The American Airlines Center was packed, fans wearing green hoping to witness a party. Instead, all they got was heartbreak. The Dallas Stars nearly punched their ticket to the Stanley Cup finals in the 2024-25 campaign, but the Edmonton Oilers sent the crowd home quiet after a 6-3 win in Game 5 of the Western Conference Final. Now, everyone wants to know what keeps this talented Dallas roster from bringing home a championship.
What’s Keeping the Dallas Stars from Winning the Cup?
Looking at the 2024-25 run, a few problems stood out. The Stars saw their high-powered offense disappear as the postseason went on. Tracey Myers broke down the scoring trouble for NHL.com, noting that Dallas averaged 3.35 goals per game in the regular season, putting them near the NHL’s top spot. But in the playoffs, that number fell to 2.50 per game, dropping them into a tie for 12th place in scoring.
That wasn’t the only concern. Dallas couldn’t get road wins, dropping two games in Winnipeg against the Jets. On top of that, Jake Oettinger looked steady in the first two rounds, but struggled against the Oilers in the Western Conference Final. He ended up getting pulled, something almost no one saw coming.
So why does this keep happening every year? The Stars keep making the playoffs but always fall short of lifting the Stanley Cup. The situation has frustrated fans and brought up more questions about how such a loaded roster can keep missing out. To get some answers, Arpon Basu, Editor-in-Chief of ‘The Athletic,’ Montreal, jumped on the “DLLS Stars Podcast” and shared his thoughts on the team’s recent playoff exit.
Basu pointed out that the Dallas roster is bursting with talent, making some moves hard to understand, like the addition of Mikko Rantanen. He questioned if Rantanen would be used to his full potential on a team already loaded with stars. That raises a bigger issue, especially with Jason Robertson nearing the end of his four-year, $31 million contract. With contract talks at a standstill, Robertson’s future in Dallas looks hazy.
According to Basu’s podcast appearance, it’s easy for a player like Robertson to wonder if his time with the Stars is running out when major stars get added. “If I am Jason Robertson and I see Mikko Rantanen show up, I am starting to wonder, where does my future lie here?”
The drama doesn’t stop there. Office decisions, such as coaching changes, can throw any team off track. In June, GM Jim Nill announced Pete DeBoer’s exit as head coach after the Stars’ latest playoff disappointment.
Basu summed up the Stars’ issues by saying, “So I just feel there’s all these kind of peripheral things that are sort of like, like any time you’re a team that continuously gets to the conference final, which is really hard to do, but continuously loses that series, at some point, either a switch clicks where you’re like, okay, enough of this, I am going to get over that hump or it goes the other way.”
With Glen Gulutzan now leading Dallas behind the bench, fans are left wondering if this is finally the switch that will help the Stars push past the conference finals and bring a Stanley Cup back to Texas.
