Dallas Stars season snapshot awards

With the NHL pausing the 2019-20 regular season on March 12 due to the concerns surrounding the coronavirus, NHL.com is taking stock of each of the League's 31 teams.
Today, the award-worthy candidates for the Dallas Stars at the pause:

The Dallas Stars have relied on stout defense and mental toughness to hold third place in the Central Division after starting the season 1-7-1 and firing coach Jim Montgomery for unprofessional conduct Dec. 10.
There have been some strong performances to help the Stars get where they are. To showcase those performances, here are the top players in various categories:

MVP

Miro Heiskanen leads Stars defensemen and is third on Dallas with 35 points (eight goals, 27 assists) in 68 games. Yet it's the 20-year-old's complete game that highlights his precocious nature. He's first among Stars defensemen in takeaways with 42, and he leads Dallas in average ice time at 23:46 per game. That's up 39 seconds from his average as a rookie last season, and he's handled the increase with aplomb; he's plus-14 after being minus-14 in 2018-19.

Rookie

Denis Gurianov has scored 20 goals in 64 games, first on Dallas and tied for second among NHL rookies with Buffalo Sabres forward Victor Olofsson, behind Dominik Kubalik of the Chicago Blackhawks (30). His seven goals in February tied Dino Ciccarelli, Brian Bellows and Steve Christoff for third most in the month by a rookie in Stars/Minnesota North Stars history. Neal Broten scored 10 goals in February 1982, and Bobby Smith scored eight in February 1979.

Defenseman

Esa Lindell quietly goes about his business, but his influence resonates heavily for the Stars. He's played 262:04 and is averaging 3:48 per game on the penalty kill, each tops in the NHL, while doing the dirty work to free up John Klingberg to be more offensive-minded on the top pair. Lindell signed a six-year, $34.8 million contract ($5.8 million average annual value) on May 16, 2019, before he could become a restricted free agent. It was an investment that flew under the radar, but not to those in the Dallas front office or on the ice.

Defensive forward

Jason Dickinson is another inconspicuous player who's helped the Stars rank second in the NHL at 2.52 goals-against per game (174 total, 110 at 5-on-5). His 55 blocked shots and 47 takeaways each are second to Jamie Benn among Dallas forwards (57, 52 for Benn), but Dickinson leads the Stars in takeaways per 60 minutes at 2.89. He's been flexible enough to play on either the checking line with Radek Faksa and Blake Comeau or on the second scoring line with Gurianov and Roope Hintz.

Comeback player

Stephen Johns was slowly worked back into the Stars lineup after almost two years away because of post-traumatic headaches. Following a two-game conditioning stint with Texas of the American Hockey League, Johns returned against the Minnesota Wild on Jan. 18 (his previous NHL game was against the Wild on March 29, 2018) and played 18:29. The payoff for Johns and the Stars arrived when he scored his first goal since Feb. 16, 2018, in the second period of a 5-3 win against the New York Rangers on Feb. 3. Johns has since averaged 18:24 of ice time in 13 games and is second on Dallas with 36 hits in that span (Jamie Oleksiak, 45).