Into the offseason: Stars take stock of season & playoffs at exit interview day

The difference between the regular season and the playoffs seemed like night and day this season.

And yet the Stars saw maybe 50 shades of Victory Green in the experience.

After naming a new coaching staff and overcoming 389 man games lost to injury to post the third-best record in the NHL, Dallas felt confident heading into a first-round playoff series with the Minnesota Wild. When it was over and Minnesota advanced in six games, the self-evaluation was a little tougher.

“I thought through 82 games, we did some great things - 112 points, 50 wins, the growth of our young players. I thought through 82, we overachieved,” Stars coach Glen Gulutzan said Monday in Frisco as the team conducted exit interviews. “As for the playoffs, I thought we could have won that series, I thought it was a very even series. But when you don’t win, you underachieve, that’s the reality of it.”

Dallas lost Game 1 at home against Minnesota, 6-1, and then faltered in Game 5 at home with the series tied, but players and coaches said not holding onto a late 2-1 lead in Game 4 in Minnesota was the swing point in the series.

“I think the season, you always rate with how you do in the playoffs, because the regular season at the end of the day doesn’t matter that much,” forward Mikko Rantanen said. “It’s disappointing, especially when you look at Game 4 and you think we’re six minutes away from being up 3-1 and then you lose three in a row.”

Minnesota was very good defensively and then scored some key goals at key times. The Stars were frustrated offensively because they struggled to score 5-on-5, but Gulutzan said he was more disappointed in the fact his team didn’t play tighter team defense overall.

“We didn’t make them grind to score,” Gulutzan said. “If you look at our defensive metrics, some of the areas that we were very strong all year, we became weak in that series. We lost some of our defensive identity and it became too easy for them to get goals.”

Rantanen said: “You’ve got to earn the bounces and they did more than us.”

Dallas battled injuries all season. Center Roope Hintz did not play in the playoffs because of a torn hamstring muscle. Gulutzan said Hintz might have been able to return in this round, but there is no telling how he would perform. He should be ready for next season. Tyler Seguin missed much of the season, including the playoffs, with a torn ACL. He said he also is expecting to be ready for training camp.

“I feel, deep down, I’ll be as strong as ever,” said Seguin, who will be in the final year of his eight-year contract.

Dallas also lost Nils Lundkvist to a facial laceration in Game 4, and he said he is feeling better. But the injuries to key players definitely hurt the on-ice performance.

“It’s hard to ever see exactly what that looks like,” Seguin said when asked if he is eager to see the team at full health next season. “It’s also an excuse…every team deals with it. This was an especially hard year for the whole League and for our team especially with the amount of injuries, and I’m not even talking about myself. I was proud during the season of how the guys did, and then playoffs are a different beast.”

So now the team has its longest offseason in the past four years and also has plenty of motivation to come back strong next year. Captain Jamie Benn has to decide if he wants to retire or not, but Gulutzan said he definitely wants the rugged forward back. Restricted free agent Jason Robertson is in line to sign a long-term contract extension, but the level of his salary will say a lot about who would fit under the salary cap and who might not. That said, the core of the team is under contract and the majority of players are still in their 20’s.

“The beauty of this whole team is their window is two years back and four years forward, so you’re in it and that’s not going to change,” Gulutzan said. “They’re in it, so you just have to keep punching your ticket.”

Goalie Jake Oettinger is 27, but he already has 305 games played during the regular season and 71 more in the playoffs. So, like his team, Oettinger has plenty of experience in the prime of his career and a real hunger to win the franchise its first Stanley Cup since 1999.

“These next four or five years for our team, we need to win one,” Oettinger said, citing a conversation with former teammate Joe Pavelski, who retired without winning a Cup. “We can sit here and say we have a great team and we all believe we can do it, but we’re not getting any younger. I remember sitting next to Pav on the plane and he would say you only have a real chance to win the Cup so many times - so you have to realize that, and there’s a sense of urgency that has to be elevated.”

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.