Dallas Stars general manager Jim Nill speaks during his end of season news conference at Comerica Center on Thursday, May 7, 2026, in Frisco.
ElÃas Valverde II/The Dallas Morning News
Stars general manager Jim Nill began a collection of Jim Gregory Awards in 2023, the honor voted after the first two rounds of the playoffs by league executives to recognize the best GM in the business. This will be the first spring that Nill hasn’t won the award since he got started, so, having receiving three straight plaques, Nill’s credentials are more solidly established than anyone in the business.
It’s just funny, and it says something about the nature of trades and how we do and don’t examine them, that Nill won his third Gregory award for the deadline trade for Mikko Rantanen last season. And as the Stanley Cup playoffs wind down to four teams, the two heavy favorites in the conference finals are the teams that got rid of Rantanen in 2025.
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Again, try not to jump to conclusions here. Nill paid a heavy, heavy price to get Rantanen but he easily could have been the final piece in the Stanley Cup puzzle that has eluded Dallas this century. The hat tricks that won a series against Colorado and a key game against Winnipeg launched the Stars on their third straight trip to the conference finals. The fact that they didn’t capture the Cup or even get out of the first round this spring?
Rantanen is 29 and a Hall-of-Fame bound player. I’d still rather have him than not have him. In fact, I’d make him captain, too, because I think he would wear that burden well for a Stars team that could use a new look on that front.
Executives in Colorado and Carolina appreciated his talents, too, but were forced to go the opposite direction. Now the Avalanche is 8-1 in the postseason and a solid favorite against Vegas. Carolina, 8-0 and resting since a week ago Saturday, figures to be an even heavier favorite in the Eastern Conference finals.Â
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Colorado had Rantanen for nine years. Carolina had him for 13 games. The moves those GMs made to part ways are huge reasons they are still in business as we get closer to June.
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Dallas Stars’ Mikko Rantanen (96) watches the puck against the Carolina Hurricanes during the first period of an NHL hockey game in Raleigh, N.C., Tuesday, Jan. 6, 2026. (AP Photo/Karl DeBlaker)
Karl B DeBlaker/AP
Colorado acquired Martin Necas from Carolina when they made the difficult decision, based on what they perceived to be Rantanen’s unwillingness to play for an amount the Avs could handle with superstars Nathan MacKinnon and Cale Makar already on board. Maybe Necas isn’t Rantanen but he had a hell of a season (38 goals, 62 assists, 100 points, a plus-47) and has 11 points in nine playoff games. The slightly supporting role that Rantanen played to MacKinnon and Makar to win the Cup in 2022 has been filled to perfection by Necas.
That’s why I have to imagine Colorado GM Chris MacFarland will be the man who ends Nill’s run as GM of the year. The other two finalists — Anaheim’s Pat Verbeek (a key figure on Dallas’ only Cup winner) and Minnesota’s Bill Guerin — have both seen their teams eliminated in recent days. For some reason, Carolina’s Eric Tulsky is not a nominee, and maybe it’s because he’s not a traditional hockey guy.
Tulsky understands the science of the sport, and by that I mean the man has a Ph.D. in chemistry from Cal-Berkeley. He worked in Silicon Valley for a decade, did a little hockey analysis on the side and basically proved, mathematically, that the dump and chase is a really bad way to enter the offensive zone. Eventually, Carolina hired him to do analytics and he got the GM job in 2024. In his first season, he traded for Rantanen and then dealt him to Dallas after 13 games when it became clear he wasn’t signing long term.
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As a result, Carolina is blowing through the Eastern Conference bracket unbeaten with former young Stars center Logan Stankoven scoring seven goals (and two game-winners) in eight games. Now Stankoven hasn’t produced at the Wyatt Johnston level in the regular season yet (just 44 points this year) but he has shot past him in the postseason. And he will be 23 when next season begins, so Tulsky got a foundational piece in the Rantanen deal.
Oh, yes, he also got the Stars’ first- and third-round picks in June, their third-round pick next summer and their first-round pick in 2028. If we wrote about the NHL draft in the manner that we treat the NFL draft in this country, Nill would be excoriated for surrendering so many high picks and a great young talent for Rantanen.
But I would still have done the deal. After two trips to the conference finals, the Stars knew they were close to having a Cup finalist. They had the roster and the coach in place, or so it seemed. And Rantanen was great in his first playoff here. The idea is to hang a meaningful banner before the Stars vacate the AAC in five years, not just maintain a steady level of competing for Central Division championships.
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Trading for Rantanen and, let’s not forget, putting his name on the dotted line for an eight-year deal that now appears to be a team-friendly AAV of $12 million was a masterstroke. And worthy of an award, just not a Cup. But the two flip sides on Rantanen trades are paying the dividends that matter this spring with one of his former teams about to have its name etched in hockey history.