Neil Graham putting wealth of experience to good use in impressive first year behind Stars bench

As a born-and-raised Texan that spent the first 18 years of my life in the DFW metroplex, people often wonder why I chose to attend Mississippi College. It’s a fun story, but one for another time.

I took my love for hockey to the Magnolia State, but finding any semblance of the sport near me was a bit of a struggle. The closest hockey team, however, was the Mississippi RiverKings in Southaven, roughly three hours north of campus. They played in the Southern Professional Hockey League (SPHL) along with a handful of other teams scattered across the Southeast and Midwest.

But while you’ve heard of the NHL, AHL, and ECHL as well as the other top hockey leagues across North America, the SPHL might be a new one for you.

One person it’s not new to, though? Stars assistant coach Neil Graham.

“Yeah, that one was a minute ago,” he said with a laugh when asked about his SPHL career. “I was there for two years and really enjoyed my time there.”

Graham played for the Augusta RiverHawks in Georgia from 2010-12, posting 41 goals and 97 points in 95 games. That included a team-leading 24 goals in his first season and 7 points in 9 playoff games before the RiverHawks eventually bowed out to the Mississippi Surge in the President’s Cup Final.

It was a unique experience for the Calgary native, but one that has helped him along a winding path that led him to the Dallas Stars bench.

“Every experience I’ve had in hockey has now helped me as a coach,” Graham said. “Whether it was junior in Alberta, college in Pennsylvania or even in Augusta, you learn all sorts of life lessons as a young man and you also learn all different levels of hockey. Ironically enough when I was in Augusta, I was a power play player. Now that I’m focusing on the power play, I revert back to my own experiences.”

The dots have all connected in a fascinating way over the last 20 years as Graham went from four years as a forward at Mercyhurst College, to two seasons in Augusta (SPHL) as well as a handful of games with both the South Carolina Stingrays (ECHL) and Greenville Road Warriors (ECHL). After a quick stint as an assistant coach back at his alma mater, Graham landed with the Idaho Steelheads (the Stars’ ECHL affiliate) in a player/coach role in the 2012-13 season. And following three seasons as an assistant, he served as head coach for four seasons. The team amassed a record of 166-91-31 and made the playoffs every year, and the success helped springboard Graham into an assistant coach role with the Texas Stars.

Two months into his AHL tenure, however, he was quickly promoted to the head job after head coach Derek Laxdal was called up to serve as an assistant for Dallas in December 2019. It was a sudden and unexpected change, but one that the 34-year-old was prepared to tackle.

“My first 25 games back as an assistant, it had been five years so I was trying to do everything right, trying to make sure I was echoing the right message and doing all of those things,” Graham said. “Frankly, when Lax was promoted and I took over as head coach, I actually felt more comfortable doing the same job I had done in Idaho. I got to revert back to some of those times and experiences.”

That quick promotion eventually turned into six seasons as the Texas head coach. Included within that stretch was two seasons with 40+ wins, four trips to the Calder Cup Playoffs and a run to the 2025 Western Conference Final.

It also gave Graham a chance to coach and build relationships with a number of Stars draft picks and prospects, including three AHL Rookie of the Years (Riley Damiani, Logan Stankoven and Justin Hryckowian) and an AHL MVP (Mavrik Bourque).

“I think I did the math and there are nine or ten players on our current roster that I coached in Texas,” Graham said. “Honestly, my favorite part of that job in the minors was telling guys, ‘Hey, you just got the call and you’re going up.’ And now, being able to share in their success and see them in-person getting to live out their childhood dreams is probably my favorite part of it all.”

But it’s not just the players that funneled through the AHL over the last six years.

“If you expand the network a little further even down to the Traverse City tournament, there aren’t many players that I haven’t crossed paths with over the last decade,” he said with a chuckle. “I had a laugh with Radek Faksa the other day because when he was 18 or 19, I helped him do an extra skate at Traverse City when he was just a kid. Even though it’s my first year here, it feels like I’ve known a lot of these players, coaches and front office people for a long time now.”

That’s one heck of a winding path to the NHL, but it’s one that the 40-year-old is grateful for and has learned plenty from along the way. And now that he is a little over four months into his NHL coaching tenure, he seems to have found his groove.

“Every time you change levels, there is some new in terms of the travel, arenas, opponents and the process,” said Graham. “You want to make sure you’re helping your new head coach and the staff still in place from the prior regime, and that’s always your primary focus. Along the way and as we have dipped in, we’ve all been inserting ideas and collaborating well, and I think there’s some good continuity among the staff.”

With assistant coach Alain Nasreddine holding over from Pete DeBoer’s staff to coach the defense and penalty kill, Graham was appointed to the power play position upon being promoted back in July. He took over a Dallas Stars power play that had been consistently inconsistent over the previous decade, finishing in the NHL’s top 10 in three seasons but as low as 19th and 20th in others. The 2024-25 season was particularly frustrating as the Stars crisscrossed between extensive dry patches and hot surges on the way to a 17th place finish in the League standings. Perhaps the most frustrating part was the fact that the abundance of high-end scoring talent across the Dallas roster was unable to click consistently.

As a result, Graham entered his first NHL season with a unique puzzle to solve. But it was a task the 40-year-old’s wealth of experience prepared him to tackle.

“I think being a part of this organization for so long, no one has probably watched as much Dallas Stars hockey as me over the last seven or eight years outside of the Dallas crew,” Graham said. “I’ve always thought there was a good power play and a good foundation in place, and I thought we might just be able to add in some areas. I give credit to our players because they were receptive. I laugh because in camp, you’re looking at some AHL video with some NHLers, but they were receptive and they asked questions.”

As the NHL entered the Olympic break, the Stars sat tied for first with 50 power play goals scored (26 at home, 24 on road) and second overall with a 29.9 percent success rate on the man advantage. Dallas owns the best home power play rate at a red-hot 31.0 percent and 11 different Stars have tallied a power play goal.

From an individual standpoint, Wyatt Johnston leads the NHL with 18 power play goals, while Jason Robertson sits tied for fifth with 11. Johnston, Robertson and Mikko Rantanen also all sit in the top seven of power play points across the league.

Considering the team had a revolving door of cast members for much of the first half of the season, the man advantage’s accomplishments are no small feat.

“It took us a little bit to get firing, which I knew it would,” Graham said. “At the end of the day, it wasn’t reinventing the game or it wasn’t like we had some sort of magic potion. It was just looking for some particular things against certain PKs and a little bit that we could add to each. Our players were excited about it, and I think the result has been some genuine enthusiasm out there. I think sometimes it’s more about the timing of a goal, and right now we’ve been able to score some timely ones. I think that’s going to be really important moving forward.”

Moving forward is where the focus now shifts. As winners of gold, silver and bronze are decided this weekend at the 2026 Winter Olympics, the rest of the NHL is preparing to resume play on Wednesday. The non-Olympian Stars and the coaching staff have been practicing for the past few days in anticipation for a final sprint that will see the team play 25 games in a 50-day span to close the regular season.

And after three straight trips to the Western Conference Final, the Stars and their fans are both eagerly anticipating the run this spring as the team looks to hopefully find its way over the hump.

“I appreciate the passion from the fanbases,” Graham said. “I think it’s inherently in the Texans. Living in Texas for seven years, our kids are Texans and we feel like we’re Texans. Just being around this atmosphere, it’s no shock. There is so much passion in all of the sports and an expectation and desire to win, and that’s what you want.”

That comes with a hefty dose of pressure, but Graham and the coaching staff seem ready to shoulder it.

“Does it add pressure? Maybe,” he added. “But in the same breath, that’s the pressure you want. You want expectations high and you want a team that has a chance to win, and we do. I think our fanbase knows that, and it’s very encouraging.”

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

Josh Clark is a writer for DallasStars.com. Follow him on X @Josh_Clark02.