The Dallas Stars opened training camp on Thursday in Frisco, and the first question hanging over the room was not just who looked ready, but how the roster would hold together under a tighter salary cap. Jim Nill said the team is excited for the season, but the summer has already reshaped the conversation around health, depth and how much room there is to work.
That matters now because the Stars are not easing into a short tune-up. They are heading into an 84-game regular season, two games more than last year, after a spring that ended in the first round of the playoffs. Nill said that exit gave everyone a chance to rest up and spend the offseason planning, and he added that he has been encouraged by the players because many of them have never had this kind of time to train.
The most obvious face of that reset is Tyler Seguin. The 34-year-old is back after ACL surgery, and he needed all of the nine months to recover after going out with the injury in December. Glen Gulutzan said players who were banged up are healthy now, while Nill said Mikko Rantanen has never really had a season like this in which he could simply train. That is part of why the mood around camp is more upbeat than rushed.
The optimism, though, comes with a tradeoff that will shape the day-to-day roster. The Stars may carry a group that is a couple of players smaller than in past years because of the tighter salary cap, which means there is less room for the kind of extra bodies teams often keep around when injuries hit. Dallas Stars supporters can read the health gains as a good sign, but the structure of the roster suggests the margin for error will be thinner than it was before.
Age is part of that picture, too. Jamie Benn is 37 and Matt Duchene is 35, while Glen Gulutzan said Benn is probably the skinniest he has seen him. He also said Wyatt Johnston used the summer to get more fit after scoring 45 goals last season, the same total Jason Robertson reached. The coaching staff is planning tweaks to help the team create more offense, with better play through the neutral zone among the changes Gulutzan wants to make.
There is also a reminder that this summer was not only about recovery. The Stars traded 24-year-old Mavrik Bourque to Nashville in the offseason, a move that fits the larger squeeze around cap space and roster construction. With camp now open and the preseason next, the Stars are trying to turn a healthier group into a tighter, faster team before the games start counting for real.
