Dallas Stars Gold Star Awards: Offensive 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!

For the first year ever, it seems as though to make things interesting, we’re going to need to vote on the second offensive player of the year. If we were to vote on the first place offensive player for the Dallas Stars, it would seem illogical for Jamie Benn to not win 100% of the votes. You know. 87 points. Art Ross Trophy. Doing it all with a bad hip. Do I need to say more?

So let’s take a look at the candidates for “second” place on the Dallas Stars for offensive player of the year!

1. Tyler Seguin

I’m not entirely sure why I didn’t just say “third place” and count Tyler Seguin out as well, but I wanted to keep him in to make things interesting. After producing a career year in his first season with the Dallas Stars in 2013-2014, Tyler Seguin returned for his sophomore season in victory green looking for more.

At one point in the year, Seguin had 25 points in just 32 games. He led the league for a majority of the season in total goals and might have won the Rocket Richard Trophy, had he not encountered a brutal injury. Seguin had his knees taken out from under him on a dirty trip from Florida’s Dmitry Kulikov in mid February. This injury is what many consider to be the last nail in the coffin for the Stars’ playoff hopes, considering Seguin was sidelined for three weeks. Still, Tyler put on another excellent year, scoring 37 goals and tallying 77 points in 71 games. Oh, did I mention the two hat tricks?

2. Jason Spezza

Jason Spezza came to Dallas in the midst of the free agency market opening on July 1st. As part of a multiple player deal, Spezza left his longtime home of Ottawa to come and aid the Dallas Stars in their search for a veteran second line center.

Spezza attributed his slow start in Dallas to his lack of comfort in the system, which is perfectly normal for a 31 year old who had never been traded in his 11 years in the league. But Spezza eventually became comfortable with his new team and started to tear it up. By the end of 2014-2015, Spezza had played a complete 82 game stint, scoring 17 goals and tallying 62 points. He filled the role the Stars needed him to fill, and then some.

Cody Eakin:

Cody Eakin held the second line center position throughout the 2013-2014 season. As the offseason began, it was clear the Stars didn’t think he was ready to manage the position full-time. They went for Spezza and moved Eakin to the third line.

This season, Eakin proved he might just be ready for the second line job at the young age of 24. Through a total of 78 games, Eakin ended up scoring 19 goals and tallying 21 assists. He continues to break his career records and doesn’t look to be stopping anytime soon.

Patrick Eaves:

Patrick Eaves made this list simply because of the unexpected effect he ended up having on the Dallas Stars. After being signed as a free agent on July 1st, 2015, Eaves slowly found his role on the team.

After being the healthy scratch on and off, Eaves finally landed a full time roster spot. His production was slow, and his season took a severe turn on early December when he took a puck to the ankle that shattered bone. Eaves was sidelined until late January. When he returned, he became a suddenly threatening force for the Stars. It was great until he took a puck to the face two weeks later. Eaves would be out another two weeks, but eventually come back and become one of the Stars best. He ended the year with 14 goals and 27 points through just 47 games. That’s fantastic production for $650,000 on a one year deal.

So now it’s your turn to let your voice be heard! Who do you think deserves the gold star for “second” best offensive 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: Kari Lehtonen Has One More Chance To Prove Himself

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