Wyatt Johnston’s Dallas Stars look like they might be this year’s team of destiny

Mike Gould
Mike Gould
Wyatt Johnston’s Dallas Stars look like they might be this year’s team of destiny
Credit: Isaiah J. Downing-USA TODAY Sports

Good luck finding a deeper team still standing in this year’s Stanley Cup Playoffs than these Dallas Stars.

They’ve got a stronger forward depth chart than every other team in the league. Their solid defensive depth got even better when they added Chris Tanev at the trade deadline. After a so-so regular season, Jake Oettinger has reverted to top form between the pipes.

The Stars’ second line would be the first line on a lot of teams. Their fourth line is essentially a third line. Guys like Radek Faksa and Mavrik Bourque would be lineup mainstays pretty much anywhere else in the league. In Dallas, they’re just cogs in a well-oiled machine, ones that get swapped in and out when necessary.

It’s easy to fall into a sense of disbelief when looking up and down the Stars’ roster. What do you mean, Matt Duchene is their third-line centre? Logan Stankoven is playing 15 minutes a night as a rookie? Joe Pavelski has one point in 11 games and they haven’t missed a beat … how!?

The Stars didn’t get to this point by weaponizing the long-term injured reserve system. They didn’t have to buy out Tyler Seguin to make room for Duchene. They didn’t bleed draft picks for short-term help. And now, they’re up three games to one in their Western Conference semifinal playoff series against the Colorado Avalanche.

Indeed, these Stars have become the model for every other team to emulate. Sure, that may be easier said than done — good luck getting three All-Stars in one draft, like Dallas did in 2017 — but that doesn’t mean teams won’t try. For some of them, replicating Dallas’ success is already their stated goal.

The best part for Dallas is that their new and growing nucleus of young players looks even stronger than their group of veteran holdovers. Guys like Seguin, Pavelski, and Jamie Benn carried the Stars far in the past, and now, they don’t have to do it all by themselves.

Especially not with Wyatt Johnston around.

Two years ago, Johnston was a relatively unheralded prospect putting up huge numbers in the OHL. One year ago, he was coming off a solid rookie season that saw him finish fifth in Calder Trophy voting. Today, Johnston is a frontrunner for the Conn Smythe Trophy.

Tuesday marked Johnston’s 21st birthday. On Monday, the 6’1″ center moved into a three-way tie for the fourth-most career playoff goals before turning 21 with the 10th and 11th of his young career, ending up only three back of Jaromir Jagr for the all-time record.

Although the Stars have boasted a strong lineup all season long, the one major knock against them entering these playoffs was that they didn’t have a center to match up against the Western Conference’s other contenders. Edmonton has Connor McDavid; Colorado has Nathan MacKinnon; Vancouver has Elias Pettersson. Who does Dallas have?

As unusual as it may seem to list a guy coming off a 65-point season next to those great players, Johnston fully deserves that recognition right now. He’s at a level of dominance typically reserved only for guys going on career-defining runs, like Danny Briere in 2010, Marian Gaborik in 2014, or, more recently, Jonathan Marchessault last spring.

Each of those guys looked like a man possessed during those playoff years — and, right now, so does Johnston. But unlike the others, Johnston is only just beginning his career. Again, we have yet to see him play a single game over the age of 20. This could be a player just beginning his ascent into superstardom.

In Game 4 against the Avalanche on Monday, Johnston was practically undeniable. He scored the game’s first two goals, added an assist on Sam Steel‘s empty-netter, and took a game-high eight shots. Via Natural Stat Trick, the Stars doubled Colorado in scoring chances with Johnston on the ice at 5-on-5.

There hasn’t been a single more dominant Star in these playoffs than Johnston, who has seven goals; Miro Heiskanen is the only one of his teammates with more than three. The Stars have been crushing their competition during Johnston’s shifts, which has only emboldened head coach Peter DeBoer to play him more: His average ice time is up from 17:00 in the regular season to 20:08 in 11 playoff contests.

Johnston leads everyone in the playoffs with 68 shot attempts at 5-on-5, a full 10 more than second-place David Pastrnak (who has played in one extra game). Johnston also leads the league by a wide margin in individual expected goals and scoring chances. This isn’t just a case of someone getting lucky. He’s this good.

With Johnston and the Stars playing this well, it’s becoming more difficult to imagine who could feasibly prevent them from securing the Stanley Cup. They’re one win away from eliminating the Avs, which would set them up for a date with the Vancouver Canucks or Edmonton Oilers in the Western Conference Final.

It’s been a back-and-forth affair between the Canucks and Oilers, who are guaranteed to play at least six games and could make it all the way to a seventh. Both teams have their strengths, but neither is as well-rounded as the Stars at each position — at least, not on paper. They’d both enter a series against Dallas as the underdogs.

The four teams still alive in the Eastern Conference would also present their own different challenges. The Florida Panthers are probably the favorite to reach the Stanley Cup Final for the second consecutive year and, in theory, would match up well against the Stars.

Of course, this year’s Avalanche team isn’t dead quite yet, but it’d take a Herculean effort for them to merely get back on even footing with the Stars after losing Valeri Nichushkin midway through a playoff series for the second year in a row. The Avs looked flat-out stunned in Game 4; now, they’ll have to win three in a row to get past Dallas.

The Stars have already won three consecutive games in this series and will go for a fourth when they return to action for Game 5 on home ice on Wednesday evening. If they win, they’ll be halfway to clinching their first championship in 25 years — and so far, Johnston is the clear-cut playoff MVP.

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