Some Brief Thoughts about the Stars' Decision on Tyler Seguin

Reported decision, that is

I was working on an Arttu Hyry piece when the Tyler Seguin reports came out today, so I’ve pushed that to tomorrow afternoon for the time being.

And in case you don’t know what reports I’m referring to, here you go:

My assumption is that the Stars are waiting to announce the decision until all the paperwork has been done, as well they should. But if Pierre and Elliotte are both reporting news like this, it’s generally something you can bank on. And that stinks.

The moment Vladislav Gavrikov fell back onto Tyler Seguin’s knee, the word “devastating” dominated all the discourse. There just wasn’t any other way to describe such a cruel fate befalling a player who has, time and again, worked unimaginably hard just to get back on the ice.

We already discussed the salary cap implications of this decision, but in brief: The Stars’ putting Seguin on Season-Ending LTIR will give them another $6 million or so to use over the next week on top of the space they already have. And when you survey the market, one thing becomes readily apparent: The sort of player the Stars could really use right now is, well, Tyler Seguin: a forward whose skill and hockey IQ complement any of the Stars’ top three centers. But alas, it sounds that specific player is done for the year, officially. (Or at least, reportedly.)

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It was always a long shot for Seguin to make anything like a sub-six month recovery from a torn ACL, but it was still something to root for in the background of this whole season, particularly after he received his due honor for playing his 1,000th NHL game.

Whatever the Stars do with his cap space, that player won’t be Tyler Seguin, and that is genuinely a bummer. Seguin’s arrival heralded a new type of joy for Dallas Stars fans, or at least a joy they hadn’t seen the likes of since a young Mike Modano was flying up the ice a couple of decades beforehand.

You had to be there. You really did.

But once again, we’ll have to wait while Seguin does all the hard work without any of the glory. He’ll be the one working in pools, pedaling endlessly on bikes, squatting and stretching carefully in gyms, and eventually, gingerly getting back on the ice.

And he’ll be doing all of it in order to be ready for 2026-27: the final year of the deal he signed way back in 2018.

Dallas Stars / Jonathan Maniet

Nothing is guaranteed in this game, least of all good luck. Still, it would be poetic as all get-out if a 34-year-old Seguin were to get healthy and come back next year, as you’d think his plan surely is, right now. Because everyone could use a reminder about why the Stars were so very glad to sign him to that deal way back in 2018.

Though of course, we already got that reminder last spring, didn’t we?

Players like Seguin become so much more than just the sum of their on-ice performance, just some goals to replace. It’s frustrating for everyone when a player misses time for any reason, and especially so when a season gets torpedoed because of a giant defenseman falling on top of your knee and tearing a very crucial cruciate ligament. But the hole someone like Seguin leaves in a dressing room extends far beyond the lineup card.

For the remainder of this year, the Stars have a good chunk of cap space to use, and they’ll do their best to make the team better with it, you’d assume. Probably, they’ll use it on a rental or two, barring any surprise blockbuster deal. But whatever Jim Nill & Co. do to improve the roster, it won’t ever make it quite whole.

What Tyler Seguin and Stars fans really want is what every great player and their fans always want: Just one more great season. Just one more great play.

Joe Pavelski spoiled Dallas by coming back twice more after his first three years, and Jamie Benn has also managed to survive a couple of harrowing injuries to lung and face en route to a productive 36 games, and counting. Ever game in this league is a gift, even if it’s a gift you pay dearly for.

This year won’t be that one more for Seguin that fans have been aching to see. That’ll have to be next year. Which means, for Seguin, another stretch of long, hockey-less months, a lot of time with just trainers and thoughts, doing everything he can to prepare and repair his body to face all the punishment of playing hockey in the best league in the world next fall.

Doing that while knowing exactly what you’re missing is tough, man. It’s discouraging, lonely stuff. A lot of people can’t handle that sort of process, having to just fight your own doubts, your own pain, your own shortcomings as you try to grind away a little more each day, never really getting close to the catharsis of exchanging a high-five in the penalty box, let alone going through the fist-bump line after a goal. Even the sting of a blocked shot has to be a certain kind of bliss, to someone who hasn’t played in a long time.

But if there’s one player who can grind away and get back to doing special things on the ice again, I’m betting on Tyler Seguin to be that guy.

I’ve been thinking of something Seguin said last year, when he was a brand-new dad in the middle of recovering from hip surgery, watching his team kill penalties without being able to help (yet):

“It’s such a team moment in the game when you do something defensively,” Seguin says. “I always enjoy that moment of being part of something that’s an underdog situation, and you get to be successful if you kill it off. It’s something I’ve always taken pride in.”

Over the last couple of years, Seguin has unfortunately become that underdog, that player constantly fighting an uphill battle—and all too often, doing it on one leg, against the frailties of the human body.

But something in Seguin’s mentality has always convinced you that he can do these things, that he can weather those lonely, thankless months of recovery. Maybe it’s a quality that’s always been there, part of what made him a second-overall draft pick back in 2010. Or maybe it’s something he’s developed as he’s grown and matured, something that got strengthed alongside his defensive game, and his own penalty-killing.

Whatever the origin of that mental fortitude, that uniquely “Tyler Seguin” air of competitive joy that’s gotten him this far, I’m betting on it to bring him back for one more great year—even if we have to wait until next year to see it.