What Makes These Dallas Stars Special

And why they're so easy to root for

PC: Amanda Spielberger

Like so many other big cities, Dallas is often defined by its dysfunction more than its virtues.

You know about the traffic and sweltering summers and the toll roads and the [lack of] sidewalks or mass transportation. You know about the Very Interesting Bureaucracy, and how it’s recently factored into some strife between the local hockey team and the local basketball team, the latter of which Mark Cuban has already admitted he regrets selling to its current majority owners.

But amid all of the things we love to complain about in this town, something keeps changing every spring. In late April, the traffic turns into a symbol of anticipation, and suddenly paying for parking or standing on the DART feels a little bit like arriving at Disneyland.

This year, the Dallas Stars have once again brought hope to the sports landscape. They always seem to do that, and never has the city needed it more.

Last fall, the Rangers’ bats wasted some of the best pitching they’ve ever had en route to a .500 season, and it remains to be seen whether this year is going to end any differently. I’m hopeful, but they caught lightning in a bottle once a few years back, and expecting them to do so again feels greedy, or at least heavily optimistic.

The Mavericks were only too happy to pull the ‘chute on everything from their general manager to the very player they ripped out the city’s heart to acquire, and despite getting luckier than anybody could have imagined with the right to draft Cooper Flagg, this season was a brutal reminder of just what the new ownership and their management chose to punt on. Even moderate success is never guaranteed.

And of course, the Cowboys went Full Cowboys, and you should never go Full Cowboys. Maybe in another 30 years that’ll change, but for now, the sports landscape seems determined to keep submitting itself to the chokehold of someone who I’d really love to say doesn’t remind me of Emperor Palpatine.

Meanwhile, the Dallas Stars just finished third in the NHL, and they did so despite firing a very successful head coach after the prior three seasons in a move that was treated by some at the time like an emotional overreaction to criticism of their goaltender.

Instead, Jim Nill once again proved why he’s earned so much trust from Tom Gaglardi: he’s got his eyes on the prize. And more than that, it’s about how Nill goes about the pursuit of a championship. Because he does it in a way so refreshing as to seem almost unbelievable, particularly in this town.

But don’t take my word for it. Just ask Tyler Seguin, who’s also been here since 2013.

“The way Jim treats people, I think that’s what trickles down, why it’s such a big family, and why we see so much success. I was here for the early days, you know, the first year of Jim, [Tom] Gaglardi, the new jerseys, having games on a Tuesday night, and seeing 9,000 people in the stands. And to see where we are now, it’s blissful.”

-Tyler Seguin, February 2025, D Magazine

You don’t win GM of the year time and time again without being good at your job, but Nill also happens to be good at being good, which is a quality that seems increasingly rare in our world these days, let alone in the cutthroat landscape of professional sports. And the fact that Tom Gaglardi has trusted Nill enough to continue to spend to the cap while tolerating the odd year of disappointment is a testament to the uniquely functional nature of the only playoff team in the Metroplex.

Unfortunately for Seguin, this season didn’t go anything close to blissfully for him, as his ACL was torn by another player’s clumsiness four months ago in New York, ending his season. But that hasn’t stopped Seguin from being every bit the player Stars fans were deliriously excited to have acquired 13 years ago, as he’s spent the back of this season rehabbing his knee for next year, but also chipping in on the coaching side and even helping out on the bench. The irrepressible Seguin may not be on the ice, but he hasn’t for a moment stopped being one of the faces of the franchise.

Seguin will be joined in the press box, at least to start the postseason, by Roope Hintz and Nathan Bastian. Hintz suffered a setback in recovery after an initial injury from when Nathan MacKinnon caught him with a leg lift of some kind last month, and it feels wrong that he won’t be in the lineup for what is sure to be an all-timer of a playoff series. Here’s hoping he can channel Heiskanen and Robertson from last year and get back on the ice while the run is still ongoing.

Bastian won’t draw the headlines of Hintz or Seguin, but don’t underestimate what he’s given to this team, either. Relegated to a 13th-forward role, Bastian played just 36 games this year—the fewest he’s recorded in a season since his rookie year last decade. But despite it all, Bastian has kept his spirits up and been a positive force when he’s been needed. If the Stars are still playing in three weeks or so, he could be available to help. If history is any indication, he will do just that.

Similar to Bastian is Adam Erne, who went from playing in the AHL last season to undergoing the same grueling hip surgery and recovery that Seguin did last season. He entered training camp on a PTO this year only to force his way onto a team that’s wound up needing him. Despite playing in just 45 games himself after suffering a couple of his own injury setbacks this season, Erne shrugged off the pain and led the Stars in hits.

Those sorts of stories—from Nill to Seguin to Erne—embody why this team is so easy for fans to root for. Yes, you will absolutely run into Dallas folks who can’t stand the Cowboys, who continue to boycott the Mavericks, and who can’t be bothered to watch Manfred Ball in an indoor baseball stadium. But I have yet to find someone who’s actually gone to a Stars game during the last 13 years and not found it utterly enthralling. When hockey is good, there’s nothing better. And for the last half a decade, the hockey has been very good.

This year, Jamie Benn won’t have Tyler Seguin by his side on the ice, but you can find any number of other storylines that will capture your fascination, and probably your heart—not least of which is Benn himself. Still the captain after that same 2013 anointing, Benn is now drawing a $1 million salary barely above the league minimum, though with some incentives on the back end that he’s earned by playing 60 games despite a fractured face and a collapsed lung.

And in the playoffs, you can expect Benn to keep playing through whatever comes his way.

It’s not just about the veterans, though. This year’s Stars team is filled with a core group complemented by young talent that Glen Gulutzan has given space to blossom, and they have.

Mavrik Bourque stepped up in Seguin’s absence and hit 20 goals this year. After barely cracking the playoff lineup under Pete DeBoer, Bourque figures to be a key top-six winger for a Stars team that will need him, and assistant coach Neil Graham knows firsthand what Bourque can do in big games, as he saw the forward put up 11 points in 7 Calder Cup Playoff games back in 2024.

Justin Hryckowian has captured hearts everywhere after signing as a college free agent and quickly becoming a rookie who backs down from nobody, even standing up to the best player in the world. He and Bourque have also been two-thirds of the best-nicknamed line on the team this year.

The defense continues to be led by Miro Heiskanen, Thomas Harley, and Esa Lindell, all of whom played a bit of a playoff warmup at the Olympics. But don’t sleep on Nils Lundkvist or Lian Bichsel, two younger players who have taken their own big steps this year. For Lundkvist, he’s run with the opportunity Gulutzan has given him, and he earned a two-year contract extension only this morning. Like Bourque, he’s justified every bit of faith put in him, even if it took the team a couple of years to find someone willing to do so.

Whether the final spot on the defense ends up being filled by trade deadline acquisition Tyler Myers, or by someone like Alex Petrovic or Ilya Lyubushkin, the fact is that the Stars have plenty of perfectly decent options this year, and that’s more than a lot of teams can say about the bottom of their blue line.

Meanwhile, Mikko Rantanen has been everything the Stars could have hoped for this year, other than perfectly healthy. A white-hot power play for most of the season ran through Rantanen, and his elite vision, size, strength, and skill should continue to stretch other teams to the breaking point, allowing even more space for Wyatt Johnston and Jason Robertson—or the Bing-Bong Bros, as Razor has coined them—to keep piling up goals.

It’s not just about the scorers, though. Playoffs are about seeing veterans like Radek Faksa and Matt Duchene empty the tank, because they know more than most just how few opportunities like this a player gets in a career. Both of them have made remarkable comebacks from difficult injuries this very season, but both have also tasted early disappointment in the postseason. You can only hope that the scares prove tougher than the fears, for players who have yet to win a Cup.

The edges of the forward roster have wound up being stronger than expected, given the talent that departed last year. Sam Steel (who only just returned from injury himself) has found new offensive highs both up and down the lineup, and Michael Bunting has a track record of meshing with skilled players. The latter hasn’t quite found his groove yet, but injuries have been the enemy of everyone this year, and everyone has a short memory in the playoffs. He can easily be this year’s Evgenii Dadonov, and that would be enough.

Players like Oskar Bäck and Arttu Hyry have been surprisingly critical for Dallas as well this year, and you’d not be shocked to see them called upon for their own Colin Blackwell moment this year. That brings us to Blackwell himself, who also looks every bit like the heart-and-soul player who came within a whisker of scoring two playoff overtime goals in as many games last year. The Stars have players in this lineup who will be key factors in the team’s success, even if they might not be the ones whose faces are draped over the side of the building. Such is life on a successful NHL team, where even the fourth-liners are still among the most talented 0.01% of hockey players in the world.

And as much as anyone, this team is worth rooting for because of Jake Oettinger, who ended last year with his name unexpectedly in all the headlines. Never before had the young franchise goaltender gone so quickly from stealing a playoff series to being screamed at by his coach. Being pulled early in a game is always embarrassing, but to be unexpectedly (and unceremoniously) yanked from an elimination game was something entirely new for Oettinger. Despite everything he’s done early in his Stars career, and despite a bit of a dip in this regular season, Oettinger can only redeem himself from that performance in the postseason. Now, he’ll have his chance.

Glen Gulutzan has brought a new approach to the same Dallas Stars team that won six playoff series in the last three seasons. It would have been crazy to suggest the Stars would change coaches after Thomas Harley’s overtime goal against Winnipeg last year, but much like in the city of Dallas, things can change in a hurry in the playoffs. And this Stars team seems every bit like one ready to change the ending of their last three playoff runs.