Cross Hanas Thankful to Be Playing Hockey in Texas, Again

The Dallas product has joined the Texas Stars after attending training camp in Dallas on a PTO

Photo Credit: Amanda Spielberger

Tonight, the Texas Stars open their season at home against the Grand Rapids Griffins.

The lineup isn’t completely set, but as of Friday afternoon, all indications are that one of the newest Texas Stars players, Cross Hanas, will be facing a lot of his old Griffins teammates. Because Hanas is now playing for the organization he grew up knowing better than any other.

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For Hanas, playing in an NHL preseason game at American Airlines Center on September 23rd was a lot of things. But for someone who grew up playing hockey in Dallas, doing so in a Dallas Stars sweater made the experience more than just special; it was surreal.

“That’s a great word for it,” Hanas says. “Honestly, it’s the word I’ve been using a lot. It’s just so weird, being at home.”

What could be more surreal, after all, than playing in the same lineup as Jamie Benn, in the same building where his best friend’s father once played back in 2001, before Hanas was even born?

It didn’t go quite to plan, though. Hanas “tweaked” his knee in the first period of that game, and he spent all of the second period working furiously on an exercise bike just to get enough flexibility in the limb in order for him to get back into the lineup.

And to Hanas’s credit, he managed to combine that work—and a whole lot of adrenaline—in order to get back on the ice for the third period. He even got set up by teammate Artem Shlaine for a great scoring chance in the slot, but he sent the rolling puck just wide.

“When I saw my dad after the game,” Hanas said, “The first thing he said—he didn’t even ask if I was okay—he just said, ‘How’d you miss that shot? You were wide open!’”

We’ll get back to Hanas’s family in a moment, but it’s worth pointing out that even Glen Gulutzan took time after the game to note how remarkable it would have been if Hanas had scored on that shot after making his comeback.

“That’s what adrenaline can do,” Gulutzan said. “Playing in front of a bunch of your family in your hometown.”

It turns out that preseason games can mean a whole lot, when you’re playing in the right place.

“I don’t even know what I would have done [if I’d scored], honestly,” Hanas said. “It’s unexplainable. Like, honestly, I’ve been at a loss for words a lot this week, these past few days.”

Homecomings can have that effect.

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Hanas is one of a growing number of professional hockey players who grew up in Dallas. His home rink was the oldest one, the same Valley Ranch location where Seth Jones made sure to bring the Stanley Cup over the summer.

But Hanas hasn’t been back playing hockey here for quite a few years. After being drafted by Detroit in 2020, Hanas totaled nearly 150 games with their AHL affiliate in Grand Rapids, Michigan. After piling up points in his final year in juniors with the Portland Winterhawks, Hanas’s game took on more of a defensive approach in the AHL, where competition gets stiffer and scoring gets harder.

Hanas also had to work his way back from multiple shoulder injuries over the next three years—one of which was suffered, coincidentally, in Texas on an attempted hit on Alex Petrovic. But this past summer, Hanas became a free agent—though he didn’t know Detroit was planning to move on until the very last moment.

“My entry level [contract] was up in Detroit,” Hanas said. “They ended up not qualifying me on the last day, and then I became a free agent and didn’t hear from anybody for about 36 or 37 days or something. I was getting pretty scared and stuff, though I was gonna have to go and start my time in Europe. But it was kind of coming down to crunch time because they start earlier over there and they’re about to go for camp.”