Self-reliance is gold in the NHL’s salary cap world. If you think about how, in the previous five years, Dallas has reached the conference finals twice and the Stanley Cup finals once, you cannot escape the self-sufficiency factor.
The ability to find and develop young players has made Dallas great and will help it stay great.
Only Colorado and Vegas have won more games in the playoffs than Dallas in the 2020s.
When we look at the structure of the Dallas players, we get to the heart of the theme of self-sufficiency: no less than eleven of the players on the current team are the club’s own reserves. Roope from Hintz, Miro Heiskanen, to Jamie Benn, to Wyatt Johnston, Logan to Stankoven and the goalkeeper to Jake Oettinger Dallas has assembled a core group purely from its own reserves.
The three most important pieces of the defense Heiskanen, Esa Lindell mixed Thomas Harley are all the club’s own discoveries.
The club’s sporting side boss, GM in hockey parlance, Jim Nill says that the club changed its direction almost ten years ago.
– It was 2015 or 2016 when we realized that we have a pretty heavy team and that’s when we changed our philosophy regarding player monitoring. We decided that now we have to start bringing in skill. The players may have some weaknesses, for example in size or skating, but we had to start finding good hockey players, Nill explained the background to Urheilu in connection with the training in Dallas.
Nill freely praises the player monitors who do a brutal job on the field.
– They have implemented our new philosophy excellently, and even before the change we found players like Esa Lindell. We had them at the end of Europe Kari Takko and Rickard Öqvist Doing great work in Finland and Sweden. Watching players is an area we want to be good at and something we take pride in.
The change in direction was clear
Takko, who currently works as a player coordinator in Ässi, remembers the change in direction. Takko worked for Dallas as a player observer from 2000 to 2009 and as the boss of the European department from 2009 to 2024.
– It started with the rule changes. The NHL wanted to make room for skill, so you had to be skilled. In the past, you wanted to be a physical, nasty and difficult opponent, which of course you always want, but at that time the emphasis was clearly from size to skill.
However, simply aligning is not enough. Dallas got Heiskanen from the front of the first round, but the club has also made good finds at the end of the first round and from the second round. For example, Hintz, Robertson and Stankoven are reservations for the second round, but strong already or at least on their way to become first team players.
Player scouts are good at finding talent.
– In general, the old truth that “first impression is right” tends to apply in human relationships and player monitoring, Takko says, referring to the meaning of the first impression.
– The unity of the work team has certainly been a big thing for us. We always have two or three guys visit each player in the stands, and in addition, a good player monitoring team always needs a good boss who truly trusts the word of the scouts. In this matter Joe McDonnell has been excellent, Takko thanks.
Exceptional composure for the time
Booking players is not always enough. Only a few reserve-age players are immediately ready for the NHL, although in the spirit of the times, many are in a big hurry to get there. Hosuming with young people may have a heavy price, however.
Even many top reservations have fallen into great difficulties when they have been pushed too quickly into too heavy responsibilities.
In this respect, the alignment in Dallas has been against the spirit of the times. None of the club’s bookings in recent years have entered the NHL directly from the booking event.
The majority have returned to the juniors after the reservation, in the case of the Finns to the SM league or in the case of the Swedes to the SHL. With a couple of exceptions, an NHL spot is only secured in their twenties, even older.
– Jim Nill is a very calm and patient person and that’s what he wants from his players as well. His view is that after the reservation, the player will gladly play the extra year in Finland, for example, or go to the AHL side in North America, Takko clarifies.
– Even in the event that the player could already be NHL-ready. The club does not want young people too quickly in too big screens.
For example, who played two excellent seasons in the AHL and won the farm league point exchange last season Mavrick Bourque22, still has to cope with the big NHL responsibility, even though he is already playing in the bright lights.
Hintz, Robertson and almost without exception all have gone the AHL route.
– Patience is the biggest thing, no matter where you came from. The problem is often that patience disappears when you start losing games in the NHL. We have allowed the players to develop a little longer in their home country so that they can find the required tempo. When they come to North America, we have an excellent farm team in Austin. It’s about the organization’s orientation and value system for the development of young people, Nill says.
After his own booking, Esa Lindell played in the A-juniors SM league, the men’s league, Mesti and the AHL before a place in the NHL opened up. After being booked, Miro Heiskanen played one more year at HIFK before he made his breakthrough with Taala Ice.
– The club works well with young people here and that’s why we’ve had good young people here. I remember how good it was for me to play a lot in the AHL or even before that in Mestis, when the League wasn’t enough. Of course, it also requires patience from the player to understand the situation. Everyone wants to get up right away, but sitting in the stands outside the formation does not develop anyone, Lindell reminds.
– At the time, it was as if both of us wanted to stay in Finland. It was also made easier by the fact that I didn’t come to training camp at all due to the concussion. When I came to the NHL, I was able to play my own game right away. A year in Finland certainly helped me, says Miro Heiskanen.
Add-ons cheap
Dallas has also done a good job in the player market, supplementing their team through player trades or the free agent market.
Already playing in the club for the twelfth season Tyler Seguin32, belongs to the team’s salary elite together with Jamie Benn, 35, but it is precisely the high-quality booking and finding cheap complements alongside the veterans that have enabled the club to rise to the elite.
For example, a total of only 7.5 million burden the salary cap Matt Duchene and Mason Marchment forged 47 goals and 98 power points for two men last season.
Seguin and Benn are now the men of the second and third lines, although they enjoy the highest salary.
– This is also about the club’s world of values. We don’t believe in personal points, we believe in series points. Is it more important to get 1+1 for yourself or two points for the team. Everyone on the team has bought into this idea. Benn and Seguin have had to give up some things personally, but that way we get more wins, and that’s the most important thing, Nill concludes.
The reigning NHL champion Florida Panthers and Dallas Stars will meet in Tampere on Friday 1 November. at 8 pm and on Saturday 2.11. at 6 p.m. Urheilu follows the events moment by moment in the app and on ‘s website.