Dallas Stars

Team information

• Inaugural season: 1967
• Home arena: American Airlines Center, Dallas, Texas
• Owner: Tom Gaglardi
• Team colors: Victory green, black, silver, and white

Overview

The Dallas Stars is a professional ice hockey team that competes in the National Hockey League (NHL) as a member of the Central Division of the Western Conference. It is based in Dallas, Texas, and plays its home games at the American Airlines Center in downtown Dallas. The Stars were originally established in Bloomington, Minnesota, as the Minnesota North Stars. The team was founded during the NHL expansion of 1967–1968. It later merged with the Cleveland Barons during the 1978–1979 NHL season after experiencing some financial troubles. The Minnesota North Stars became the Dallas Stars after relocating to Dallas in 1993. Since then, the Stars have won multiple division titles as well as two Presidents’ Trophies and one Stanley Cup. The team was purchased by Vancouver businessperson and Kamloops Blazers’ owner Tom Gaglardi in 2011 for $240 million. In 2013, the team unveiled a new color scheme and logo that combined its two previous shades of green into a new color it called “Victory Green,” which was accented by black, white, and a newly added silver. The team has featured multiple Hall of Fame players throughout its iterations including Mike Modano, Dino Ciccarelli, Brett Hull, Ed Belfour, and Joe Nieuwendyk.

History

Before they were the Dallas Stars, the Stars were situated in Minnesota as the Minnesota North Stars. The team was established as part of the NHL expansion of 1967–1968, which saw the creation of a new six-team division of the NHL. A team of nine Minnesota businesspeople including Walter Bush Jr. and John Driscoll lobbied the NFL to establish one of the teams in the Twin Cities region of Minnesota. Their efforts proved successful and in 1967 the team began playing at the recently constructed Metropolitan Sports Centers (the Met Center) in Bloomington, Minnesota. The North Stars proved a formidable team throughout the late 1960s and early 1970s, but the franchise ran into financial trouble in the mid-1970s as the North Stars continually failed to qualify for the playoffs. By 1978, the team had missed the playoffs for five seasons in a row. Attendance at games had rapidly dwindled, and the owners worried the franchise would go bankrupt.

At this time, the Cleveland Barons stepped in with a solution. The Barons were also experiencing financial difficulties and the team’s owner posed the idea of merging the Barons with the North Stars. The NHL allowed the merge, with Barons owners George and Gordon Gund becoming majority owners during this time. The team kept the North Star name but moved from the Smythe Division to the Barons’ Adams Division for the 1978–1979 season. With the combination of Stars and Barons players, the team’s lineup received a much-needed boost. Minnesota had also recently drafted Bobby Smith, who later became the league’s top rookie of the year and won the Calder Memorial Trophy. The team even managed to make it to the Stanley Cup Finals in 1981 but lost to the New York Islanders.

The team’s revival was short-lived, however. Apart from making it to the Stanley Cup Finals in 1991, the team was not creating much revenue for its owners, and fan attendance was decreasing. The Stars’ owners were looking to relocate the franchise to a new city with a state-of-the-art arena that would attract fans and generate revenue. Originally, they lobbied for a spot in the San Francisco Bay Area and the Los Angeles area. The league rejected a San Francisco move. Then-owner Norm Green later tried to forge a deal for the team to play in Anaheim, California, which had a new arena under construction. The Walt Disney Company was already negotiating a deal to establish a team there called the Mighty Ducks, named after the successful Disney film of the same name. The NHL told Green that if he let the Ducks go to Anaheim, he could have his pick of a new location for the Stars.

The Stars were moved to Dallas in 1993. Apart from financial reasons, reports cited a variety of factors that led to the relocation, such as a sexual harassment lawsuit against Green. The Stars had also refused to move their games to the Target Center in Minnesota, which was sponsored by Coca Cola. The Stars and the Met Center were sponsored by Pepsi. Green’s time as owner of the Dallas Stars was brief due to his poor management, and he was forced to sell to Tom Hicks in 1996.

The Dallas Stars were moved to the Central Division of the Western Conference. They played their first game on October 5, 1993, and won against the Detroit Red Wings. The Stars qualified for the semi-finals that season but lost. Over the remainder of the decade, the team managed to finish first in its division four times between 1996 and 2000, winning the President’s Trophy two seasons in a row for most points during a regular season. It was transferred to Pacific Division status in 1998 after the NHL realigned the league divisions. The Stars qualified for the Stanley Cup finals in 1999, competing against the Eastern Conference champions the Buffalo Sabres. The team defeated the Sabres four games to two to take home its very first Stanley Cup, with center Joe Nieuwendyk taking home the Conn Smythe Trophy.

By the end of the decade, the sports teams of Dallas were in need of a new arena. Dallas citizens approved a tax on hotels and rentals cars that helped fund a new arena. The new building was constructed near the Woodall Rodgers Freeway at a cost of $420 million. In 1999, American Airlines purchased the naming rights for the new structure, and the American Airlines Center opened to the public in 2001. The Stars’ first season in their new home was a slow one and they did not qualify for the postseason. The remainder of the 2000s saw the team win two Pacific division titles. The team was moved back to the Central Division in the 2010s, which were mostly uneventful for the Stars. They failed to qualify for the finals four seasons in a row between 2010 and 2013 and lost in the first round at the end of the 2013–2014 season. These years were also not very lucrative for the franchise, and they repeatedly lost millions of dollars year after year. The 2010s saw another ownership transfer as the team filed for bankruptcy and was put up for auction. Bids were submitted in October 2011, with the winning bid going to Vancouver businessperson Tom Gaglardi, who bought the franchise for an enterprise value of $240 million.

New ownership did little for the team’s stats as it did not qualify for much postseason action through the late 2010s. In 2017, the team brought back former coach Ken Hitchcock, who had coached the team between 1996 and 2002 and led it to a Stanley Cup win. The team finished sixth out of seven in its division that season, and Hitchcock was replaced with Jim Montgomery the next season. Montgomery managed to lead the Stars to the postseason but the team lost in the second round. Owners then brought in Rick Bowness as an interim head coach for the 2019–2020 season, which saw the Stars finish third out of seven in their division. The season was scheduled to end in April 2020, but the regular season was suspended on March 12, 2020, due to the COVID-19 pandemic.

In 2022, the Stars hired Peter DeBoer as head coach. After a 108-point 47-21-15 season, the Stars defeated the Colorado Avalanche by one point to win the 2022-23 Central Division title.

Notable players

Throughout its history, the Dallas Stars have featured a number of notable hockey players. The team’s record-setters span the length of the franchise history beginning with the Minnesota North Stars. Dino Ciccarelli’s tenure with the Stars during their Minnesota years saw him set the record for most goals in a season between 1981 and 1982. This was later tied by Brian Bellows during the 1989–1990 season. Stars’ player Bobby Smith also set a points’ record during the 1981–1982 season with 114. Mike Modano, who served as team captain from 2003 to 2006, led the career leaders’ pack, however. He set the record as all-time goals’ leader and points’ leader with 557 goals and 1,359 points before he joined the Detroit Red Wings in 2010. Modano also held the career lead record for games played, assists, goals created, even strength goals, short-handed goals, and game-winning goals.

The only Star to ever receive the coveted Conn Smythe Trophy was Joe Nieuwendyk, who was awarded the most valuable player honor following the Stars’ Stanley Cup win in 1999. As of 2020, thirteen Stars players have been inducted into the Hockey Hall of Fame, including Ciccarelli and Modano. The first member of the Dallas Stars to be inducted was Brett Hull in 2009. Other members of the Dallas Stars to be inducted include Ed Beflour, Joe Nieuwendyk, Eric Lindros, and Sergei Makarov.

A number of Stars players have had their numbers retired. They are Neal Broten (7), Bill Goldsworthy (8), Mike Modano (9), Bill Masterton (19), and Jere Lehtinen (26). Neal Broten is noted for scoring the first goal for the Stars in Dallas.

Bibliography

“Dallas Stars.” Hockey Reference, 2024, www.hockey-reference.com/teams/DAL/history.html. Accessed 20 Mar. 2024.

"Dallas Stars Career Leaders." Hockey Reference, 2024, www.hockey-reference.com/teams/DAL/leaders‗career.html. Accessed 20 Mar. 2024.

"Dallas Stars Season Leaders." Hockey Reference, 2024, www.hockey-reference.com/teams/DAL/leaders‗season.html. Accessed 20 Mar. 2024.

“Dallas Stars Team History.” Sports Team History, 2024, sportsteamhistory.com/dallas-stars. Accessed 20 Mar. 2024.

“Hockey Hall of Fame Inductees.” Hockey Reference, 2024, www.hockey-reference.com/awards/hhof.html. Accessed 20 Mar. 2024.

“Minnesota North Stars Team History.” Sports Team History, 2024, sportsteamhistory.com/minnesota-north-stars.Accessed 20 Mar. 2024.

"NHL Statement on Coronavirus." NHL, 12 Mar. 2020, www.nhl.com/news/nhl-coronavirus-status/c-316155530. Accessed 20 Mar. 2024.