Jamie Benn's Lung Surgery and Dallas's Left Wing Depth

The Captain will be missing some time

After practice on Wednesday, Glen Gulutzan told the assembled media that Jamie Benn was “day-to-day” with an upper-body injury.

On Thursday, Jim Nill announced that it was a little more serious than that:

Nill spoke with reporters during practice today, and he said that Benn came back to the bench saying he felt odd, and the team did X-rays. That’s when the team’s trauma doctors diagnosed a small hole in his lung.

After seeing that, Benn was taken to Parkland Hospital, and that’s where the surgery will be performed. But for the next four weeks, Benn will be shut down—so he won’t even be able to start getting back into shape until at least a month from now.

“He told us, ‘Hey, I tweaked my ribs,’” Glen Gulutzan said of Benn’s communication in the third period. “After the game, we were like, okay, we’re gonna get him checked out.”

That’s when things quickly changed. But even after Benn was admitted to the hospital Tuesday night, the team still harbored some optimism for a quicker recovery.

Glen Gulutzan said today that even as recently as Wednesday morning, the team was still hoping for a shorter recovery timeline. But by the end of the day, it was clear that surgery would be required.

From my conversations with more knowledgeable medical folks than myself, that timeline all makes sense, too. Some collapsed lungs can heal without surgery, so the doctors may genuinely not have known the procedure would be necessary as of yesterday afternoon, when Gulutzan termed Benn “day-to-day.” But obviously things changed later on Wednesday.

“We were hoping for better news than we got,” Gulutzan acknowledged.

Nill said that Benn will not be able to participate in any real practice or air travel for four weeks, after which he could be cleared for skating and “light contact.” But Nill said the captain won’t be too far away from his usual haunts in Dallas once he’s out of the hospital.

“He’ll be down in the dressing room. He’ll be around.” Nill said.

It’s the cruel irony of preseason hockey that the Stars came out unscathed from moments like Kole Lind’s fight, Matt Duchene’s big collision with Tyler Pitlick, and Mikko Rantanen’s dust-up with Vinnie Hinostroza. But despite all that, it was a fairly routine play that led to Benn’s injury.

“It wasn’t a big hit or anything,” said Nill. “He was turning in to protect the puck, and a guy came in behind and just, almost a fluke.”

In reviewing Benn’s final shifts on Tuesday, I haven’t found a hit—even a bump—that really jumps out as the likely culprit, though you could see him heading back to the bench hunched over on his next-to-last shift late in the third period.

But for Benn to admit to feeling less than 100% in a game, it must have been pretty painful—and indeed, that’s what collapsed lungs are.

Still, this is Jamie Benn we’re talking about here, a player who has always prided himself on not missing games if at all possible, only breaking his consecutive games-played streak late last year for what we later learned was the birth of his first child.

This is also the same Jamie Benn who had his appendix removed back in 2012, but only missed five games before returning to NHL action. Gulutzan was Benn’s coach back then as well, and he acknowledged today that, after texting Benn on Wednesday, standard recovery estimates don’t always apply to the Stars captain.

“Whatever timelines you’re putting on it, I think he has a different one,” Gulutzan said.

The Stars’ Left-Wing Depth

On the (much less important) hockey side of this discussion, it’s worth pointing out that the Stars were already thin at left wing even before Benn’s absence.

The Stars are now without three of their four starting left-wingers from last year’s playoffs: Benn, Mason Marchment, and Mikael Granlund. So now, the Stars have an even bigger question to answer: who will be their middle-six left-wingers on opening night, with Benn still recovering?

“I do have a good idea,” Gulutzan said of the plan to adapt to Benn’s absence. “I got up this morning and started looking at lines.”

As far as left-shot options who played on the wing last year, Sam Steel and Oskar Bäck can both do that, though Steel was already looking likely to get a shot at playing next to Matt Duchene even before Benn’s injury. Radek Faksa also played some left wing two years ago before he was traded to St. Louis.

But Gulutzan said on Thursday (without being specifically asked) that he’s got “no problem” playing right-hand shots on the left side, if that’s what makes sense, so it does make me wonder if we could see Wyatt Johnston or Mavrik Bourque playing on the right side of a third line, too.

The other thing to consider is players who may not have come into camp thinking there would be a roster spot available. Justin Hryckowian and Adam Erne are both left-hand shots, and both could make sense as at least short-term solutions in the bottom-six on the left side.

Gulutzan also pointed out that Benn’s absence opens up a power play spot on the second unit, too. And I couldn’t help but think about Alain Nasreddine’s pointing out a few weeks back that Nathan Bastian can actually play a net-front role on the power play, too. Despite being a right-hand shot, I do wonder if that’s something the Stars might look at in the preseason.

The team isn’t as deep as they were last year, and their least-deep position just got even least-deeper. But as Gulutzan also pointed out today, the Stars—and Benn—do have the luxury of getting a couple more weeks before the season actually begins. So we will get more information about how they’ll plan to adapt to Benn’s absence before the games start counting in the standings.

And suddenly, that intervening time got a whole lot more interesting.