Tuesday Dallas Stars Roundup: Jamie Benn Returns, Ilya Lyubushkin Day-to-Day, Vladislav Kolyachonok's Dallas Debut, and More

Plus: A bit of chat with Matthew Schaefer and Patrick Roy

Jamie Benn’s 2025-26 season will begin tonight when Dallas faces the New York Islanders at home.

As Glen Gulutzan confirmed this morning, the longest-tenured captain in Stars history will return to the lineup tonight after completing his recovery from a punctured and collapsed lung back on September 23.

Today marks exactly eight weeks (56 days) since Benn’s injury, and he skated on the fourth line with Radek Faksa and Colin Blackwell during morning skate on Tuesday, as well as playing a net-front role on the power play.

Here is how the Stars lined up this morning:

Steel-Johnston-Rantanen
Robertson-Hintz-Seguin
Bäck-Hryckowian-Bourque
Benn-Faksa-Blackwell

Lindell-Heiskanen
Capobianco-Kolyachonok
Bichsel-Petrovic

Oettinger will start in goal, Gulutzan confirmed.

To hear Gulutzan tell it, they think Benn is more than ready to get back into game action after missing the first 19 games of the Stars’ season.

“To be quite honest with you, I think he’s looked very sharp in practice the last week,” Gulutzan said of Benn. “He’s put in a lot of work to get to this point, once he could. I thought he’s looked real good, so I’m excited. We’re all excited that he’s back, and it’s been a long road. Whenever you see a guy put that much work in, you’re excited that they’re back.”

It makes sense for Gulutzan to ease Benn back in on the fourth line for now, particularly with the Stars’ third line of Oskar Bäck, Justin Hryckowian, and Mavrik Bourque playing well. Benn has averaged over 15 minutes per game over the last three seasons, but he’ll likely begin with much less than that tonight.

Of course, plans can always change during the game, and one imagines Benn will be itching to play every minute his body will allow tonight, after missing the longest stretch of his career.

Before tonight, Benn had never missed more than 13 games in a regular season. He returns to the lineup after being out for 19 games.

He is also one goal shy of 400 in his career, so that’s something to be aware of.

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Benn won’t be the only one making his season debut tonight, as Vladislav Kolyachonok was recalled from AHL Texas this morning to fill in for an injured Ilya Lyubushkin, who missed practice on Sunday.

“He’ll be out for the evening,” Gulutzan said of Lyubushkin Tuesday morning. “We’ll see how long it’s gonna be. Day-to-day for now.”

Lyubushkin played the entire game against Philadelphia on Saturday night, so we’ll see if he practices and travels with the team tomorrow, when they prepare to head out on another road trip.

If Lyubushkin can’t travel, the Stars may need to bring yet another blueliner on the trip as insurance, since Kolyachonok’s presence only gives them the minimum six healthy defensemen. The Stars’ defensive depth is being massively tested this year, to the extent that half of tonight’s healthy defensemen were either healthy scratches (Petrovic) or in the AHL (Capobianco and Kolyachonok) to begin the season.

That means the Petrovic-Bichsel pairing is going to be scaled up in minutes and responsibility, while Lindell-Heiskanen will likely get even more minutes in all situations.

Lyubushkin was a big part of the Stars’ penalty kill, so his absence hurts them there, coming on the heels of Thomas Harley’s own injury. As much as the Stars’ depth in recent years has been a big strength, they are quickly reaching the point where further injuries could even require bringing in players from outside the organization. They’re not quite to that point yet, however.

Speaking of depth, Vladislav Kolyachonok will be playing on his off-side tonight on a pairing with Kyle Capobianco. And while the two are familiar with each other after starting the year together with the Texas Stars, they haven’t really played together much at all.