Dallas Stars: Five Things To Get Excited About In 2018-19 Season

1 of 6

It seems as though the Dallas Stars are in for another interesting season in 2018-19. There’s no guarantee as to how things will go, but here are five things to get excited about as we inch closer to opening night.

As another month kicks off and hockey season draws all the more closer, there are a lot of questions surrounding the Dallas Stars. And when considering their recent past, that’s bound to happen.

The Stars have been one of hockey’s most perplexing (and frustrating) teams since Jim Nill was hired as general manager in April 2013. The interesting thing about the team is that you never really know what to think of them. And when you do, you realize that no bet is a safe one.

The past six summers have been good to Dallas. They’ve brought in some of the top names in the league and consistently built up their legitimacy as a high-caliber threat. Names like Tyler Seguin, Jason Spezza, and Alexander Radulov have made their way to Big D over the past few years and helped cement a lasting image for the team.

In addition to that, Nill has done a decent job at finding young talent through trades (such as Mattias Janmark) and developing in-house talent into everyday NHL assets (like John Klingberg and Esa Lindell).

More from Blackout Dallas

The Stars are a predominantly young and well-rounded group with talent in all three areas. All of the pieces seem to be there.

And yet, they’ve only qualified for the postseason in two of the past ten seasons overall. They’ve only been once in the past three years, and that was in 2015-16 when they won the Central Division. Times change.

But one playoff series victory and an inability to make it past the second round isn’t a promising trend, especially when they consistently “win” the offseason and boast talented rosters.

That’s exactly what makes them unique. Going into the season, they almost always look like a talented group with a chance at making a run. But there’s no real middle ground when estimating how they will finish. One year they might own the best record in the West (2015-16). Another year, they might take a steep drop-off and miss the postseason by 15 points (2016-17).

These inconsistent finishes have come with plenty of change, including plenty over the past three months. The Stars have hired a new head coach in Jim Montgomery, acquired a handful of new players while parting ways with some, and look ready to brace for impact in an airtight Central Division race.

Things could turn out well, or they could hit the gutter. There’s never really any telling where the Dallas Stars will go with a given season anymore.

But there are plenty of things to be excited about as this season gets underway, regardless of what the results may look like. There are plenty of high points to watch out for.

Here are five things that you should be excited about as a Stars fan in regards to the season ahead.

Home/Editorials