Wednesday Flashback: Fabian Brunnström
Today is a bit of a rough one if you’re not looking to talk about politics, so let’s do something different and take a time machine way back to 2008. But not the 2008 Dallas Stars moment you’re thinking of (though probably the one you are thinking of, if you read the title, which you all obviously did, so what am I even saying here? Come on, man, hire someone to write better headlines for you already.)
Most Stars fans remember one thing about Fabian Brunnström, so let’s just get it out of the way right now with a beautiful, gorgeous, 16-year-old YouTube video with the same frame rate as Luke Skywalker’s targeting computer:
(Don’t miss Toby Petersen assisting on that first goal, by the way.)
But the goals are the goals. Players sometimes score goals in their first game with the Stars (just ask Mark Parrish), and sometimes you score three. It was a dream debut for Brunnström, but what I wanted to talk about today (rather than dwelling on what’s going on in 2024) is everything around Brunnström’s arrival and time in Dallas.
Brunnström was a hyped player, arriving in Dallas as an undrafted free agent, but he almost went elsewhere. Rumors were strong at the time that Toronto was courting him, and who would bet against the Leafs when it came to throwing money and prestige at a player who surely wouldn’t live up to the contract? Monteal and Detroit (of course) were also in the mix, but just days after Brenden Morrow’s legendary goal against the Sharks in 2008, the Stars announced the coup: they have landed the sought-after Swedish winger.
“All of the other teams and clubs, like Montreal and Detroit, were good but I just felt that Dallas was a little bit better for me,” Brunnstrom said. “I really enjoyed the town and the people around the Dallas organization. I got a chance to visit the practice facility and the American Airlines Center and I thought everything was great.”
“We are very excited to get the calibre of player that Fabian is,” Stars co-general manager Les Jackson said. “He is a very good prospect and will definitely be a nice addition to our group of younger players.”
You may also have noticed the odd title there: “Co-general manager Les Jackson.” Well, that’s because Jackson was the Jim to Brett Hull’s Michael in the two-headed GM gig, which happened the prior season after Dallas was unsatisfied with a 7-7 start to the season. It was a wild couple of years. The duo’s work featured trading a first-round pick for Ladislav Nagy (who was better than you remember), and trading a package including Jussi Jokinen and Mike Smith for Brad Richards at the 2008 deadline. But of course, the most infamous work by the pair was largely Hull’s doing: the signing of Sean Avery just two months after bringing in Brunnström. We’ll get into that another time, though.
At the time, the Stars’ development system was pretty shallow, so it was seen as a huge boon for Dallas. But you also might have forgotten that Brunnström didn’t even play on opening night. Or in the Stars’ second game. For Brunnström was a healthy scratch by Dave Tippett (in his final season in Dallas) before finally being put into the lineup in game three, only to blow the doors off the world with the three goals you saw above.
Of course, the other thing most fans seem to remember is that Brunnström was “a bust” after his hat trick. But that’s a bad way to look at it, I think. The reality is that, on a Stars team in decline, Brunnström came in (without costing so much as a draft pick), and scored more goals in fewer games than both Richards and Mike Modano. In some ways the hat trick might have set up flawed expectations for him, because even in his breakout season in the Swedish Elite League that led to his being wooed by NHL teams, Brunnström was never an elite scorer.
In his 2007-08 season with Färjestad BK, Brunnström was just fifth on his team in scoring, with only nine goals. To come over and put up 17 in just 55 games in the NHL was always a great success, even if nearly 20% of those goals came in his first NHL game. Brunnström also had the misfortune to join Dallas in the first of its five straight years missing the playoffs, which probably made fans associate his presence with other disappointment around the team as a whole. (And again, the whole Avery fiasco that came just three months into the 2008-09 season didn’t exactly help the vibes.)
Brunnström also missed time with injuries in both his seasons in Dallas, including a significant chunk in the 2009-10 season (in which he only scored two goals) that came due to a shoulder injury sustained after being hit by Stéphane Robidas in practice. And so Brunnström eventually was sent down to the Texas Stars after clearing waivers, and he had a decent AHL season the following year, in 2010-11, scoring 21 points in 37 games before Toronto finally get acquire him, only to likewise assign him to the AHL.
Brunnström’s only other NHL action would be a five-game stint with Detroit (presumably just to resolve their lingering crush), and he would shortly return to Sweden, eventually finishing his career in Denmark.
I always think of Brunnström’s name when the Stars are mentioned in connection with other free agents. It was purportedly a big deal when the Stars got Gavin Bayreuther (the first time), for instance, or when they landed (and finally did sign) Joe Cecconi. And who can forget Jonas Gustavsson, whom the Stars were also in on the following year, only for Toronto to decide that they wouldn’t be beaten by the plucky Texas team once again. And Gustavsson also ended up battling some health issues of his own, though he had a slightly longer (though only marginally more successful) NHL career than Brunnström.
All in all, Brunnström’s time in Dallas was a great lesson in measuring one’s expectations, particularly when it comes to players who didn’t go through the draft. Then, and infinitely moreso now, it was extremely rare for a player of NHL caliber to not be scouted and found through the drafting process. And while Brunnström didn’t live up to the hype he inadvertently created, I still think any undrafted player who makes the NHL is a success story, all the same.
Finally, please enjoy this video of an apparently 13-year-old Steve Dangle talking about Cinco de Morro, Fabian Brunnström, and a whole lot of other 2008 nuggets.