Becoming a cornerstone: Johnston looks to continue excelling in fourth NHL season

In a way, you could call Wyatt Johnston the heartbeat of the Stars.

Sure Mikko Rantanen is probably considered the most talented and dynamic player on the Stars roster. And, yes, the potential for a future championship likely rests largely on the shoulders of Jake Oettinger. Heck, when you look at the roster, the depth and the balance might be as good as any team in the league, so it’s hard to single out just one player.

But there does seem to be something special about Johnston.

The versatile forward just turned 22 in May and already has 246 regular season games of experience in the NHL. As one of the rare players to jump straight from junior hockey at age 19, Johnston has built a head start on getting to a pretty high level.

“He’s not even in his prime yet,” said Stars coach Glen Gulutzan. “He’s going to be coming into it and he’s just going to get better in all aspects. You get that man’s weight on you, and it all just helps.”

Johnston has had a good summer of training and is noticeably stronger entering the 2025-26 season. He also is taking the proper next steps mentally. After living the first two years of his career with veteran Joe Pavelski and his family, Johnston was on his own for the first time in his life last season. What’s more, he finished his entry level deal that had a salary cap hit of $894,167 and signed a five-year extension that pays him $8.4 million per season.

It's a lot, but Johnston seems to take it all in stride.

“It’s just a year of improving,” he said when asked about the challenges of increased expectations. “I’m 22 years old, and I still have a lot of growth in my game. For me, it’s just being the best player I can be to help the Dallas Stars win games.”

That attitude is one of the reasons many call Johnston a future captain. He missed a full season of juniors because of the COVID shutdown before entering the draft, but didn’t miss a beat in coming to the NHL. He has been moved around from center to wing and from one line to another and still has been a key in Dallas getting to three consecutive Western Conference Finals. He has accelerated his progress so much that he was even invited to Team Canada’s Olympic training camp over the summer.

In Tuesday’s preseason win over St. Louis, Johnston had a goal and assist, including a nifty little play where he took a pass from Miro Heiskanen, caught the Blues in a line change, floated to the right wing and scored from a bit of a hard angle.

It was the kind of play you have seen Johnston make a lot. He knows where there is open ice and he knows where the goalie is vulnerable, so what looks like a quiet shot is actually really lethal.

“He doesn’t need much. That’s a real scorer there,” Gulutzan said. “He’s just one of those players….he’s got IQ, he knows where to go and he’s got that ability to score.”

Johnston loves to break down the game mentally and find ways to outsmart the opposition. Maybe it’s knowing where the defense likes to play, maybe it’s knowing where there are holes in the goalie. He said that he likes to watch how goalies come out of the net and then read the open spaces.

“They can’t cover everything,” he said. “They try to, but you can see when they come out and they leave openings.”

While much will be made of his physical growth, he said the experience also is huge in making him feel comfortable on the ice. In addition to the 246 regular season games, he has 56 more in the playoffs. That’s a remarkable number for a player his age. And to top it all off, he’s proven incredibly durable and has yet to miss a game.

“Me being a player who likes to think the game and use his brain on the ice, having that experience, that helps,” he said. “When I was 18, that might have been a play where I would try to go through the D men, but I read it differently now.”

And that’s something that can help the Stars and the new coaching staff. While Gulutzan continues to look for lines and chemistry he can use, Johnston serves as a wild card that can do a little bit of everything. He’s already one of the top penalty killers and also led the team with 11 power play goals last year after getting an increased role. Last season, he was second to Rantanen in average time on ice at 18:56, and he might lead the Stars this season.

“I think he has the potential to be one of those two-way players that aren’t putting up 120 points, but they’re putting up 80 and they’re checking the 120-point guys to death,” Gulutzan said.

Asked if the weight of the new contract or the expectation of the Olympics might affect Johnston this year, Gulutzan said no.

“He’s just a hockey player,” Gulutzan said. “That’s what you love about him.”

And that’s pretty high praise in this game.

This story was not subject to the approval of the National Hockey League or Dallas Stars Hockey Club.

Mike Heika is a Senior Staff Writer for DallasStars.com and has covered the Stars since 1994. Follow him on X @MikeHeika.