This article will analyze how the Dallas Stars have built their team. It will highlight a handful of their core players, look at those players’ hockey pathways, and explain how those players ultimately ended up in Dallas.
The Dallas Stars have been in the upper echelon of NHL teams over the last six seasons. They have made the playoffs in five of those six years, with their only omission coming in the shortened 2020-21 season. In that span, the Stars have lost in the Stanley Cup finals once, the Western Conference Finals twice, the second round once, and the first round once.
The Stars are an elite hockey team once again this season. They are currently tied for third overall in the NHL with 72 points in 55 games played, a 107 point pace over an 82 game season. It would be their third straight 100 point season if they can continue at the pace they are on.
What makes Dallas Stars hockey so intriguing with respect to team building is their tremendous depth. Elite teams like Edmonton and Colorado rely heavily on their top players. These players play massive minutes in all situations and drive their team’s offense. Nathan MacKinnon, for example, plays 23:03 per night and has 87 points on the season, meaning that he has recorded a point on 47% of the Avalanche’s goals. He is a somewhat extreme example, but most of the top players on top teams average over 20 minutes per night and contribute at a minimum 35-40% of their team’s offense.
The Stars are an anomaly in this respect. Their leading scorer is Matt Duchene, who sits at 55 points in 55 games played, meaning that he has scored a point on 30.56% of Stars goals. Wyatt Johnston leads their forward group with 19:13 of ice time, with Jason Robertson in second with 17:51. Jason Robertson leads their team in shots on goal with 149, which ranks him just 43rd in the league.
While their formula is different than many top teams, it works. They are top-10 among NHL teams in goals scored, goals conceded, shots on goal per game, and shots on goal conceded per game. They lead the league with an 85.0% PK percentage. The hallmark of their team is their remarkable depth: they have 10 players with 25 or more points, a number tied for first in the league (click here to see full individual statistics).
Those are the surface-level statistics regarding what Dallas Stars hockey represents. The remainder of this article will delve into how the Stars built their team in a smart and sustainable manner to achieve multi-year success.
Core Dallas Stars Hockey Players
The following Stars hockey players are ones that I have identified as core players not just for this year but for the foreseeable future as well. This factors in performance, age, and potential. For example, their leader point producer Matt Duchene is excluded due to the fact that he is 34 years old and a free agent at the end of the year.
Jake Oettinger, 1998
Drafted Round 1, 26th overall in 2017 by the Dallas Stars
Signed until 2033
NCAA, AHL
The Stars drafted Oettinger, Miro Heiskanen, and Jason Robertson in 2017 in what would ultimately be a franchise-altering draft year for them. Oettinger was the #1 ranked goalie in most pre-draft rankings after posting impressive freshman year statistics at Boston University.
Oettinger played two additional years at B.U. after getting drafted and then a full year primarily in the AHL before getting called up to the NHL the next year. He has been a pillar of consistency in a position defined by fickleness and unpredictability. This season, he currently sits at 26-12-2 with a .911 SV% and a 2.35 GAA.
Jason Robertson, 1998
Drafted Round 2, 39th overall in 2017 by the Dallas Stars
Signed until 2026
OHL, AHL, NHL
Robertson is currently fourth in the entire 2017 draft class in total career points with 365. He is behind only Elias Petterson, Cale Makar, and Nico Hischier, all of whom were drafted in the top five. Robertson has scored at every level, but his dearth of speed caused many scouts to worry about how his game would translate to the NHL level.
Those scouts were proven wrong almost immediately. After one productive season in the AHL, Robertson put up 45 points in 51 games his rookie season and has not looked back since. In 2022-23 he put up 109 points, a career high. Although he has dipped a bit from that level this season, he has provided remarkable value overall for a second round pick that is still just 25 years old.
Wyatt Johnston, 2003
Drafted Round 1, 23rd overall in 2021 by the Dallas Stars
2025 RFA
OHL, NHL
At just 21 years old, Johnston is already leading Dallas this season in TOI and ranks third on their team in points. He has improved every season he has been in the NHL, an encouraging sign for a young prospect with his skillset.
After putting up 124 points in the 2021-22 OHL season, Johnston made the jump to the NHL the following year and has not looked back. He is arguably the player that Stars hockey fans are the most excited for long-term, and fans and pundits alike expect him to be a critical piece of their roster for many years to come.
Roope Hintz, 1996
Drafted Round 2, 49th overall in 2015 by the Dallas Stars
Signed until 2031
Liiga, AHL, NHL
Hintz is another of the Stars’ second round picks who has turned into an immensely valuable asset on a championship team. Hintz played three years in Liiga, the top league in Finland. When he made the jump to North America, he played his first one and a half years in the AHL before settling in with the Stars, where he has been ever since. Although Hintz’s numbers have dipped a bit this season, he has been at or close to a point per game pace for each of the last five seasons.
Logan Stankoven, 2003
Drafted Round 2, 47th overall in 2021 by the Dallas Stars
Signed until 2026
WHL, AHL, NHL
The 2021 draft was extremely fruitful for the Stars with the selections of Logan Stankoven and Wyatt Johnston. Stankoven is an undersized forward with high-end skill and processing ability. He dominated the AHL last season in his first year of pro hockey to the tune of 57 points in 47 games. Though his tenure in the NHL has had its ups and downs, Stankoven has immense future potential, and his current production of 25 points in 53 games is nothing to scoff at for a 21 year old.
Miro Heiskanen, 1999
Drafted Round 1, 3rd overall in 2017 by the Dallas Stars
Signed until 2029
Liiga, NHL
The Stars were gifted the third overall pick in 2017 after a trying season that saw them accumulate just 79 points in 82 games, and they made the most of it with Heiskanen. Heiskanen is a player with an effortless stride and elite skill, and since coming to the Stars from Liiga he has been incredibly productive and reliable. The 2024-25 season has been a bit of a down year for him statistically and health-wise, but his career as a Star has been very impressive overall.
Thomas Harley, 2001
Drafted Round 1, 18th overall in 2018 by the Dallas Stars
Signed until 2026
OHL, AHL, NHL
Harley took a while to become a mainstay NHL defensemen, spending his first three professional seasons primarily in the AHL. However, last season he broke out with 47 points and +28 rating in 79 games played, and he has continued his stellar play this season too. Harley is a great skater with good size, standing at 6’3″ and 205lbs. Still just 23 years old, the Stars are very excited to have drafted Harley at 18th overall.
Mavrik Bourque, 2002
Drafted Round 1, 30th overall in 2020 by the Dallas Stars
2025 RFA
QMJHL, AHL, NHL
Bourque led the AHL in points last season with 77. He made the big league club this season, and while his transition has not been seamless, he has shown flashes of the skill and hockey IQ that led him to accumulate so many points in the AHL last year. At just 23 years old and still in his first NHL season, Bourque is one of the most exciting prospects from the 2020 draft class and one the Stars are hoping can continue to show improvement.
Esa Lindell, 1994
Drafted Round 3, #74 overall in 2012 by the Dallas Stars
Signed until 2030
Liiga, AHL, NHL
While Lindell is the oldest player on this list, he is signed under contract until 2030 and is still a mainstay on the Stars’ defensive core. While Heiskanen and Harley are the flashier defensemen on the team, Lindell provides much-needed defensive reliability. He is a big-bodied, physical defenseman, a great penalty killer, and a consistent logger of 20+ minutes per night.
Takeaways
#1: The Stars have done a fantastic job at drafting players.
All nine of the core players listed above were drafted by the Stars. Many of these players were remarkable value picks, such as Jason Robertson and Logan Stankoven in the second round. Another good chunk of these players were late first-round picks that have provided the value of an early first-round pick.
This is not to say that the Stars are inactive in free agency or trades. They acquired Matt Duchene, Mason Marchment, Mikael Granlund, and several other players through these two methods. But the core players that the Stars intend to build their team around for years to come were procured via the draft.
#2: A lot of the Stars’ top players played one or more AHL seasons.
Most of the players listed above were not top-15 overall picks and have had to work their way to the NHL by developing in the AHL. Seven of the nine players listed above played for the Texas Stars, Dallas’ AHL team, at some point, with the exceptions being Heiskanen and Johnston. This indicates that the Stars are doing something right with their development model, since so many of these young players have had effective transitions from the AHL to the NHL level. The Stars hockey brass combine good drafting with a system of patience and development to prioritize the ascendence of their young players.
#3: The Stars have a great mix of young and old players.
Wyatt Johnston and Logan Stankoven highlight the bevy of exciting young players in the Stars system that Dallas expects to rely on for years to come. The Stars also have several players right in their prime, like Miro Heiskanen, Jake Oettinger, and Jason Robertson, that have plenty of effective years left but are also seasoned professionals at this point in their careers. But, importantly, they also have several veterans, many of whom can still provide effective minutes. Jamie Benn, Tyler Seguin, and leading point scorer Matt Duchene highlight this group. These veterans are critical not just for the model they provide to younger players, but for the collection of experience that they bring for the added pressures and expectations come playoff time.
Conclusion
Each of the the top teams in the NHL was formed in a disparate fashion. The cup-winning Florida Panthers were formed from a combination of savvy trades, smart drafting, and opportunistic free agent signings. The Edmonton Oilers and Colorado Avalanche were formed on the backs of a few really challenging seasons, which granted them high draft picks, which they used to collect some of the NHL’s best talent with the likes of Connor McDavid (1st overall), Nathan MacKinnon (1st overall), Leon Draisaitl (3rd overall), and Cale Makar (4th overall). Vegas was formed through the expansion draft and trades.
Dallas really stands alone in their roster construction with how much of their team was built from within. Most of their core players were Stars draft picks who developed in the AHL before rising to the big league team. The Stars have added on the fringes with several savvy trades and free agent signings, but the crux of their success has come from internal development. It is a really interesting, and in their case effective, development model, and one that is becoming less and less common.
Thanks for reading this article on Dallas Stars hockey! To see where the Stars rank in my Cup Contender rankings, click here.