In the Stars 4-0 win, Jamie Benn netted two goals to give him 11 on the season. (HermanVonPetri/flickr)

The change is a welcome one, with the bland black and white current jerseys growing increasingly unpopular over the past few years. Of course, it doesn’t help that the jerseys were worn during one of the least successful stretches of the franchise’s existence with the Stars having missed the playoffs for the last five years.

The event will feature Stars owner Tom Gaglardi, President and CEO Jim Lites, newly-hired General Manager Jim Nill, Mike Modano, and Stars forward Jamie Benn. Lites describes the rebrand as “ classic, simple and true-to-hockey” and Stars fans should rest easy knowing that while the logo and uniform will change, the color green will remain and in fact, it will return as the primary color.

Mike Heika of the Dallas Morning News has confirmed that while the team toyed with changing the colors completely, fan feedback swayed Gaglardi to return to green as the primary color, a color that the team de-emphasized with the current kit. Thankfully, Gaglardi also stated that the team is rebranding with a “vintage look”, squashing all fear that the team would create an outlandish uniform.

The Stars logo, which was resigned to the shoulders while the “Dallas” word-mark was featured on the chest in the current kit, was a loved and long-lived logo, and while fans will have reservations about a new logo given that the last attempt, the so called “mooterus” failed miserably, it feels as if it is the right time for it to go. It has remained relatively unchanged since the team’s final season in Minnesota, simply adding the word Dallas onto the top of the logo.

Say goodbye to the current Dallas Stars logo

Interestingly though, the press release also mentions that the team will be making a “significant announcement” in addition to unveiling the uniforms. As Jamie Benn will be the only current Stars player to be present at the event, and with the departure of captain Brenden Morrow, it seems plausible that the team could also announce Jamie Benn as the new Captain of the Dallas Stars.

No matter what happens, June 4th will mark the beginning of a new era for the Dallas Stars. A new owner, a new general manager, a new coach and a new look to go along with it. The last five years have been like a recurring nightmare, an unending torture of missed opportunities. It’s time to wipe the slate clean and start over. In fact, it’s long overdue.

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Andrew Monrreal

Andrew Monrreal is a student at the University of North Texas, majoring in Journalism. He covers the Dallas Stars for The Hockey Writers and has previously covered the Dallas Stars for the FanSided Network. Email: drewmonrreal@gmail.com

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The organization announced the firing of Nieuwendyk April 28 after a four year tenure marked by questionable trades and head-scratching free agent signings. The move was an unflattering end for the Conn Smythe recipient of the 1999 Stanley Cup Finals. Many players on that team were deserving, but Joe Nieuwendyk’s clutch scoring and leadership (he wore the “C” during the first round due to incumbent Derian Hatcher’s suspension) deemed him the most valuable member of the team’s championship run.

Joe Nieuwendyk (Jerome Miron-USA TODAY Sports)

Always a classy player, Nieuwendyk endeared himself to Stars fans with his determined play and his courage. He played the ’98-99 season on two reconstructed knees—a testament to the man’s will and team-first mentality.

A decade later, Nieuwendyk was hired to be the Stars GM. Fans rejoiced and welcomed the hero’s return to right the course of a franchise in decline. “GM Joe” brought familiarity, a bit of nostalgia and had the fans in his corner from Day 1. It wasn’t the ideal spot for a rookie GM. The franchise was in bankruptcy, hamstringing Nieuwendyk’s ability to maneuver from the get-go.

The Good of Nieuwendyk

As with any GM of a professional sports team, some decisions prove to be right and some terribly wrong. Joe Nieuwendyk’s signing of Kari Lehtonen amid some skepticism landed the Stars an elite goaltender. GM Joe proved capable of the tough decisions, parting ways with fan favorites Mike Modano, Brendan Morrow and Steve Ott during his tenure.

Then the Bad and Ugly

However, the majority of his moves and signings proved incomprehensible. Shipping off James Neal and Matt Niskanen to Pittsburgh for Alex Goligoski has been a colossal bust. Gambling that superstar Brad Richards would stay in Dallas when teams with deeper pockets were lining up in the offseason resulted in a non-trade at the deadline and Richards walked in the summer with no return for the Stars.

The dearth of playmaking centers meant skilled rookie Jamie Benn was forced to play center instead of his natural wing position. Benn gets by on his talent, but asking a rookie to center the first line puts immense pressure on the player and could have easily resulted in Benn’s implosion.

The constant flip-flopping strategy of signing grizzled veterans and injecting youth into the lineup resulted in a team without any semblance of a true identity. Add to that Joe Nieuwendyk’s selection of rookie head coach Glen Gulutzan, and the team never jelled whether it was trying to be an offensively puck-moving juggernaut or a solid defensive grinder. Most nights Gulutzan appeared confused and overwhelmed behind the bench. A team with as many youngsters as the Stars fielded this past season screams for an authoritative presence in the head coach’s role.

Four years later, the team still struggles with consistent scoring and a glaringly ineffective defense corps that does not protect the crease, has trouble moving the puck out of its zone and can be pushed around like rag dolls. The team still lacks an identity, and is in just as much disarray as it was when the tenure of Joe Nieuwendyk began. And that’s how a beloved former Star flames out.

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mdavis

This article was originally published at: The Hockey Writers.

Jim Nill has made his first major move since being hired as the Dallas Stars general manager on April 29.

The Stars fired head coach Glen Gulutzan and assistant coach Paul Jerrard on Tuesday. Gulutzan missed the playoffs in both of his two seasons behind the bench and posted a 64-57-9 record in those two seasons.

After Dallas relieved GM Joe Nieuwendyk of his duties back in April, it was just a matter of time before the Stars decided to go in a different direction with the coaching staff.

So who is on tap to become the Stars next head coach? Well, let’s look at the big names that are out there.

Lindy Ruff

Ruff was fired by the Buffalo Sabres this season after coaching them for the last 17 seasons. He the won Jack Adams Award as coach of the year in 2006. He led the Sabres to a Presidents Trophy in 06-07 and a Stanley Cup Finals in 98-99. While Ruff has an impressive résumé, it would be hard to believe he would get behind the Dallas Stars bench after the whole Brett Hull foot in the crease goal that cost the Sabres the Stanley Cup in 98-99.

Dave Tippet

Tippet is not under contract for the next season. Tippett enjoyed success in Dallas throughout the 2000’s before the Stars fired him in 2009. He spent the last four seasons in Phoenix making the playoffs three times making it to the conference finals last year. Dallas could look to bring his defensive systems back to the lone star state.

Curt Fraser

Fraser is probably one of the top candidates to replace Gulutzan behind the bench. Nill knows Fraser very well from their days with the Grand Rapids Griffins of the AHL where Fraser was the head coach. He has was the first ever coach of the Atlanta Thrashers and had an unsuccessful four seasons behind the bench.

Willie Desjardins

Desjardins is currently the head coach of the Texas Stars, Dallas’s Affiliate. He led the team to the best record in the Western Conference this year and won coach of the year along with it. Desjardins knows the organization being with the Stars since 2010. It’s hard not to believe he is not at the top of the list.

Guy Boucher

Boucher is probably one of the biggest names on the coaching market. He led the Tampa Bay Lighting to 103 points in his first season, but eventually losing in game seven of the conference finals in 2011. Since then Boucher failed to make the playoffs and was fired after 31 games in 2013.

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Laine Sedore

I am a graduate from the Journalism, Online, Print, and Broadcast program at Loyalist College in Belleville Ontario. I am also a graduate of the Post-Graduate Sports Journalism program at Loyalist College. I've been a hockey fan for as long as I can remember. Brett Hulls foot was not in the crease.

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Namely, my left inner ear.

How did just 4600 people get so loud?

Thirty-six hours after the fact, a buzz continues in my left ear that began the moment the red light went on. This was just the fans. When the goal horn burst, so did the left half of my head. Since that goal, my inner ear has hissed and gnarled, buzzed and broke like a sound check on a stack of Marshall amps.

When I saw the highlights had been posted I was thrilled, but it sounds no louder than any other big goal:

And I was screaming too, but I could not hear myself. Not in a nightmare-sort-of-way, where you feel like you can’t breathe. Instead it was like I was accelerating past the speed of my own voice. I know I was screaming because my throat ached from having spent part of the evening informing young Hellberg that he was an unsatisfactory goalie. But I could not hear myself.

In four years I’ve never heard the Cedar Park Center so loud. Not when Jamie Benn buried a rebound past Curtis Sanford in overtime of in 2010, or when Francis Wathier beat Michel Neuvirth in front of an SRO crowd of over 7000, or when Brad Lukowich beat Jeremy Smith in 2011.

And I’m relieved to see in Stephen Meserve’s pre-game write-up at Hundred Degree Hockey that I’m not the only one who thought the joint was especially loud.

When Alex Chiasson arrived in Cedar Park from Boston University in the spring of 2012, no one spoke more highly of him than then-Dallas GM Joe Nieuwendyk, who nearly waxed poetic about the kid. But in his first nine or so pro games, Chiasson was not overly impressive.

In the Fall, with the lockout underway, Chiasson found himself starting the season as a winger on the third line. He did well enough, but it wasn’t until Texas lost key forwards Travis Morin and Francis Wathier to injuries—and then lost Cody Eakin, Reilly Smith and others to Dallas when the lockout ended—that fans saw the rise of Alex Chiasson.

The game 3 battle at the dot between Chiasson and Milwaukee’s Chris Meuller was intensely entertaining (Ross Bonander / THW)

Beginning in mid-January, the Texas Stars gradually became Alex Chiasson’s team. He emerged as a leader. Moved to center between Mike Hedden and Justin Dowling, Chiasson scored 7-15-22 in the final 29 games of the season, after scoring 5-7-12 in the prior 28 games.

As a centerman he made his linemates look like all-stars. Hedden’s 13-18-31 points since the start of January represent almost his entire point production for the season. Dowling meanwhile was a mid-January ECHL call-up who scored 16-14-30 in the team’s final 38 games.

Yesterday on the Dallas Stars podcast, Ralph Strangis talked about what he felt was Chiasson’s most impressive quality: in Cedar Park, the team needed him to play center, and he did it brilliantly. When Dallas called him up at season’s end, Chiasson saw that Dallas didn’t need him at center, they needed him to be a high-scoring winger. His six goals in his first seven NHL games testifies to his ability to change his game to fit the team.

Game four of the best-of-five opening round is tonight. Texas can clinch a series at home for the first time in their short history.

And no, I won’t be wearing ear plugs.

For an excellent, comprehensive profile of Chiasson, check out From Boston to Austin by Texas Stars broadcaster Owen Newkirk.

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Ross Bonander

Ross Bonander is a freelance health writer and quotations editor. His work includes Hockey Talk, a collection of memorable hockey quotes and So So In Centerfield, an unusual collection of baseball quotes. He writes extensively for the Lymphoma Information Network.

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This article was originally published at: The Hockey Writers.

With only 48 games spread across four months, the lockout-shortened regular season was a hectic one for the Stars. The year saw a Jamie Benn contract dispute, injuries to multiple star players, the emergence of promising young blood, the trading away of key veterans, and an unexpectedly heroic post-trade deadline winning streak, all leading to a heart-wrenching skid at the end that dashed all remaining hope of a playoff berth.

Joe Nieuwendyk (Jerome Miron-USA TODAY Sports)

Front and center for the entire thing was Nieuwendyk, and in the end, his ax was the first to fall as the team missed the playoffs for the fifth consecutive season, the fourth under his tenure.

The Stars wasted no time in announcing his replacement on Monday, introducing long-time Detroit Red Wings assistant-GM Jim Nill as the new man pulling the strings. Nill comes to the Stars with a stacked resume, being a key management pomponent in the team’s four Stanley Cup victories within the last sixteen years.

According to Stars owner Tom Gaglardi, the decision to replace Nieuwendyk with Nill isn’t as much based on the failures of the former, but moreso on the credentials and potential of the latter, but still, it’s hard to believe that Nieuwendyk’s inability to build a playoff roster for four straight years didn’t heavily come into play.

Although immensely popular from his playing days with Dallas, winning the Conn Smythe Trophy and helping the team win the Stanley Cup in 1999, Nieuwendyk’s tenure as a GM was less than memorable. His choices when it came to coaches never panned out, firing Dave Tippet for Marc Crawford and then hiring Glen Gulutzan over Ken Hitchcock (Tippet and Hitchcock both went on to win Jack Adams awards as the NHL’s best coach, with Phoenix and St. Louis, respectively), while trading away James Neal and Matt Niskanen in exchange for Alex Goligoski was a move, rightly or wrongly, that was ostracized in the media and will likely never be seen as anything but a huge loss for the Stars.

Add in the free agent loss of Brad Richards for no return, Mike Modano not being resigned and playing his last games as a Red Wing, the drafting of Scott Glennie in 2009, and some questionable returns on trades and you have a track record that is certainly far from perfect.

Yet, looking back on Nieuwendyk’s general manager stint as a whole, it’s hard to not hold an overall favourable opinion regarding what he managed to accomplish.

When Nieuwendyk took over as GM in June of 2009, he inherited a Stars team that was on the verge of a serious disaster. Longtime owner Tom Hicks was in severe financial straits, causing the Stars to drastically change from being one of the league’s more financially aggressive free agency bidders, a strategy that the franchise used mostly successfully for over a decade to bring in high-end talent, to being a team that operated at the very floor of the salary cap.

A decade of being one of the NHL’s elite teams left the Stars focused on winning then, but not preparing for the future. In 2009 the Stars roster was well past it’s collective prime, and the cupboards were almost completely barren of prospects. With a roster that was out of gas, no money to sign free agent help, and no budding superstars to step into the fold, Nieuwendyk was forced to enter the Stars into the process of a tough, long-term rebuild.

But in spite of the enormous, Obama-circa-2008-like mess that he took on when he got hired for the job, Nieuwendyk left a commendable mark on the organization. Although it hasn’t been perfect, it’s undeniable that the Stars franchise is in a much better place now than when it was when he started.

The prospect pool has been refilled with a glut of talent and depth at nearly every position, notably without the help of any high-end draft picks, propelling the Stars into having one of the league’s healthiest prospect systems. Hockey’s Future currently ranks the Stars at 12, a huge leap from where they stood four years ago.

And even though the Stars failed to make the playoffs recently, the team still remained consistently competitive, coming within points of a playoff berth in more than one season.

In honour of Nieuwendyk’s time with the Stars, here is a quick look at some of his best moves as GM.

Acquiring Kari Lehtonen in exchange for Ivan Vishnevskiy and a 4th round pick. 

With Marty Turco declining and approaching free agency, Nieuwendyk made a big gamble in February of 2010, picking up Lehtonen, a former 2nd overall draft pick, from the Atlanta Thrashers as his new goalie of the future. Despite some hiccups with injuries that have hampered him his whole NHL career, Lehtonen’s talent is undeniable. He’s consistently been one of Dallas’ top players since he joined the team, and has emerged as one of the league’s elite netminders, posting a career-high .921 save percentage in 2011-2012. At age 29 and under a long contract, Lehtonen should continue to be a goaltending force for the Stars.

Vishnevskiy, in comparison, never played an NHL game after getting traded, and is currently plying his trade in the KHL.

The acquisition of Kari Lehtonen will go down as one of Joe Nieuwendyk’s best moves as Stars GM (Icon SMI)

Signing Ray Whitney to a two-year contract

A free agent at 40 years of age last offseason, Ray Whitney wasn’t exactly beating off free agent suitors with a stick. He received offers from a few teams, but they weren’t interested in signing the wily vet to anything beyond a single year contract. Nieuwendyk locked Whitney down for two years in a move that is now making those other NHL teams look foolish.

Whitney posted 29 points in 32 games with the Stars in 2013, despite a broken foot early in the season, and looks completely capable of achieving a similar amount of success next year.

Trading Mike Ribeiro for Cody Eakin and a 2nd round pick

While Dallas certainly lost this pick in the short term, with Ribeiro posting 49 points in 48 games for the Washington Capitals in 2013, they certainly won it in the long term. The high-flying Eakin posted 24 points in 48 games for the Stars, and is quickly becoming a fan favourite due to his relentless attack and dogged hard work. While the Capitals might only get one season out of the 33 year-old soon-to-be free agent Ribeiro, Dallas looks like they will get a lot of very good years out of the 21 year-old Eakin.

That 2nd round pick became forward Mike Winther, who is having a productive junior career so far with the WHL’s Prince Albert Raiders.

Signing undrafted free agents Brenden Dillon, Matt Fraser and others

With a severe lack of quality prospects to work with when he took over as GM, Nieuwendyk had to get creative when it came to the rebuilding process.

The results he got have already exceeded all expectations, and are looking more and more promising as time goes on.

Relying on the diligence of his scouts, Nieuwendyk began adding undrafted young pieces that have become integral to the core of the franchise’s future. Brenden Dillon was one of Dallas’ top defencemen this year and shows the potential to be a top pair defenceman in this league for a long time, while left wing Matt Fraser is coming off of back-to-back 30-plus goal seasons in the AHL. This also isn’t taking into account the impressive development of Antoine Roussel, Ryan Garbutt, Jordie Benn and others.

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Derek Neumeier

Derek Neumeier primarily covers the Dallas Stars, but also other various topics related to the sport of hockey. A recent graduate of Mount Royal University with a Bachelor of Communication in Journalism degree, Derek has also done previous work with the Edmonton Oilers as a communications intern and Hockey Canada as a freelance writer. He can be contacted via email at dare.multimedia@gmail.com

This article was originally published at: The Hockey Writers.

Kari Lehtonen (Icon SMI)

As the Detroit Red Wings put the finishing touches on the Nashville Predators on the night of April 25th, the  Dallas Stars already grim playoff hopes officially perished. The team limped through the third period of their match up with the Columbus Blue Jackets, falling 3-1 in a listless, flat performance that represented the mood of Dallas Stars fans everywhere.

It has now been five seasons without a playoff appearance for the Dallas Stars, but the last three have been especially cruel.

April 10, 2011

The final day of the NHL 2011 regular season and the Dallas Stars sit just one victory away from a postseason birth. They entirely control their own fate and just one team stands in their way of securing the 8th and final playoff spot.

That team? The Minnesota Wild, who were already packed up and ready for a long summer. Out of playoff contention with nothing but their pride to play for.

The Stars struggled with the Wild, but managed to tie the game in the final minutes of the second period. Their season came down to just one period. Win 20 minutes, win the game, win a spot in the playoffs. The pressure was on, but surely this team, who had played so well for the first half of the season, even leading the Western Conference for a time, could win just one more period, right? Well, that’s what we all hoped. Boy were we wrong.

As Antti Miettinen buried a puck in an open net to give the Wild a 4-3 lead, the postseason hopes of the Dallas Stars took a hit that the team would not be able to recover from. Pierre Marc-Bouchard sealed the game with an empty netter, giving the Wild a 5-3 win. The Dallas Stars season ended with a whimper.

Brad Richards would leave the team in free agency and head coach Marc Crawford would get the boot in the offseason. Had the Stars won that game, would Marc Crawford still be the coach? Would a long playoff run have convinced Brad Richards to resign? The fact that we’re still asking these questions probably has you assuming the next two seasons didn’t go well. You assumed right.

March 30, 2012

And here we are, a little under a year later. The Dallas Stars sit on top of the Pacific Division before their match up with the Vancouver Canucks, a six-game winning streak earlier in the month catapulting them back into the playoff race. With five games remaining in the season, the Stars aren’t at all guaranteed a spot in the playoffs, but as long as they don’t have a total collapse, they’re in a safe enough position to secure a playoff spot.

Collapse. There’s that word again.

This night, March 30th, would see the Dallas Stars losing to the Canucks, 5-2. More importantly, it was the beginning of an inexplicable five-game losing streak to end the season, knocking the Dallas Stars out of the playoffs. The Stars still had a chance to redeem themselves up to April 3rd, where a victory against the San Jose Sharks would give them control of their own destiny. They dropped that game 5-2 at home.

The Stars picked up the pieces, traded away two of their core players in Steve Ott and Mike Ribeiro in the offseason and signed Ray Whitney and Jaromir Jagr in free agency, hoping to simultaneously compete for a playoff spot while rebuilding their roster with an influx of youth.

April 23, 2013

To be completely fair to the Dallas Stars, absolutely no one saw them competing for a playoff spot after the trade deadline, with the Stars trading away Michael Ryder, Brenden Morrow, Derek Roy, and Jaromir Jagr in the days and weeks beforehand. We all accepted that a fifth year without the playoffs was upon us, and you know what? That didn’t sound so bad if it meant the Stars could finally get a high draft pick.

Then the Dallas Stars went and won five straight games.

Suddenly, there’s hope. The Stars are right in the mix for a playoff spot. Despite two straight disheartening losses, the team still controlled their own playoff fate on April 23rd. A win against the San Jose Sharks would get them one step closer to the playoffs.

They battled hard and had a 2-1 lead heading into the third period. With just under 6 minutes left, San Jose’s Joe Pavelski tied the game. Unfortunate, but the Stars could still win this game, or at the very least, secure a point to make their path to the playoffs more feasible. Those thoughts didn’t last long.

Logan Couture scored exactly 30 seconds later and the San Jose Sharks would hold the lead, winning 3-2. Just like that, our hearts were broken all over again. We let hope grab us, thinking that maybe, the improbable was possible. This particular late-season collapse doesn’t sting as much as the two preceding years, but the culmination of all three is almost too much.

The Stars have one game remaining against the Detroit Red Wings, but it’s meaningless. Rookies like Matt Fraser, Reilly Smith, and Alex Chiasson will be heading back to Austin to lead the Texas Stars in what will hopefully be a long and fruitful run at the Calder Cup. They are once again looking at a mid-first round draft pick, assuming the Dallas Stars don’t miraculously win the draft lottery or that Joe Nieuwendyk doesn’t move up (a far likelier scenario). Head coach Glen Gulutzan’s contract will likely not be renewed, and Nieuwendyk himself could be gone as well if new owner Tom Gaglardi prefers to go in a different direction.

Five years without the playoffs. Five years of futility and wasted opportunities. Will 2013-2014 be the season it all changes? We can hope, but hope hasn’t gotten us very far lately.

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Andrew Monrreal

Andrew Monrreal is a student at the University of North Texas, majoring in Journalism. He covers the Dallas Stars for The Hockey Writers and has previously covered the Dallas Stars for the FanSided Network. Email: drewmonrreal@gmail.com

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