First shift 🏒

Every NHL season is different for every team, and that’s what the Stars are discovering in the 2024-25 season for several reasons.

Not only did the team lose Joe Pavelski to retirement, Radek Faksa and Ty Dellandrea to trades, and Seguin and Mason Marchment to midseason injuries, but several players are facing new challenges. In addition to a group of 20-year-olds rising through the ranks and taking on larger roles, there was also a group of key players who captured 19 playoff games in each of the last two seasons.

Of course, postseason competition puts a strain on every player, playing up to 100 games or more each season, but it also puts a lot of strain on the body and mind. So teams that have scored good runs have seen the cumulative effect on players the next year.

Stars coach Pete DeBoer said he’s seen players like Wyatt Johnston, Robertson, Miro Heiskanen and Thomas Harley get off to slow starts this season – partly due to a few isolated injuries, but partly due to attrition.

Harley scored an overtime goal and had three shots on goal in a 3-2 win over Utah on Saturday. It was a nice moment for the 23-year-old defender, who is behind the offensive pace he set last season.

“I thought Harls was one of those guys in the group that started slow — a lot of minutes the last two years in the playoffs — and like all of those guys, he’s now finding his legs,” DeBoer said. “I think (Wyatt) Johnston looks like a different player, (Thomas) Harley looks like a different player than he did in the first six, eight weeks of the season.”

Harley is still experiencing growing pains. He has 155 NHL games, but his numbers are down from last season, when he scored 15 goals and 47 points and was plus-28 in 79 games. This year he has five goals and 18 points in 36 games.

Part of the problem is that the Stars swapped three defenders on the blueline and wanted to use Harley to lead a pairing this season. That meant more confusion and less consistency than what he typically displayed alongside Heiskanen last season. After a few injuries and more back and forth, Harley is back sitting next to Heiskanen on most shifts, and things are looking good. Harley has a goal and two assists in that span, while Heiskanen has three assists.

“It’s pretty natural,” Harley said. “With all the injuries we have suffered, it is a bit sloppy, but playing with Miro is natural.”

Johnston and Robertson are also starting to find their feet, and that has helped the team’s 5-0-1 rebound. Johnston has 10 points (3 goals, 7 assists) in the last six games, while Robertson has 7 points (2 goals, 5 assists) in the last four games.

This has helped players like Mavrik Bourque (2 goals) and Logan Stankoven (4 goals) better understand the art of scoring goals.

“It’s not an easy league to perform as someone who is expected to score,” DeBoer said. “It’s easier to come into this league like Oskar Bäck, where your job is to take penalties, win some battles and make sure you’re good out there. When you, as a young man, have aspirations to perform at this level, it’s an unforgiving league.”

Right now, a clever group of 20 people are finding a way to ask the group for forgiveness.