The Dallas Stars are off to a 3-0-0 start to their year. And Adam Proteau says Stars coach Peter DeBoer uses a special strategy to keep his group of forwards thriving.
The Dallas Stars have started the 2024-25 regular season as strongly as possible, winning all three games they’ve played while shutting out their opponents in the past two games. And if you take a closer look at Dallas’ statistics, you’ll see a trend that coach Pete DeBoer has set out with dating back to last season.
That trend is taking it easy on the minutes he gives to Stars forwards. Thus far this season -- and this past season -- DeBoer has handed out limited minutes to the grand majority of his players up front.
Young center Wyatt Johnston leads all Stars forwards thus far this season in time-on-ice, with an average of 19:13 per game. And veteran left winger Jason Robertson is second in that category, with 17:18 per game. But after that, only one Dallas forward has more than 16:36 of ice time per game.
Star center Roope Hintz has 16:37; winger Jamie Benn is at 16:01; center Matt Duchene has 15:47 of ice time; center Tyler Seguin has 14:55; rookie Logan Stankoven has 14:50; and left winger Mason Marchment has 14:41. The balance here is impressive, as in-game workload can be a key factor in how well teams do down the stretch of the regular season.
This distribution of minutes isn’t something that’s happened by accident. Last season, only three Stars forwards had at least 17 minutes of playing time per game: Robertson (18:19), Hintz (17:14), and Johnston (17:00). DeBoer clearly has confidence in all his forwards, and keeping them as fresh as possible is a strategy that paid off for Dallas when the post-season rolled around.
Contrast Dallas’ usage of their forwards with a team like their Central Divsion rivals in Colorado: last season, the Avalanche played their top-three forwards more than 21:20 per game – star right winger Mikko Rantanen (22:54), superstar Nathan MacKinnon (22:49), and right winger Valeri Nichushkin (21:21) all led the way for Colorado. And after Artturi Lehkonen (18:28) and Jonathan Drouin (18:11), there was a considerable drop-off, with the next-most-used forward (Casey Middlestadt) coming in at 15:52. Not every team will distribute their time-on-ice the way the Avs do, but Dallas’ philosophy is to not rely heavily on any one player, keep minutes down overall, and give opportunities to players up and down their four forward lines.
Without a doubt, the Stars’ all-around depth and balance affords DeBoer the luxury of doling out his minutes as equally as possible. Injuries and sub-par play may change how DeBoer distributes his minutes as the season unfolds, but when Dallas is at full-strength, they can lessen the burden on their front end and show their players and opponents they’re not a one-line team or a one-trick pony.
You always want your key players to be rewarded for solid play, but in this case, the reward for Stars players is a little more rest and a little less pressure night-in and night-out. And if that mitigates the number of injuries and/or sets up more Stars forwards for success, that plan will work exactly as intended.
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