If you own the captain’s jersey, you are no longer just one of the many Dallas Stars fans who has one. You are now one of the many fans throughout the league that has one.
It seems like it was not that long ago that the Dallas Stars were stuck in a playoff-less rut, scraping the bottom of the barrel for talent, and ultimately coming up short for five straight years.
This would have been the time where people across the NHL would boldly state that professional hockey did not belong in Texas. “Where hellish temperatures go, hockey should not follow,” they would say.
Then came the rising of a new Star. Jim Nill became the new general manager and immediately went to work on finishing the rebuild and turning Dallas into a contending team. The club began to thrive once again, and most recently claimed the Central Division title, one that is reveled by many as the toughest title to claim victory of.
Through it all, there has been one player holding the line and leading the charge for the Dallas Stars: captain Jamie Benn.
The 27-year-old has been with the Stars organization since they drafted him in the 2007 NHL entry draft (in the fifth round, I might add). He’s played a consistent and exciting brand of hockey since he kicked off his NHL career on opening night 2009.
His play has earned him an Art Ross Trophy for leading the league in points, as well as nominations for the Ted Lindsay Award and Hart Trophy. He’s broken his career record in stats in each of the past three seasons, and has only missed one game in that timeframe due to being a healthy scratch in the last game of the 13-14 season. Last year, he became just the second Star to break 40 goals in a season.
He’s a valiant captain that can play determined, physical hockey and has an exquisite scoring touch. Not many, if any, hockey players can claim to possessing all that Benn does. He’s proven that he will do anything for the Dallas Stars, and that’s why he’s captain. That’s also why Dallas signed him to an eight-year contract extension in early July.
But now Benn is being recognized by not only the Dallas Stars community, but also the NHL community as a whole. The Stars performance this past year took them from being a team in the shadows of the league to a team on the brink of a Stanley Cup. They marched to the second round of the playoffs and fell in seven games, and plenty of people took notice.
As a result, it looks like Jamie Benn is gaining a lot of fame and following. In a tweet this morning from John Shannon, it appears that Benn is fifth place in the top five jersey sales across the NHL. He trails only to Sidney Crosby, Alex Ovechkin, Patrick Kane, and Vladimir Tarasenko.
Top 5 jersey sales in the NHL:
— John Shannon (@JShannonhl) July 27, 2016
1. S Crosby
2. A Ovechkin
3. P Kane
4. V Taransenko
5. Ja Benn
This is a pretty big deal, considering it’s probably been a long time since any Stars player has been this close to the top spot.
It just goes to show that the Dallas Stars are getting back on the national hockey map and are fielding a lot of support. They’re an exciting team to watch and cheer for, and people outside the Texas area are starting to acknowledge it.
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Jamie Benn is front and center on this new hockey order, and the Stars are on their way up with him as the lead dog. It’s an exciting time to see this all happening, especially if you are a Dallas Stars fan that has watched this team grow from the ashes over the past three years. All that is left to do is see what they have in store for next season.