Dallas Stars faced with hard decisions about their leading goal scorer & goalie
The odds were always bad, and the Dallas Stars succumbed not to math but the better team.
Rather than play deep into the spring for a fourth consecutive year, the Stars’ season ended in April. The Stars lost 5-2 on Thursday night in Game 6 of their first-round Stanley Cup playoff series against the Minnesota Wild.
The Stars did manage to come from behind to grab a 2-1 lead in the second period, and it looked for a moment like they might win their second game of this series in St. Paul, this time to force a Game 7. The Wild tied it later in the second, and buried the Stars in the third.
The Wild won the series 4-2, and this was not that close. Minnesota was faster, and the Stars’ best players — forward Mikko Rantanen especially — were outplayed. For the Stars to win this series goalie Jake Oettinger was going to have to steal a game or two, and he did neither.
The chances of at least reaching the Western Conference final for a fourth straight year were always not good, and the fact that the Stars won 50 games and were the second seed in the playoffs are achievements that will be easily, albeit unfairly, discarded.
Starting in 2020 when they reached the Stanley Cup Final, this is the second-best era of Stars hockey. It just does not include a Stanley Cup; GM Jim Nill built a good, not a great, team.
Just like the previous three years, there is always one area that gets them. Against the Wild, it was scoring. If it wasn’t on a power play, the Stars couldn’t find the net with a GPS, guide dog and an Uber driver.
You can’t blame this on the absence of forward Roope Hintz, who missed the series with an injury. You can’t blame this on the loss of defenseman Nils Lundkvist, who suffered a facial laceration in Game 4 and was out for the rest of the series.
This team has skill, but it does not have enough depth at forward to consistently generate offense, and bury chances.
Owner Tom Gaglardi has given Nill the necessary support to build a winning team, which he has done. Nill has repeatedly added payroll with big moves to improve the team.
And here they sit. In the same spot.
The immediate concern now becomes what they can do over the summer to improve the roster, and all of that focus will be on potential restricted free agent Jason Robertson, as well as a hard look at the state of Oettinger.
On the docket will be Jamie Benn. The veteran forward is beloved by the GM, who this time one year ago gave Benn a one-year deal. Benn is 36, and he has expressed interest in returning to the Stars, but this may no longer be a fit for this lineup.
He’s also not the priority.
The priority is Robertson, and determining if the team should give him a long-term contract before he can become an unrestricted free agent in 2027. He’s played his entire seven-year NHL career with the Stars, and is one of the best goal scorers in the NHL Three times he’s scored 40 goals, including 45 this season.
Those players are commodities, and he will command a lot. In terms of a contract. In terms of a potential trade. The challenge for Nill is guessing if Robertson, 26, will age well, and be worth the investment, especially after he turns 30.
Oettinger, 27, is another confounding case. He signed an eight-year, $66 million contract in October 2024, an enormous investment for an increasingly volatile position in the NHL. Of the major moves the Stars have made under Nill, racing to handle Oettinger this big contract is the most “interesting.”
Oettinger has played well, and mostly consistent over his five-year period as the team’s starting goalie. He also has not been the difference in these playoff runs.
The Stars don’t need to dump Oettinger, but they are short of the Stanley Cup Final for a reason.
The Stars were one of the best teams in the regular season, and not in the postseason. But this team has flaws, and Nill can’t say, “Run it back.”
He has to change a few things.
This story was originally published April 30, 2026 at 10:44 PM.
