Jamie Benn’s Legacy Is Secure — But Maybe His Future in Dallas Shouldn’t Be

Father Time remains undefeated. It might be time for the Stars to properly acknowledge that.

Jerome Miron-Imagn Images

Thursday could be Jamie Benn’s final game with the Dallas Stars.

The Stars are down 3-1 in the Western Conference Final to the Edmonton Oilers, Benn doesn’t have a contract in place for next season. Whenever the Stars season ends, even if Dallas does the improbable and comes back in this series, Benn’s eight-year pact with the franchise that kicked in before the 2017-18 season will be completed.

Now back in September, before the season even started, Stars general manager Jim Nill rather famously said, “My plan as long as I’m GM, he’s going to be a Dallas Star. He’s earned that right.”

Nill put that out into the universe, it was catnip for Stars fans and media members, a promise from the GM that celebrates loyalty and partially the legacy of the player that’s played more game as a Dallas Star than anyone else.

It’s also painted Nill into a very difficult position, because now he’ll have to properly navigate that statement and what it really meant this spring, likely after a third straight Western Conference Finals loss.

First let’s be clear on a couple things, because these types of pieces — understandably — can and will feel like drive-by hit pieces the morning after a loss for some Stars fans.

• No. 14 should be in the rafters in American Airlines Center, after Mike Modano, he’s been arguably the most influential individual Stars player in franchise history.

• It’s important, in the moment, to acknowledge what a player was, what they are, and have a hard talk about the future at the same time.

Benn has been the Stars captain since the start of the 2013-14 season, the fourth-most tenured NHL leader in his position. He’s always been the Stars spiritual leader in a sense, the almost religious voice while the pragmatic, tactical leadership in Dallas — the head coach — has changed five times.

And throughout that time no one in the locker room has ever questioned Benn’s leadership. In fact, players rave about Benn’s leadership style, how he makes everyone feel like equals, how he he puts team over self, and how he’ll never ask anyone to do something he wouldn’t do himself.

For a sport steeped in subtle romanticism, Benn is a bridge to the past, he scored the game-winning shootout goal in Mike Modano’s final game. Benn represents a dramatic Art Ross trophy and an iconic fight against Jarome Iginla, memories of a player that truly lived up to a Teddy Roosevelt-esque “speak softly and carry a big stick,” mantra.

But Benn the player and Benn the story have diverted, particularly this spring.

The Stars will follow Benn to the end of the earth and then some. He won’t ask anyone to do anything he won’t.

And that won’t change as long as he’s part of the roster. If Benn is in the locker room, he will be the spiritual leader, the voice others look to and defer to. He will always define Stars hockey and what it represents.

And that’s why it’s time for the Stars to move on.

It’s been particularly notable in this series between the Stars and Oilers. The Stars best center, Roope Hintz, was injured on a dirty slash by an Oiler in Game 2, missed Game 3, and then was welcomed back in Game 4 with another slash on the exact same spot by another Oiler.

The second slash, delivered by Evan Bouchard, is the most damning on the Stars lack of response. The Oilers defender had no qualms about performing playoff dark arts in public, it was well captured on the Sportsnet broadcast, and Bouchard, from my view, never even had to think twice about what he’d done.

That second slash didn’t just expose the Stars’ lack of response—it exposed the hollowing out of the deterrent Benn once was, a former one-man wrecking crew who delivered vigilante justice in Dallas.

Benn was the deterrent in both a traditional and subtle sense. He’s been known as one of the NHL’s better low-key dirty players for years, there was a time he was like Brad Marchand without the mouth. He could get away with things behind the play, stand up for himself, and also find offensive success, something the 2022-23 “Bennasaince” extended and celebrated.

But now, in 2025, he’s a shell of that. Benn, in his own words to Wayne Gretzky, is a just a checker now. He’s a fourth liner that plays less than 12 minutes per game.

In a vacuum that’s a fine role for an aging player, he’ll be 36 this summer. But for the Stars leader, the player others idolize and look up to, it’s a disservice and as a group the Stars always seem to be waiting for an older, vintage version of Benn to arrive.

Benn can continue this path for another team. A team where he can arrive as a supportive depth piece, like a late-career Andrew Cogliano, someone who can fill a checking line in his late 30s.

But he can’t do it in Dallas. In Dallas he’ll always be Jamie Benn. He’ll always be “The Captain,” they’ll always be an unrealistic standard of history that he’ll be unable to deliver upon.

It’s a similar decision to the one the Stars made when they let John Klingberg walk after the 2021-22 season. The Stars let Klingberg walk for contract reasons, but they also did it so his presence would be gone, the air he filled in the room as an alpha on the Stars blue line.

With Klingberg gone, Miro Heiskanen and to a lesser extent Esa Lindell emerged more as leaders, took the next step in their game. It wasn’t an indictment on Klingberg, rather a reality that sometimes clearing the air and opening the space allows for others to grow.

Because that’s what the Stars are severely lacking now, especially after Joe Pavelski retired, individuals who will grow into that leadership void and take over Benn’s mantle.

Wyatt Johnston is well-believed to be the future captain, but he’s also been struggling with expectation this spring and like the rest of the Stars, he tends to follow the tone that Benn sets.

And Benn’s tone is swings one of two ways. It’s either the positive, a hard-working mantra of “we before me” that comes out, or it’s immense frustration and poor decision making. A willingness to take risks and offensive zone penalties with limited reward.

When Benn, the captain, is taking poor offensive zone or poorly-time penalties, it normalizes it for the Stars. Others follow and, well, we’ve seen what the Oilers do with extra power play opportunities.

Benn also no longer carries the fear of retribution from other teams. In a bygone era, Benn created fear when he stepped on the ice, how he would hurt you with the puck or not, and now other teams simply watch to see how he’ll potentially hurt his own team if he’s a second late on a forecheck or too frustrated behind the play.

It’s a sad reality at the end of an athlete’s career, especially one that has defined a franchise. Age and time have caught Benn, he can no longer be an institution for the Stars on the ice, and when Nill makes proclamation for Benn that “my plan as long as I’m GM, he’s going to be a Dallas Star,” he’s painted the franchise into a corner.

Because that statement by Nill goes against his other mantra, the one that’s helped him build such a successful team. Nill’s job, in his own words, is to worry about what’s best for the Stars today, tomorrow and five years from now.

And based on what’s happened this postseason and this series, and the changing dynamics of this team, to deliver on that mandate, Nill will have to change that plan centered around Benn he declared earlier this season.

And in a weird way maybe that’s the best way to honor Benn.

To let him go now, not because he failed the Stars, but because he gave them everything he had, and another year of decline will only drag both the team and Benn’s legacy.