, there is a bit of a gap in how he was perceived three years ago versus now.
Three years ago, Heiskanen scored 73 points and received a single first-place vote for the Norris, but finished seventh for the award. When you watch him, you’ll see a dominating player all over the ice, the glue that keeps Dallas’ defence core together and someone who, in any season, could launch into awards conversation. Think Zach Werenski of Columbus from last season, a talented player who exploded and finished as the Norris Trophy runner-up. After sustaining a knee injury in January last season that forced him out of the lineup until mid-way through their second round series, Heiskanen is looking for a rebound. He’s capable of being one of the best of the best on the blue line in the NHL, but in an era where Cale Makar and Quinn Hughes are competing, a Norris win will always be hard to track down.
3. How effective will Glen Gulutzan be as head coach?
Peter DeBoer led this team to three straight third rounds and has made it that far in the playoffs six times in the past eight years across three different teams. But a controversial decision to pull Jake Oettinger in a playoff game, then call out the goaltender in the media, were partial reasons for why he was dismissed as head coach. After speaking to every player, management decided a new voice was needed in the room, and so now Gulutzan has a difficult act to follow. He’s spent the past seven years as an assistant with the Oilers, and prior to that was head coach of the Flames for two years — they missed the playoffs once and were eliminated in Round 1 the other season. This is actually Gulutzan’s second go as head coach of the Stars, the first being a two-year stint over a decade ago, which resulted in no playoff appearances at all. So, while he did a great job with Edmonton’s power play, he’s still unproven as a head coach, which will be a huge challenge joining a team that has its eyes on the Stanley Cup.
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