Kyle Capobianco Is an Underrated Storyline of the 2025-26 Dallas Stars Season
Don't overlook the things worth looking for
It’s cold this weekend in Dallas, and also basically everywhere. But with three much-needed rest days before the Stars play their next game, today is a perfect opportunity to talk a bit more about a player I haven’t gotten a chance to talk about all that much this year.
This Stars team is chock-full of fascinating storylines. We have talked and will talk about Glen Gulutzan’s return, Mikko Rantanen’s first full season in Dallas, Jason Robertson’s Olympic snub, and Miro Heiskanen’s pursuit of a Norris Trophy. Thomas Harley and Jake Oettinger are looking to end their seasons a lot better than they began them. And there is no shortage of other big, overarching narratives to this season.
But there are a few other things that have stuck in the back of my mind, much like Alex Petrovic’s remarkable postseasons (plural) last year.
So while we all shelter in place from an inch of snow in the Metroplex, here is one of those things that still sticks in my mind, 52 games into this Dallas Stars’ season.
Kyle Capobianco’s Biggest NHL Chance
The 2015 NHL draft was a very good one, which is to say multiple NHL teams clearly tanked leading up to it in order for the chance to draft Connor McDavid (or failing that, Jack Eichel). But that whole first round is loaded with high-end players. Some people have said it genuinely might be one of the best NHL draft classes we’ve ever seen.
In the third round, Arizona drafted Kyle Capobianco out of the OHL’s Sudbury Wolves. Capobianco profiled more as a middle-round pick at the time, but Arizona drafted him early in the third round, banking on the mobile, two-way defenseman’s upside.
Despite making multiple AHL all-star teams early in his pro career, Capobianco only played one or two games a season in his first half-decade with the organization. After suffering an ACL injury two games into his 2018-19 NHL callup, he would recover in time to play nine games the following season for a 2019-20 Coyotes roster ripe for a great round of Remember Some Guys.
That season also featured his first NHL goal, by the way:
From there, it continued to be stop-and-start for a player who excelled in the AHL but struggled to convince his organization to keep him up in the NHL.
A telling anecdote about Capobianco’s early career comes from this great piece from 2020:
One of these days, it just might be the last time Kyle Capobianco hears what’s become an all-too-familiar phrase uttered in some form by his Tucson Roadrunners coaches.
“Yeah, coaches will touch on it sometimes. When I get called up, they say something like ‘OK, this is the last time I ever want to see you here,’” the third-year American Hockey League defenseman explains, with a laugh. “So that’s nice of them to say, I guess.”
To be sure, Capobianco isn’t shy about his enjoyment of playing in Tucson. He’s been here long enough that it feels like home — he’s just outside the Roadrunners’ top five in career games played, and already fourth in career points — and has close family home-based in Arizona.
But the idea of playing full-time at the NHL level? With call-ups on five different occasions already this season — not to mention a couple last season, too — of course the idea of being a regular in Glendale, presumably with the Coyotes, is clearly the ultimate endgame.
Capobianco would go on to miss the entire fall of 2021 due to a different knee injury suffered before the season, and his last real shot at sticking in the NHL with the league’s worst-run franchise (at the time) came in what ended up being his final year in the desert in 2021-22.
That year1 saw Capobianco finally avoid playing in the AHL. It wasn’t an easy one, however. Once his knee was healthy, he was taken off injured reserve and put on waivers in November for what I believe was roster-management purposes, because he didn’t play in the AHL that year. And just a few days after clearing waivers in November, he came right back to the NHL and managed to play 45 games for a Coyotes team that only avoided finishing last in the NHL thanks to Montreal’s slightly more effective tank job that landed the Habs the top pick in what looks, so far, likely to be a vastly inferior draft to 2015.
It should have been the perfect tryout for a player like Capobianco, even when he ended up having to enter COVID protocols for a few days in January. That Arizona team wasn’t going anywhere, so he was given all the ice time a 24-year-old defenseman could want. Capobianco averaged 17:57 per night in the final 14 games of that season (playing largely on a pairing with Vladislav Kolyachonok).
But the Coyotes opted not to bring him back after that campaign, despite (or because of?) his fairly solid play on a spiraling team, and he hit free agency in the summer of 2022.
Capobianco signed a two-year deal with Winnipeg on July 14th, but any hopes of a new team giving Capobianco a real chance in a healthier organization were short-lived. Capobianco began the ‘22-23 season in the AHL, playing just 14 games for Winnipeg. He also got into the lineup in the Jets’ final game of the year, perhaps as a desperation move with Winnipeg down 3-1 in their first-round series to the eventual Stanley Cup champion Golden Knights.
In the following year (2023-24), two things happened: Capobianco’s deal went from a two-way2 deal to a one-way, and he stayed in the AHL all year long.
Realistically, Capobianco probably didn’t have a chance to make the NHL that year. Winnipeg was loaded with left-shot defensemen like Brenden Dillon, Josh Morrissey, Dylan Samberg, Nate Schmidt, and Logan Stanley. Even with him costing the organization an NHL salary in the minors, there just wasn’t room for him on a club looking to do big things in the Central Division.
From an AHL perspective, however, it was a fantastic year for Capobianco. He racked up points for a middling Manitoba Moose3 team all year long, winning the AHL’s Eddie Shore Award as the league’s Most Outstanding Defenseman.
That campaign was, I believe, a big reason why Dallas signed Capobianco the following year, as the Texas Stars were shaping up to need a solid veteran like Capobianco on the back end. That was particularly true with Lian Bichsel looking likely to wind up spending a good chunk of the next season in Dallas.
From a career perspective, that 2023-24 year in Manitoba had to be a tough one for Capobianco, even as he was making good money and winning AHL accolades. Because he once again headed into free agency the next summer, but this time, he was doing so as a 27-year-old who hadn’t played an NHL game in over a year. The word “journeyman” is often employed for players in this sort of situation, though it’s hard to say Capobianco hadn’t done just about everything he could to prove he deserved another shot.
But for so many players over 25, the opportunity to stay in the NHL comes down to a variety of factors, not least of which are timing, health, and outright luck. You have to be in the right place at the right time, and sometimes playing your best hockey isn’t enough to move time and space for the sake of your NHL opportunity. It’s a cruel business that way.
So, Capobianco signed with the Stars in 2024, inking a two-year deal the reverse of his Winnipeg one. This time, the first year was a two-way contract, switching to a one-way deal the following year (which we’re currently in).
That first year was Pete DeBoer’s final one in Dallas, and Capobianco once again found himself a bit stuck in terms of NHL opportunity. The 2024-25 Dallas Stars’ blue line was remarkably healthy for the first half of the year, and the Stars made a concerted effort to keep Miro Heiskanen on his strong side as well. That meant Heiskanen, Harley, and Lindell started out taking up the spots Capobianco would naturally slot into, and all of them were pretty much healthy until Heiskanen’s injury in January.
And with lefties like Brendan Smith and Lian Bichsel also ahead of Capobianco, it was perhaps remarkable that he got even the one NHL game he did, right after Heiskanen was taken out for the rest of the season by Mark Stone.
In that one chance, Capobianco performed about as well as you’d expect any player to play in their first NHL game in nearly two years. He wouldn’t see the NHL again that season, though he was an integral part of the Texas Stars’ remarkable Western Conference finals run that spring, scoring 13 points in 14 playoff games.
So here we are now, when Capobianco is set to turn 29 years old in August. After he cleared waivers in training camp and began the year in the AHL, it seemed like he might have assumed he was in for another long AHL season before hitting free agency again.
But this year, things have changed a bit. Capobianco was called up in October, and he’s stuck around through Game 52.
Kyle Capobianco has 26 NHL games under his belt this year, even sticking on the roster while Dallas lost his multi-team teammate Kolyachonok temporarily to Boston on waivers (before Dallas reclaimed him this past week). He’s scored two goals, and he’s managed the trick of looking like the player he was in the AHL, using his skating and Hockey IQ to move the puck and eat minutes without causing problems for Dallas.
Perhaps the other big boon for him is having Neil Graham as an assistant coach in Dallas. Because Graham knows Capobianco's strengths as well as anyone, and that could be one big reason why Capobianco has looked like an entirely different player from the defenseman who made a one-cameo last season.
In fact, Capobianco has been an even or plus player on all of his most common defense pairings this year. His most frequent partner has been Alex Petrovic, and that third defense pairing for Dallas has logged nearly 90 minutes together at 5-on-5 and come out basically even in expected goals, scoring chances, and high-danger shot attempts. And in terms of actual plus-minus? Well, Capobianco and Petrovic have employed their veteran (dare we say journeyman?) savvy to the tune of 4 goals for, and just 2 against during their time on the ice for a +2 rating.
Two players who know just how hard it is to stick in the NHL have combined to be as stable and reliable a third pairing as Dallas has had for most of the season. In a season with a whole lot of defenseman injuries this year, Dallas has found surprising stability lower on the depth chart.
The broken feet of Nils Lundkvist and Lian Bichsel ended up being the start of that big opportunity for Capobianco, and he’s acquitted himself well since. And while we don’t yet know the status of Ilya Lyubushkin after he left the game against St. Louis on Friday night with a lower-body injury, it seems likely that Capobianco and Petrovic will get another few games to show what they can do together before the Olympic break.
And in this league, those are two players who know as well as anyone that sometimes a few games is all you can expect to get.
“It’s just a game. Just gonna play and enjoy every moment of it,” Capobianco said after his recall in October. “It’s awesome. Any time you’re up here, it’s just the greatest time of your life.”
As has been the case for most of Capobianco’s career, the future remains uncertain. But he’s done everything within his power to prove that he can make his team better, no matter what role—or league—he’s playing in. This year could well be the best NHL chance he’s ever had, and so far, you’d have to say he’s made the most of it.
That ‘21-22 Coyotes team also featured Loui Eriksson and Ilya Lyubushkin, by the way.
Two-way deals mean a player is paid different salaries in the AHL and NHL, whereas a one-way deal means the player is paid the same salary (usually NHL minimum) regardless of where he plays.
Capo has been one of my favorites since we signed him last year. I’m so glad he is getting his NHL chance again, can’t wait to see what else is in store for him
Thanks for writing this one--great read. Capobianco is my 10-year-old's favorite player this year, and he loved reading this when he came in from shooting pucks on the back patio (the closest you get to an outdoor rink in Texas, lol.)