Stars Looking to Take Home Regular Season Awards
Every NHL season is a grueling 6-8 month-long affair filled with thousands of storylines.
The Dallas Stars are about to embark upon yet another season filled with high hopes. Every team dreams of a long playoff run, but the entire season is a long one.
There are plenty of things to look forward to in the regular season.
Multiple team and individual awards are up for grabs, some of which have escaped the Stars for a long time.
The ultimate goal for the Stars this season is to wash away the stink of last year’s first-round exit.
An impressive regular season will get them on the right track.
Individual Awards
The NHL is absolutely filled with world-class, premier talent. It’s difficult to claim an individual NHL award with players like Nikita Kucherov, Nathan MacKinnon, and Connor McDavid in the league. The Stars have not taken many NHL awards home. The last Stars player to win an NHL award was Jamie Benn in 2014-2015, taking the Art Ross Trophy as the league’s top scorer. He won the trophy in the final seconds of the season. Jere Lehtinen won the Frank J. Selke Trophy three times.
Jake Oettinger finished 8th in Vezina Trophy voting last season as the league’s top goal-scorer. Oettinger needs a bounce-back year after his .893 save percentage in the playoffs. He has strong potential for a bounce-back year and could contend for the Vezina Trophy alongside other top NHL goaltenders. No other Stars player has ever won the Vezina Trophy.
Jason Robertson is again one year out from free agent status. Robertson led the team with 96 points last year. That was good enough for 10th place last year. His 45 goals were tied for 4th place with Wyatt Johnston and others. NHL awards are incredibly tough to win. A strong showing this season from the top guys can put them in contention for hardware.
Team Awards
The Stars have only won the division twice in the last 20 years. A division title will give them a strong boost in the playoffs, along with favorable home-ice advantage. That’s an iffy proposition because their last three eliminations came at the hands of a home-ice advantage. Another major achievement is the Presidents’ Trophy. The last time the Stars led the league in points was in 1999. That’s not the greatest boast because of the curse that comes with it.
The last full-season Presidents’ Trophy and Stanley Cup winner was the Detroit Red Wings in 2008.
Five teams have won the Presidents’ Trophy since then before exiting in the first round. The Stars have a good team this year and could take home awards, but other teams are good too.
The regular season is obviously less important than the playoffs. Making the playoffs is the most important thing of the season.
The Stars can do some damage on the stat lines. Offseason woes are almost over as preseason begins later this month.
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Categorized:Stars