The Understated Importance of Nathan Bastian and Adam Erne

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Back in ye olde Blogging Days, we had a custom after every season finally ended: Player Grades.

We’d all call “dibs” on a couple of players to write about and publish each grade one day at a time. It was a way to generate some good content during the offseason. More than that, focusing on one player at a time kept you from re-hashing the same playoff wrap-up that tended to creep into every piece until the draft.

My favorite part of writing those was when we deferred the actual grading to a reader poll. It always seemed so dogmatic for me to boil down what was usually a complex season with highs and lows into one overall letter grade, so punting to the fans was a nice excuse not to have to do that. In other words, my favorite part of doing player grades was not actually grading the players.

Sure, GMs and coaches probably have to hand out Big Takeaways during exit interviews for players to keep in mind over the summer, but the whole idea of watching an entire season is that you know the nuances and context better than mere boxcar numbers or grades can encapsulate. Why take all that and wad it up into a single letter?

In that spirit, let’s talk about two players who didn’t headline many pregame stories. These two players scored six goals apiece, and both endured some healthy scratches. Both players also still wound up being key parts of a Stars team that finished with 112 points.

So today, let’s give them the grades that they earned.

Nathan Bastian: H

You’d have to say Nathan Bastian gave the Stars everything they could have asked for from a presumptive 13th forward. Six goals in 36 games is a 14-goal pace over a full 82-game season, and when adjusting for ice time, Bastian actually scored the third-most goals per minute of any Stars player at five-on-five this season.

Had Bastian been a left wing, I think he would’ve gotten even more playing time further up the lineup. Unfortunately, he shoots right-handed, and that meant he was playing behind Mikko Rantanen, Mavrik Bourque, Jamie Benn (moved to right-wing for the majority of the season), and even Colin Blackwell for much of the year.

Bastian had some fun moments this year, including a two-goal performance in a November rout against the Oilers we’ll touch on further down. But the statistical nugget that stuck out to me was his assist on Jason Robertson’s goal in the shootout win over Colorado in mid-March.

That stuck out to me because this was Bastian’s one and only assist of the entire season. Hey, why pass it when you can score yourself, right?

Players will tell you that it’s a tough thing to be a part-time player over the course of an NHL season, to feel like you’re not always as big a part of the team’s wins and losses as some of the other guys in the room. Bastian’s 36 NHL games played were the least in his career since his rookie year, and some players would struggle with reduced ice time and game action.

Bastian was not one of those players. His attitude was persistently positive, both from what I saw first-hand and heard from others, and he embraced whatever role he had to play, even when he went weeks at a time without figuring into the NHL action.

A big part of Bastians’ ability to handle that role was the fact that Bastian knew what to expect going into the year, and he embraced it. Bastian even took advantage of an AHL conditioning assignment partway through the year just to stay sharp, and I’d encourage you to read Stephen’s piece about Bastian’s time with the Texas Stars if you haven’t yet.

Bastian would return from that conditioning assignment with renewed enthusiasm, both in terms of his on-ice play and what he brought to his fourth-line role. Jonmathan Aspirot found that out to his detriment when the two players exchanged hits and then punches in late January, two weeks before the Olympic break.

Unfortunately, Bastian would miss the end of the season after breaking a bone in his hand when blocking a shot in the Stars’ final road trip of the year. Given Bastian’s lack of time on special teams, it’s tough to say how much opportunity Bastian would have gotten against Minnesota, particularly with trade acquisition Michael Bunting also struggling to crack the lineup. But the one thing you have to say about Nate Bastian’s season in Dallas is that every time he did get an opportunity, he made the most of it, including a certain game in Edmonton when the Stars were without Mikko Rantanen, though the clip below hardly suggests they were lacking a superstar winger:

Overall, the Stars went 24-6-6 with Nate Bastian in the lineup. I don’t think that’s entirely a coincidence, either.

As for the grade, the “H” is for Hugo, the name of Bastian’s Bernese Mountain Dog, who I think we can all agree is a Very Good Boy. (Not every grade has to be about hockey, you know.)

Bastian is a free agent this summer. The Stars would certainly benefit from having him stay n the organization in a similar role to the one he played this year, but the cap situation makes bringing back any pending UFA right now a tough thing to predict.

Adam Erne: M

Adam Erne was another player who scored six goals this year. But while Bastian had the challenge of accepting a reduced NHL role, Erne was fighting for every NHL minute he could get from the first day of training camp, when he was invited to participate on a PTO after being out of the NHL for a full year.

Coming off the exact same hip surgery that Tyler Seguin had last year, Erne was one of four¹ players to play in five of the Stars’ six preseason games. He wound up making the team after the Stars lost both Jamie Benn (collapsed lung) and Oskar Bäck (wrist) before opening night, and when he was healthy, Erne was a useful bottom-six winger—something the Stars were in desperate need of, as injuries mounted during the year.

Erne went on to play exactly the sort of hockey he was known for, leading the team with 141 hits² despite playing in only 45 games, as an MCL injury in December and some other bumps and bruises led to a good chunk of missed time for him in the middle of the season, because 2025-26 Dallas Stars.

Erne’s hard-nosed brand of hockey was not an isolated one under Glen Gulutzan, with players like Justin Hryckowian embracing a similarly physical style. The Stars may not have the Flying Foligno Bros., but they did have this all-timer of a moment in the penalty box:

Erne wasn’t just style over substance, though. Like Bastian, he also finished in positive xGF% territory, and Erne even started their playoff series against Minnesota in the lineup, before the Stars brought in Arttu Hyry for Game 2 and scratched Erne as part of a way to move Hryckowian from center up to top-line wing. (And it worked, for two games.)

The “M” here is for Masterton. Yes, Erne didn’t necessarily endure the collapsed lung and concussion/facial fracture that Jamie Benn (the Stars’ Masterton Trophy nominee) did. Nevertheless, Erne was a player whose love of hockey and dedication to the game was palpable every night, whether he was in the lineup or not.

Besides, there’s no sensible reason for doing the Masterton Trophy thing in the weirdly competitive way that the NHL does. Why compare trauma or hardships and award a “winner” among such a field of candidates? From where I’m sitting, Erne deserves a very decent amount of recognition for his journey back to the NHL, and that’s really what the spirit of the Masterton Trophy is all about.

There is great value, I think, to a team having role players with perspective, and Adam Erne was one such player. His five-year-old son, Tysen, was often around the rink and even on it at times. Adam Erne looked like a player determined not to take even a moment of his NHL career for granted.

What Erne’s family got to watch this year was a player who fought his way back from a major injury last year and even more adversity this year. And through it all, Erne still found a way to help one of the best NHL teams in the league, including this big game-tying goal that led to an eventual comeback win in Nashville.

The Stars’ season didn’t end the way they hoped it would, but that doesn’t mean this year didn’t still matter a great deal. Where the 31-year-old Erne’s career goes from here remains to be seen, but he certainly proved this season that he is still every bit an NHL-quality player who will give you everything he has, and sometimes even a little bit more.

Whether that means Erne will be back in Dallas is tough to say right now, given the Stars’ tight cap situation. But if this season showed us anything, it was that Erne doesn’t care about the odds—he only needs one chance to prove himself equal to the task.

1. Bastian, Nils Lundkvist, and Justin Hryckowian played five preseason games as well.

2. Lian Bichsel was just two hits behind, at 139 in 50 games played.