Dallas Stars Gold Star Awards: Defensive Player Of The Year

The Dallas Stars 2014-2015 season was one filled with mediocrity and overall disappointment. From a team with such high aspirations in July leading up to the season opener in October, they fell to a team that might need another year to sort everything out.

Though the season wasn’t what most were hoping for, there were some positives to take away, along with some negatives that need to be worked on.

Today, we’re going to reinstate our annual gold star awards polls! If you remember these from last season, this is where we look back on the season and examine each player’s contributions. From there, we vote on which one’s would win which award.

The awards we give out include offensive player of the year, defensive player of the year, bust of the year, most improved player of the year, and rookie of the year. If you have any other ideas for new awards, let us know in the comments!

Our first poll went up about a week ago, examining the Dallas Stars offensive player of the year. We excluded Jamie Benn from the poll, considering that if he were in the poll it would be an atrocity for him to not receive every single vote.

Out of Tyler Seguin, Jason Spezza, Cody Eakin, and Patrick Eaves, Seguin received 77% of the vote. Spezza and Eakin tied with 9% for each and Patrick Eaves placed last with 5% of the votes. The link to go and vote on that one is further below.

Today, we are going to take a look at a rather crippled department for the Stars: the defense. We’ll take a look at each candidate and then vote below.

Though it suffered, the Stars blue line made it through. These four helped lead the way. Here are the candidates for defenseman of the year:

Alex Goligoski:

Alex Goligoski may very well have had his greatest season defensively as a Star this past year. As a 29-year old, Goligoski was the second oldest member of the Stars blue line, and helped spread his knowledge. He was heavily criticized last season for his extremely high amount of turnovers, but this year he worked out the kinks and brought the numbers way down.

He played much smarter as a defender, all while playing with some major hurt. It was never truly identified what his injury truly was, but from press conferences with head coach Lindy Ruff, it was clear that he was in a lot of pain for the majority of the season. Goligoski still managed to play 81 games and only miss the final one. He scored four goals and tallied 36 points, his fourth highest ever. He did all this while managing his defensive style well, and ended up turning in a great year.

Trevor Daley:

Trevor Daley might have been in the running for Dallas Stars offensive player of the year, except he’s a defender. But Daley had a good season with Dallas. After scoring the first goal of the season on opening night, his numbers really took off.

This past season, Daley almost doubled his former career high in goals. He ended the season with 16 goals and 38 points. This included six power play goals. He did all of this in 68 games, after missing 14 games towards the end of the year from a brutal hip check delivered from Matt Martin. The only problem with Daley’s year was the defensive side of the puck. Daley finished the year with a -13 on ice rating, which was one time in the negative 20’s. This is not what you need to see from a veteran defenseman. Still, the injury handicapped him a bit at the end of the year, and he still came out with a decent season.

John Klingberg:

John Klingberg will more than likely win this poll, considering he’s John Klingberg. After being called up in early November, Klingberg was off to the races from the get go in his NHL debut. Klingberg quickly obtained a full-time roster spot from his clever play and clutch decision-making skills on the ice.

At the end of the year, he was snubbed from the Calder Memorial Trophy, but still turned in the best Dallas rookie defenseman performance ever. Klingberg tallied 11 goals and 40 points, which led all Stars defenseman. He did this all in just 65 games. Not bad for a fifth round pick, huh?

Next: Who Deserves The Gold Star Award For Offensive Player Of The Year?

Jason Demers:

Jason Demers may not be the most talked about Dallas Stars’ defenseman, but that may be a good thing. Demers flew under the radar this season after being traded to Dallas in November for Brenden Dillon. He scored a goal and delivered a beautiful hip check to Jarrett Stoll on his first night at the AAC.

He slowly moved from first pair to third, but that didn’t stop his contributions. In the end, Demers tallied up five goals and 22 points. These numbers are pretty decent, considering he was a third line member the majority of the year. Demers is a decent right-handed shot that the Stars have needed for a while.

So now it’s your turn to let your voice be heard! Who do you think deserves the gold star for best defensive player of the year? Let your voice be heard in the poll below. Apologies to all using our mobile app that doesn’t support polls yet. We encourage those who run into this problem to go on our website or find us on social media and vote!

Next: Colton Sceviour And His Interesting Future In Dallas

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