Among Dallas GMs, Stars’ Jim Nill stands head and shoulders above Cowboys, Mavs, Rangers

While Chris Young is clearly achieving high passing grades in his first full year as Rangers GM, the Mavs’ Nico Harrison at least put in place a plan to build more efficiently around Luka and Kyrie this summer. Still, on the local front, there is one GM who stands above the fray… and I’m not talking about the one wearing an owner’s tag out in Oxnard.

Jim Nill signed a two-year extension earlier this week. Not an earth-shaking development given the 10 years and three months he has already put in with the Stars. But last month when he won the Jim Gregory General Manager of the Year Award — first Stars GM ever honored — it felt a bit like a lifetime achievement honor more than simple recognition for the club’s second-place, 108-point finish. Regardless, it is a solid foundation Nill has constructed since arriving here after the club had bottomed out. And he also knows there’s one big brick still to be delivered.

“I came here to win the [Stanley] Cup. I also respect how hard it is to win,” Nill said, from his Frisco office Thursday. “Over the last five years, we’re third in playoff wins. Tampa Bay and Vegas are 1-2. Overall, we’re set up to do it. Let’s see how it plays out.”

The Stars looked like maybe they were headed for their second championship after Nill’s hiring of Pete DeBoer last summer. Having taken San Jose and New Jersey to Cup Finals, DeBoer had the Stars rolling into the postseason before Vegas stopped them in their tracks in six games. Nill admits that perhaps a tougher-than-anticipated seven-game battle with the Seattle Kraken played a part. Without a doubt, a conference finals Game 3 meltdown from captain Jamie Benn cost Dallas at least a game and possibly the series, although it’s not part of Nill’s DNA to point fingers in that direction. I’m fine doing it on my own.

Nill understands from his time in Detroit, this is all part of what can sometimes be an arduous process.

“The years we thought we were going to win in Detroit, we didn’t. The years we thought we weren’t, we did," Nill said. “You don’t get from Point A to winning the Cup. There’s a process to it."

In those five seasons in which the Stars have piled up the third-largest number of playoff wins, three teams from the West have hoisted the Cup. Dallas lost in double overtime of Game 7 to St. Louis in 2019. The Stars didn’t play the Avs in the ‘22 playoffs but beat Colorado two years earlier in the bubble and certainly had tested themselves against the division rivals. And this spring Dallas fell to Vegas in six games.

It’s great to win a bunch of playoff games. But it’s more satisfying to be one of the Western rivals that actually finished the job.

“Last year the Jake Oettingers and Wyatt Johnstons and Roope Hintzes got the feel for what it takes,” Nill said. “The year we lost double overtime I think that was the first year for Miro [Heiskanen]. That’s what keeps you climbing the ladder, going through these experiences. They’re not easy to win.”

While Nill made his mark quickly in Dallas by trading for Tyler Seguin — the rarely available experienced 21-year-old top-line center — the thing that can separate him from the pack is the 2017 draft. You don’t think about presiding over one single selection of teenagers as something likely to change your resume forever.

But with Heiskanen and Oettinger in the first round and Jason Robertson in the second, the Stars landed a true Norris Trophy candidate, a top-level goaltender and their all-time single-season scoring leader in one swoop.

“It’s amazing what one draft can do," Nill said. “You get three or four real players, and it changes the franchise."

As a result, the Stars team that bowed out in the conference finals against Vegas was honestly better than the one that lost the Final to Tampa Bay in the bubble. I understand the 2020 team achieved more. But which would you rather have in net: Oettinger at 24 or Anton Khudobin at 34?

It may even help that after nearly beating Calgary by himself a year earlier, Oettinger got knocked around in this extended playoff run. It’s one thing to hear how great you are. It’s another to still be young and talented but recognize there are more hills to climb before being anointed.

In a quiet summer, Nill added one sizable piece during free agency, essentially handing Max Domi’s role to Matt Duchene, who scored 65 goals the last two seasons with Nashville.

“Great fit, great price” is how Nill describes the signing. “I’ll stack our forwards up against any in the league."

The Stars have the pieces in place more than any other team around here. They still have to finish the job and be better than Vegas and Colorado and Seattle and, finally, someone out of the East to get it done. Nill understands that it will be mentioned to hockey fans more than once next season that the 25th anniversary of Dallas’ only Stanley Cup is next summer.

“I like where we’re headed, we’ll have to see how it plays out. Injuries play a part, player performance plays a part," Nill said. “I’ve learned through the years to respect the game. But we’re in the mix. And that’s what you want."

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