The Stars sold Pavelski on family, and in the end, he changed theirs for the better

The 39-year-old won't play next season, and it's the end of a Stars era.

Roughly 10 am on a game day is one of my favorite times at the rink.

The ice is fresh, the building is quiet. Often I sip a cup of coffee and just stare at the blank canvas. Eventually the building will rock, chaos will ensue. But for those fleeting moments, before the first “shhhh, shhhh,” of skates on the ice, anything is possible and the world seems calm.

I never asked Joe Pavelski about it, but I’m pretty sure it was also one of his favorite times at the rink.

When Pavelski signed with the Dallas Stars as a free agent, then Stars PR guru Tom Holy told me, “As a hockey nerd that shows up early, you are going to love covering Joe.”

Tom, now an assistant GM for the San Jose Sharks, was right.

Even down to his last NHL home game, Pavelski was out on the ice more than 40 minutes before a morning skate putting in his own work on an otherwise quiet rink. Setting up his own drills, his own situational puck touches, things he’d done thousands of times in his career, often just waiting for someone else to join him on the ice so he could go to the net to work on tips.

Pavelski’s career is remarkable. A seventh-round pick who will eventually end up in the USA Hockey Hall of Fame and maybe the actual Hockey Hall of Fame in Toronto.

Even more remarkable is that somehow he’ll be remembered as a Dallas Star.

After 13 years in San Jose, where he’ll have his number retired someday, Pavelski came to Dallas and changed the culture.

Fittingly the Stars sold Pavelski on the family element and in the end, he changed theirs for the better.

When the Stars were recruiting Pavelski as a UFA, a decision that came down to Dallas or Tampa, they leaned on Holy to help make it happen. Holy and Pavelski had past history together in San Jose, and while the hockey was important, the Stars pitch also included the familial elements that drove the Pavelskis to Dallas.

Pavelski’s tour of Dallas included a trip through community rinks and a breakdown of the youth hockey situation for his son Nate. Nate is a huge Dude Perfect fan, so Holy helped facilitate a video from the YouTube group as a potential “welcome to Dallas” video for the younger Pavelski.

The Stars put just as much energy into selling Nate Pavelski on Dallas as they did to his father.

And once dad made the decision, he became the father figure the Stars needed.

Pavelski came to Dallas right before one of the most tumultuous times in franchise history. He came to Dallas to work with Jim Montgomery, less than three months into the work the head coach was dismissed for unprofessional conduct.

Months later the Stars went on a surprising bubble run through COVID, with Pavelski and former Stars head coach Rick Bowness working closely together as the father figures of a group that was far from home and lonely.

Pavelski also allowed Jamie Benn to become the captain he needed to be. Benn has always been a lead by example captain, but struggled with the media and front-facing aspects of it. It’s not a slight on Benn, he’s just a shy human behind his hockey-playing shield, but Pavelski’s arrival created a buffer for Benn to be more of himself all of the time.

There are countless stories of Pavelski taking his time to come to a teammates who needed someone to listen or someone to hype them up. I encourage you read this story about that from my old pal Ryan S. Clark over at ESPN.

The most notable and well-told angle is Pavelski acting as the foster dad for Wyatt Johnston when the teenager arrived in the NHL last season. Johnston became part of the family, close in age to Nate than Joe, and that foundation allowed the now 21-year-old to become one of the NHL’s top players this postseason.

Add in the fact that Pavelski seemingly found the fountain of youth on the ice and started posting better numbers in his late 30s than he did in his early 30s, dropping a career-best 81 points as a 37-year-old during the 2021-22 season.

Pavelski will always be a Shark, I’m sure they’ll push to hire him — Holy recruited him before, Mike Grief would be wise to see if he can do it again — but this era of Stars history, the three Western Conference Finals in five years, it doesn’t happen without Pavelski.

Pavelski broke the news himself that this was the end on Tuesday at exit interviews.

No press release, no farewell tour, just simply answering a question and handling it how’d you expect him too.

Professional, to the point, and done right.