The Dallas Stars’ season has been over for almost two weeks, giving the organization time to reflect on everything the team achieved during its surprising run to the Western Conference Finals.
Stars General Manager Jim Nill took the time to speak with the media about the season on Thursday.
“It was a good season,” Nill began. “Now the goal is we got to hopefully try to get better. You do that through internal turnover, you hope that happens, and through some, maybe some free agency, maybe some trades. We’ll see where it goes.”
The Stars were an afterthought for most analysts entering the season. Still, the team quickly developed chemistry and pulled together to come within a few games of the Stanley Cup Final under head coach Pete DeBoer in his first season with the organization.
“You’ve got to give compliments to the coaches,” Nill said. “They did a great job. The coaching staff did a great job. They brought the team together to play the way you want to play. There’s always going to be situations that arise during the season; they took care of those situations.”
“Every night that we played, I felt like we had a chance to win,” the general manager continued. “That doesn’t mean you’re going to win every night, but I felt we had a chance to win. … I was comfortable knowing that we had a chance to win, and that doesn’t happen very often.”
As the season and postseason wore on, young talent emerged and developed for the Dallas Stars. Jason Robertson scored more than 40 goals for the second consecutive season, while Wyatt Johnston tied the franchise record for points by a rookie.
Robertson disappeared for the first couple rounds of the playoffs but reemerged with six points (five goals and one assist) in six games against Vegas in the Western Conference Finals.
“He’s a target now, and this is only his second real year in the league,” Nill explained. “That’s a different scenario. You’ve got to learn to go through that, and that’s what he did.”
“He had his ups and downs in the first two series. In the third round, we saw the old Jason. You saw it click, and he started to figure it out. … Now, every night, you get the best matchups, you get the best defenseman against you every night, and the best forwards against you,” Nill described.
Meanwhile, Johnston netted the series-winning goals in his first two career playoff series. The forward spent the season living with veteran teammate Joe Pavelski and his family while playing with captain Jamie Benn on the ice — a formula Nill looks to continue with other prospects.
“Anytime we’re getting a young player like that, we’re gonna go through those same steps,” Nill told the media. “That’s just an automatic. … It’s a big step to come from junior — big, big step. … It’s important to put them in the right situation to have the most success without the everyday pressures of just living your life. We want to make them as comfortable as they can be and protect them as best we can.”
Forward Evgenii Dadonov was knocked out of the lineup in the Western Conference Finals with a knee injury and never returned. Although Dallas said he was considered day-to-day, Nill revealed the veteran had sustained an MCL sprain, and the four-to-six-week recovery window would have made it impossible for him to return.
Now that the season is over, Nill is focusing on improving the team to go even further in the playoffs next year. Among the areas he wants to address are depth scoring and defense.
Only one defenseman from the 2022-23 team — Joel Hanley — is slated to be a free agent, but there is interest in a return from both parties, according to Nill. The general manager said several players have expressed interest in returning, but he has to balance the need for improvement with salary cap space and free agent market conditions.
“We had a tight group of players here; it was a tight dressing room,” Nill explained. “The players that came in loved it here. They love the organization [and] how we operate. They would all love to come back. Now, we need to figure out the dollar figures if we can make that work.”
For his efforts contributing to the team’s success, Nill is a finalist for the NHL’s General Manager of the Year Award, but he wants it known he has not been doing it all himself.
“I’m the one that’s been nominated for it, but it’s a reflection of the organization,” Nill told the media. “It’s the people I got around me that I surround myself with. They’re doing the heavy lifting. It’s coaches. It’s the players playing well. It’s my scouting staff doing a good job, [and] it’s my hockey operations department doing a good job.”
While the Stars are pleased with the progress, Nill wants to continue to build the team the right way to continue its playoff success.
“We were to two wins from being in the finals, and, from there, who knows what happens, but we want to get there, and we want to sustain it. That’s the biggest thing,” Nill concluded.