On opening night, the Stars torch starts to pass

Sports are about history and in Dallas, everything can be tied to three anchor characters.

Cartoon by Sportstoons.

About three weeks ago Dallas Stars GM Jim Nill addressed Jamie Benn’s future with a bold, seemingly prophetic claim.

“My plan as long as I’m GM, he’s going to be a Dallas Star,” Nill said.

It’s both pragmatic and fan service at the same time. The Stars long-time captain is entering the final season of his eight-year deal, and with such a statement any specific contract negotiations and stories surrounding them can be pushed until the summer of 2025.

But it’s also a reality, that until a new contract is signed, tonight could be Benn’s final season-opening game as a Dallas Star.

And whether it’s in 2025 or a couple years later, at some point the Benn era will end in Dallas. And opening night, in my view, is the perfect time to talk about history.

Since the franchise moved from Minnesota, Benn and Mike Modano have been the two anchor characters in Stars history. Every single player that’s worn a Dallas Stars jersey has been a teammate of either Benn or Modano, who happened to be teammates of each other during the 2010-11 season.

At some point it seems likely that Benn’s No. 14 will join Modano’s No. 9 in the rafters at American Airlines Center.

The one thing that can change “likely” to “inevitable,” would be the addition of another banner, one with “Stanley Cup Champions” inscribed on it to run side-by-side with the banner from 1999.

And that’s what Benn is chasing in this potentially final season in Dallas. He already has a legacy, but hoisting the Stanley Cup would be the crowning moment of the second era of Stars history.

Benn knows that and he’s been painfully close before. There’s the iconic moment, capture on film, from the 2020 Stanley Cup Final in the Edmonton bubble where he sat in the Stars locker room, by himself, in full gear after everyone else had left.

He’s been to back-to-back Western Conference Finals, and two years ago it was his fault, courtesy of an awful cross-check to the neck of Mark Stone, that might have cost Dallas a chance to win it all.

Benn is no longer the Stars center piece, but he’s the compass and foundation of the team. Right or wrong, the Stars will follow their captain to the end of the earth, in both the positive moments — the Bennasaince — and in the worst moments, like the aforementioned ejection and then suspension in 2022.

And now, entering the 2024-25 season, Benn is at the point where he’s started to pass the torch to the third anchor character in the Stars franchise.

Wyatt Johnston’s backstory already has the built-in lore. He didn’t play an OHL game during his draft year because of COVID, but the Stars found him at the Under-18 world championships, in their own backyard, and drafted him in the first round anyway.

He lived with Joe Pavelski for two seasons, became an NHL fixture as a teenager, and would likely be the No. 1 pick in a re-draft of the 2021 class. Like Benn before him, he’s a player that was slightly under-valued in their draft year and has instantly turned into a find for the NHL team.

Johnston scored 41 points as a rookie, the same amount that Benn had as a rookie when he was teammates with Modano. Like Benn, Johnston got better as a sophomore and if trends continue, Johnston will likely be the Stars Most Valuable Forward this season.

While Jason Robertson or Miro Heiskanen might be the next captain, Johnston at 21 is the one with the longest staying power and build amongst the next era of Stars. He represents what the Stars are and will continue to be in the future, a dangerously efficient team that builds contending windows on top of contending windows.

The Stars as a franchise aren’t tied to the past, but they respect it. That’s Benn’s job alongside the likes of Tyler Seguin, the centerpiece of one championship window willing to step aside so the 2017 draft class could take center stage and then setup a prosper succession to Johnston’s era.

It’s a rarity as a franchise, where three names can potentially tie in every single player in franchise history. And on opening night, with Benn’s future at least somewhat murky, that’s something to celebrate.