The Dallas Stars have their new Mike Modano, and the on-ice equivalent to Luka Doncic
The Dallas Stars are one win away from advancing to the Western Conference semifinals for the second year in a row.
The last time they reached the West semifinals in consecutive years was 2000 and 2001. When Mike Modano was their best player.
Despite all of the success of Jamie Benn and Tyler Seguin, neither player ever made sports fans in DFW look at hockey, and the Dallas Stars, more than Modano.
Mo’s last season with the Dallas Stars was in 2009-10; the team, and thus the sport, never has had the player, and personality, to represent both the way he did.
Benn and Seguin are wonderful players, and despite their talents they don’t turn our heads the way Modano did.
Times are different, of course. Modano mostly played in a pre-internet world where our interests were not so fractured, and he was a member of a team that won a Stanley Cup, and reached another Finals.
He was also a good-looking, single American. That helped.
Fans may not have known hockey, but they knew Mo. You likely only know Benn and Seguin if you know hockey.
The Stars are currently sitting on their new Modano, a player so young, and good, he is the on ice equivalent to Dallas Mavericks forward Luka Doncic.
If the Stars are going to win a Stanley Cup anytime soon, their best player will be defenseman Miro Heiskanen.
The third overall pick in the 2017 NHL Draft, Heiskanen has essentially saved GM Jim Nill’s job with the Stars.
Heiskanen is a generational talent at a position the Cup winners of this era need.
On Tuesday in Edmonton, the Stars defeated the Calgary Flames 2-1. The Stars now lead their first round Stanley Cup playoff series 3-2. Game 6 is Thursday.
Because of the sport he plays, and his game, he will never generate the type of interest as a Modano. When it comes to talent, and ability, Heiskanen is the Stars’ Doncic.
“Miro can dictate a game like Modano could,” said former NHL player and current Stars TV analyst Brent Severyn. “Miro will have more leadership qualities.”
Leadership was one of those qualities that Mo’ just never quite developed. It wasn’t in him.
Mavs coach Rick Carlisle said Doncic is one of the few players he’d pay to watch; the same should be said of Heiskanen.
Both are 21, from Europe, and already two of the best in the league at their respective positions.
The last, and only other time, the Stars had a defenseman this good was Russian Sergei Zubov. Heiskanen can be better than Zubie ... which is a dangerous sentence to write.
Heiskanen has been compared to former Detroit Red Wings defenseman Nicklas Lidstrom. That’s akin to being compared to Michael Jordan, Peyton Manning, etc.
“I’ve compared him to Scott Niedermayer, only because I played with him,” Severyn said.
Niedermayer is a Hall of Famer who played 18 NHL seasons, and won multiple Stanley Cups.
“I was watching Miro’s third (NHL) game and I said, ‘That’s Scott Niedermayer right there,’” Severyn said. “The calmness on the ice. The competitiveness. He knows exactly where the puck is supposed to go. It’s scary that he’s that good at that age. His overall game will get better as he grows into his body.
“Every bit of his game needs to improve, but none of it needs to improve.”
In the NHL’s playoff bubble, Heiskanen is the Stars’ best player.
For whatever reason, Seguin’s ability as a goal scorer in the regular season has never translated to the playoffs; in 27 career playoff games with the Stars, he has five goals.
Benn is still a wonderful player, but his style does not lend itself to holding up much longer. He’s 30, and the numbers have started to slide.
The Stars are still technically Benn’s team, but the transition is happening.
Miro is their leading scorer in the NHL bubble, and his presence has allowed a talented player like John Klingberg to thrive without having to be a No. 1 defenseman.
Klingberg scored the game winner in the third period of Game 5.
The Stars are one win away from returning to the Western Conference semifinals in consecutive years for the first time since Mike Modano was their best player.
