The Dallas Stars’ season came to an end in the Western Conference finals again, after the Edmonton Oilers punched their ticket back to the Stanley Cup Final with a 6-3 win in Game 5 Thursday night.
The 2025 playoffs marked the third straight season the Stars lost in the third round, as their offense dried up during another deep run.
With the Stars now considered regular Stanley Cup contenders, the team needs to find a way to get over the third-round hump while its window to win remains open.
The Stars return most of their core for the 2025-26 season, but GM Jim Nill will have some decisions to make on how to improve the roster before its next attempt to win the Stanley Cup.
Sports Roundup
Here are five storylines for the Stars entering this offseason:
What is Jamie Benn’s future in Dallas?
The Stars’ captain enters the offseason as an unrestricted free agent, and his future with the team is up in the air.
Benn, the longest-tenured captain in franchise history, will go down as one of the Stars greats. He’s recorded 956 points in 1,192 games over 16 seasons in Dallas and led the charge of homegrown talent taking over the franchise.
Dallas Stars left wing Jamie Benn (14) hugs Edmonton Oilers right wing Corey Perry (90) after the Oilers 6-3 victory in Game 5 of the NHL Western Conference finals on Thursday, May 29, 2025, in Dallas.(Smiley N. Pool / Staff Photographer)
Nill and Stars owner Tom Gaglardi have said there’s a place for Benn on Dallas’ roster as long as he wants it, but during this playoff run, the captain showed he may be nearing the end of his career.
Benn scored just one goal and two assists in 18 playoff games for the Stars and was -11. His postseason had some similarities to Joe Pavelski’s last year, where despite a strong regular season, he somewhat disappeared when it mattered most.
Benn didn’t completely disappear and caused problems at times, logging 26 penalty minutes and taking some costly ones in all three series.
The captain is still beloved in the Stars locker room, and head coach Pete DeBoer credits the team’s resilience this year to him. His current contract was an eight-year deal worth $9.5 million annually, so if he does re-sign, it would likely be a one-year deal at a much cheaper price.
Benn’s wife gave birth to his first child this season, and at 35 years old, it wouldn’t be surprising if the end of his career is approaching. But without a Stanley Cup on his resume, he may not be ready to hang it up yet.
How can Dallas improve the right side of its blue line?
The Stars’ blue line, particularly the right side, was viewed as a weakness all season. The group stepped up in the playoffs, for the most part, with Cody Ceci, Ilya Lyubushkin and Alexander Petrovic holding down the fort until Miro Heiskanen’s return from injury in the second round.
But the Stars’ blue line could look different next year, and Nill has some decisions to make.
Right-shot defensemen Ceci and Nils Lundkvist, who had season-ending shoulder surgery, are both free agents. So is left-shot defenseman Brendan Smith, who did not appear in the postseason for Dallas.
The Stars will have to make decisions on all three, as well as Matt Dumba and Petrovic
Dumba was a healthy scratch for the entire playoffs alongside Smith, and DeBoer chose to call up Petrovic from the Texas Stars and play him instead. Dumba is still under contract with a $3.75 million cap hit, but the Stars will have to determine whether moving him via a trade or a buyout is an option.
Petrovic has played more playoff games than regular-season games with the Stars over the last two seasons and has proven to be a reliable right-shot defenseman. He and rookie Lian Bichsel skated together in the playoffs and were the unsung heroes for Dallas before Heiskanen’s return.
The Stars have the luxury of knowing Petrovic is an option in the AHL whenever they need, but his performance during the last two playoff runs has earned him a spot in the conversation about securing a permanent place in Dallas.
Can the Stars’ forward group get any deeper?
Dallas had one of the deepest forward groups in the NHL this year with eight forwards scoring 20 goals or more and four scoring 30 or more.
But the Stars struggled to score in the Western Conference finals against Edmonton for the second straight year, recording just two goals in a three-game span from Games 2-4.
Nill is always looking to add depth, and he will do the same this offseason.
The Stars have eight forwards under contract but will have to re-evaluate whether to sign Benn, Matt Duchene, Evgenii Dadonov, Mikael Granlund, Colin Blackwell and Mavrik Bourque.
Benn, Duchene and Dadonov were among Dallas’ more consistent producers in the regular season, all recording at least 16 goals, before scoring just one playoff goal apiece.
Granlund was a trade-deadline acquisition who came alive for Dallas on an all-Finn line in the playoffs, totaling 10 points (five goals and five assists) in 18 games, but with a $5 million cap hit on his latest contract, he won’t be cheap to keep.
The Stars need to find a way to stay within the limitations of the cap while also continuing to add to their forward depth — the challenging puzzle Nill and his staff have to navigate every offseason.
Pete DeBoer has accomplished a lot in three years, but pressure builds
In three years in Dallas, DeBoer has taken the Stars to the Western Conference finals each year — an impressive feat that immediately proved he was the right hire.
DeBoer has a long list of accolades in his career — from eight conference finals appearances to two Stanley Cup Final appearances to a perfect 9-0 record in Game 7s. But after nearly two decades as a head coach, he still has not won a Stanley Cup.
Dallas Stars head coach Peter DeBoer is seen during the second period in Game 2 of the Western Conference finals against the Edmonton Oilers in the NHL hockey Stanley Cup playoffs at American Airlines Center, Friday, May 23, 2025, in Dallas.(Chitose Suzuki / Staff Photographer)
Conference finals appearances are now becoming an expectation in Dallas, and anything short of advancing past the third round is a disappointment. It’s a tough position for a coach to be in, but one DeBoer is familiar with after being fired from his job with the Vegas Golden Knights when he missed the playoffs in 2021-22 following consecutive conference finals appearances in the two years before.
There’s no question DeBoer is capable of leading the Stars deep in the playoffs each year, as he’s shown through his first three seasons in Dallas. But with his contract expiring after next season, his future in Dallas may ride on whether he and his staff are able to overcome that hump.
After some questionable decisions this postseason, like benching Jake Oettinger seven minutes into a critical Game 5, DeBoer’s seat is heating up.
They have an important offseason ahead to prepare for a year with the highest expectations and pressure yet.
Can Stars improve prospect pool without draft assets?
The Stars quickly went from having one of the deepest prospect pools in the NHL to one of the thinnest.
That’s because players like Bourque, Bichsel, Logan Stankoven and Oskar Bäck earned permanent spots on the NHL roster.
But the Stars were aggressive at the trade deadline, and Nill traded three first-round picks to acquire Mikko Rantanen, Granlund and Ceci. The hope was that it would pay off in a championship.
It didn’t, and now the Stars enter the 2025 draft without a first- or second-round pick. They also don’t have a first-round pick in 2026.
Dallas will look to further develop some of its most promising prospects like Matěj Blümel, Justin Hryckowian, Kole Lind, Cameron Hughes, Kyle Capobianco and last year’s first-round pick Emil Hemming.
Nill has also shown skill in the draft and will hope some of his later-round picks can exceed expectations.
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