By Zackery Robert
Next we travel from Ohio to the great state of Texas where we take a look at the Dallas Stars franchise. Formerly moving from Minnesota to Dallas in 1993 the Stars would find success by the end of the decade and would hope for more going into the new millennium.
Dallas made their first appearance at the NHL entry draft in June of 1993 where they held the ninth overall pick. For the purpose however of looking at the most successful picks in the franchise we will flip to the 1994 draft where in the fifth round the Stars would use the 124th pick to select their franchise goalie in Marty Turco. After playing four years at the University of Michigan and then two more in the IHL, Turco finally debuted for the Stars in the 2000 season. Turco would then hold the net for the Stars from 2000-2010 with multiple 30 win seasons and one 40 win season Turco would finish off his playing time in Dallas with 262 wins, good for number one in franchise history.
Coming up next was a player who was technically drafted by Minnesota but since the team moved to Dallas and he played a vast majority of his games with the Stars he will be a part of this list. Mike Modano, recognized as one of the best American players of all time and formerly recognized as the best American player, was selected first in the 1988 draft. Modano had an impressive career spanning into four decades from the 80s-10s, during his prime he would constantly be in the 70-90 point range and would amass over 1300 points in his career. Modano would help lead the Stars to a Stanley cup in the 1999 season. Modano would have his number retired by the Stars in the 2014 season on March 8th.
Coming in next is another member of the 1999 cup winning team. Jere Lehtinen was the 88th overall selection in the 1992 draft by the Minnesota North Stars, eventually the Dallas Stars. Lehtinen only ever suited up for the Dallas Stars and was a big part of the team’s success during his full 14 year career. He was one of the league’s top defensive forwards winning three Frank J. Selke trophies as the league’s best defensive forward. He scored 514 points in his 875 games and, as mentioned earlier, captured a Stanley cup with the team in 1999. Lehtinen is one of only three Stars players to have his jersey retired, He was honoured on November 24th 2017.
Now for picks that did not go according to plan. We will start at the 2009 draft where Dallas held the right pick and selected centre Scott Glennie. Glennie had a lot of potential but his potential never came close to being matched. Glennie suited up in only one NHL game recording zero points. After that he was a consistent AHL player until his full retirement after the 2016-2017 season. In this draft there were actually a good amount of defensemen drafted after Glennie which the Stars could have used in this current age. Players like Nick Leddy, Ryan Ellis, Calvin De Haan, and Dmitri Kulikov, and along with forward Ryan O’Reilly there were plenty of more suitable options they could have chosen looking back.
Next we will travel back to the 1996 draft where the Stars held a top five pick at number five and went to the blue and chose Richard Jackman. Jackman was not what the Stars had hoped for, for being such a high pick it would have been quite disappointing to see him struggle to maintain a spot in the NHL. Jackman ended up playing 38 games for the Dallas Stars before being traded away to the Boston Bruins. In those 38 games Jackman scored three points. It is never easy to see such a high pick not pan out but unfortunately that is the case sometimes.
Finally we will take a look at goal for the Stars and rewind to the 2001 entry draft where they held pick 26 and used it on Jason Bacashihua. In this series thus far we have not had one goalie on this list but in case for the Stars they had very low picks during a lot of their drafts and many times they did not have a first round pick at all. But when a goalie goes in the first round they must have something special because not a lot of them go in the first round. For Bacashihua he never laced them up for the Dallas Stars and developed for five more seasons before going into the NHL and with a record of 4-10-1 in his first season he never lived up to that first round status. Only playing one more year in the NHL in 2006-2007 Bacashihua finished with a career record of 7-17-4. It is very hard when drafting a goalie anytime, let alone in the first round, but for the lack of return the Stars got for drafting him in the first round, Bacashihua winds up on this list.
In 2023 the Stars gm Jim Nill has assembled a pretty potent offence with Hintz, Robertson, Pavelski, etc and with a goalie who looks to be one of the league’s best in his prime, the Stars look to be quite formidable for the foreseeable future. The Stars finished eighth in the league and have a first round matchup with the Minnesota Wild. They definitely have their sights set on a deep run as they traded away their first round pick to help aid in that deep run.
But when June arrives and the draft is upon us the Stars will have a draft choice lineup that looks like this: 2nd, 4th, 5th, 6th, 7th, and for what can make this draft a success for the Stars is if they focus on defence. Their first pick could end up being in the late 50s so we will look to mid second round players to target. For the Stars, some good prospects to target would be Aram Minnetian, Andrew Strathmann, and Etienne Morin. Some mid-size defensemen with speed that can help continue that current offensive threat of the Dallas Stars.
For more information on the 2023 NHL Draft class be sure to pick up your copy of the comprehensive DraftPro 2023 NHL Draft Guide.