Ryan S. ClarkSep 25, 2025, 11:54 AM ET
- Ryan S. Clark is an NHL reporter for ESPN.
Dallas Stars captain and left winger Jamie Benn will miss at least four weeks after having surgery on a collapsed lung, the team announced Thursday.
Benn, 36, was diagnosed with the injury on Tuesday in the third period of the Stars’ preseason game against the Minnesota Wild. He logged 15:47 of ice time in the Stars’ 3-2 overtime win.
Benn is expected to make a full recovery and will be evaluated by the team in four weeks, the Stars said.
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Losing Benn for at least four weeks means he’ll miss the rest of the Stars’ preseason and could be out for at least the first seven regular-season games. Five of the Stars’ first seven games will be against teams that made the playoffs last season. Should the initial timeline hold, he could potentially make his season debut Oct. 25 against the Carolina Hurricanes.
Benn is entering his 17th season with the only NHL franchise he has ever known. He finished with 16 goals and 49 points in 80 games for the Stars in a 2024-25 campaign that saw the club lose in the Western Conference final for a third consecutive year.
Last season also meant Benn was in the final year of an eight-year contract, only to return on a one-year deal worth $1 million to give the Stars a venerable top-nine forward for a team that now has much of its cap space invested in core players such as Miro Heiskanen, Wyatt Johnston, Jake Oettinger, Mikko Rantanen and Jason Robertson.
Prior to the injury, Benn has been on the third line in preseason alongside Matt Duchene and Tyler Seguin. It now leaves an opening in the Stars’ top-nine forward group.
In addition to the Stars challenging for the Stanley Cup, this year was also set to be one in which Benn could reach a handful of personal milestones. He’s a goal away from 400 in his career, eight games away from reaching 1,200 and is also 44 points shy of scoring 1,000 for his career.
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