The Dallas Stars have been fortunate to employ many solid veterans in recent years. In a feature story from The Hockey News (THN) on December 10, 2018, writer Matt Larkin highlighted Stars forward Tyler Seguin’s rise to NHL prominence. In September 2018, Seguin signed an eight-year, $78.8-million contract extension with the Stars, who had acquired him from Boston five seasons earlier. Seguin could have received similar offers from other teams, but his heart was always in Texas. “If there was any pause thinking about the open market, it wasn’t very long in my head,” Seguin said. “My goal, my objective, really my dream all along was to stay in Dallas. Within the first few months of being traded here from Boston, I knew I wanted to be a Star for as long as I could be. I had to think about maybe playing out this year and being an unrestricted free agent. In a way, I was ready to do that, but it was something I never wanted to do, and I’m glad I never had to, because I wanted to be a Dallas Star through and through.”
While Seguin hasn’t won a Stanley Cup with the Stars, he has delivered well on his contract, which expires in 2027. As his career progressed, Seguin earned the trust of coaches such as veteran bench boss Ken Hitchcock. “My coaches in the past, when I made a mistake or had a bad game, they’d put me to the wing the next game, but Hitch didn’t let me off the hook,” Seguin told Larkin. “I’d have a bad game, and he’d say, ‘You’re going right back out there. You played like crap against Jonathan Toews last night, but you’ve got Sidney Crosby tomorrow night.’ He put me in that spot where I had to grab the opportunity, but he gave me the opportunity. I think I earned the respect of playing the position.”
BIG DEAL IN BIG ‘D’
By Matt Larkin
The applause starts the second Tyler Seguin boards the plane. He looks down the aisle to see his teammates grinning. It’s a surreal moment he’ll never forget. The Stars, en route to training camp in Boise, Idaho, are cheering Seguin because he just signed an eight-year, $78.8-million extension, announced this mid-September morning during the team’s start-of-camp media day in Dallas. They’re thrilled to have their top center secured for nearly the next decade. This marks a complete turnaround from what seemed like a tense situation just weeks earlier.
Seguin was entering the final season of his contract, and while he still had a year to negotiate an extension, John Tavares’ move from the New York Islanders to the Toronto Maple Leafs on July 1 validated the idea that not every star player stays with their team. Speculation ran wild about Seguin being “the next Tavares” in July 2019. At the BioSteel camp in Toronto, Seguin expressed disappointment about the negotiations, which seemed to escalate the tension. However, Stars GM Jim Nill explained that Seguin was caught off guard by the question and misspoke, which Seguin confirmed afterward. “I said, ‘Don’t worry, Tyler, that’s part of life,’” Nill recalled. “It wasn’t an issue with me. But it gets hyped up because of the media.”
Seguin gained insight from the incident. “I was confident that something was going to get done,” he said. “And after I spoke at BioSteel camp, I learned from even watching how my words in media can go, and it was a learning experience with negotiations.” Both parties remained calm during the slow summer negotiation. Nill hoped to finalize the deal by draft day, but it didn’t happen. Despite the delay, Nill never doubted that Seguin wanted to stay. “If there was any pause thinking about the open market, it wasn’t very long in my head,” Seguin reiterated. “My goal, my objective, really my dream all along was to stay in Dallas.”
Seguin cherishes Dallas as a city and speaks about it protectively. He promotes it as an underrated hockey market. While he may not receive the same attention there as in Boston or Toronto, he enjoys the enthusiastic support of local fans. He loves the food scene and envisions settling down there long-term.
Seguin has grown significantly as a player since his trade in 2013. As Nill observed, Seguin arrived as a “young” player, not just in age but in maturity. Now, he’s a player the team relies on for penalty killing, defensive-zone faceoffs, and leadership, in addition to his scoring ability. Before last season, Seguin’s career high in shorthanded minutes per game was three seconds. Last year, he played 1:31 per game. In his first season with the Stars, he won 41.5 percent of his faceoffs. He improved to 54.9 percent over the next four seasons. Among the 123 forwards who played at least 1,000 minutes 5-on-5 last season, Seguin ranked 29th in defensive-zone start percentage.
Seguin and his linemates Jamie Benn and Alexander Radulov faced moderate competition as then-coach Ken Hitchcock sought easier matchups for them to score. Nevertheless, Seguin made significant strides as a two-way player. This transformation mirrors that of Hall of Famer Mike Modano, who became a complete player under Hitchcock’s guidance. Although life wasn’t always easy under Hitchcock, Seguin appreciates the trust and responsibility he was given. “My coaches in the past, when I made a mistake or had a bad game, they’d put me to the wing the next game, but Hitch didn’t let me off the hook,” Seguin said. “I’d have a bad game, and he’d say, ‘You’re going right back out there. You played like crap against Jonathan Toews last night, but you’ve got Sidney Crosby tomorrow night.’ He put me in that spot where I had to grab the opportunity, but he gave me the opportunity. I think I earned the respect of playing the position.”
At 33, Seguin remains one of the better scorers in the game. Since his debut with the Stars in 2013-14, he and Benn are tied for second in goals behind Alex Ovechkin. On a top-heavy team with only one dominant line, Seguin must excel at stopping the opposition’s best players while continuing to score. He appears ready to do just that, and it may not be long before he earns another round of applause from his teammates—this time for winning a major individual award.
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