Image: Mike Modano statue Dallas
Dallas Stars legend Mike Modano surely likes what his old team is up to these days.
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Four major sports franchises in North Texas are worth billions of dollars in total, including the single most valuable sports franchise on Earth. However, the least valuable local team is the one that the others should model themselves after.
According to Forbes, the Dallas Cowboys are worth $10.1 billion. No other franchise in any sport is worth more than $8.8 billion. And yet, at least until very recently, the Cowboys would be voted the local team run the poorest. Unless you’ve been in a fruitcake-induced coma since Christmas, however, the Dallas Mavericks have, at least temporarily, claimed that prize after the shocking Luka Doncic trade and ensuing fallout that has seen the team become the league’s biggest joke. But, lest we forget, the Mavs do have a title in the last 15 years that we remember fondly.
The Texas Rangers finally won a World Series in 2023 and have a promising 2025 ahead. Team GM Chris Young has built a team with a high level of homegrown youth, big-money veterans acquired through free agency, and perhaps a deep starting rotation for the first time ever. With that stated, you can argue the Rangers are the best-run local team, but I will not argue that. Which franchise gets my vote for the best-run team in North Texas? The Dallas Stars.
The local hockey club doesn’t appear on the Forbes list, but CNBC recently reported that the Stars' value is $1.9 billion, which puts them in the middle of the NHL. That total is but a fraction of what the Cowboys are valued at, and, yes, it is this team that hasn’t won a league title since that magical summer of 1999.
It might sound odd at first to suggest that the Mavericks and the Cowboys should look at and learn something from a team that hasn't won a title in decades and doesn’t have the value they do. However, with the recent acquisition of a Top 10 NHL player in Mikko Rantanen from the Carolina Hurricanes, the Stars have yet again proven they are local leaders regarding how a franchise should be run.
Make no mistake, the Dallas Stars are here to contend now and on into the future, and I invite you to hop aboard right now.
Jim Nill has been the Stars’ general manager since 2013. In the past two years alone, he’s won back-to-back Jim Gregory General Manager of the Year awards. In the past five seasons, his team has played in three Conference Finals and a Stanley Cup Final, and they are poised to once again make a deep playoff run in the coming months. This team has had an open championship window for a handful of years, and that window isn’t some tiny little prison cell window; it’s a full-length floor-to-ceiling window, exposing a blast of the brightest, most promising light.
Why? Like the Cowboys, the Stars believe in drafting and developing young players. But unlike the Cowboys, Nill and his staff also identify players on other teams that have developed and are aggressive in acquiring talent in any way possible to better their squad now and later. Oh, here's a novel idea: The Stars also lock up their young talent on team-friendly deals early in their careers that benefit both parties involved well in the future. New team superstar Mikko Rantanen is a fantastic example of just that.
Rantanen is currently just 28 years old and at the beginning of his prime playing years. He had played most of his career with the Colorado Avalanche, winning a Stanley Cup with them in 2022 while registering 25 points in 20 playoff games. The Finnish star has multiple 100-point seasons to his credit, while his new team has only had one 100-point season ever with Jason Robertson in 2023. Rantanen’s career high for goals is 55, which would tie the Stars' all-time franchise record. Even better, he has 101 points in 81 career playoff games.
This is an elite, big, physical goal scorer with the experience of winning a Cup and a long resume of scoring big-time goals.
Colorado couldn’t agree on a contract extension with him, then stunned him by trading him to the Carolina Hurricanes in January. Once again, he couldn’t agree on a long-term contract, and rather than risk losing him this summer as a free agent for nothing in return, Carolina traded him to the Stars last week.
To be sure, the price was not cheap. Not only did adding the winger cost Dallas prized prospect Logan Stankoven, a former first-round pick with a bright future in the NHL and is just 22 years old, but it also cost them two future first-round picks and two future third-round picks. Let’s not forget about the contract extension of $12 million per year for the next eight years. With that move, Rantanen became the highest-paid Star in franchise history before he ever stepped foot on the ice in a victory green sweater.
But that’s the price it takes to acquire a player of his caliber and experience. And it's a brilliant move by the Stars' front office that vaulted them to the front of sports betting books as the favorite to skate the Cup this June.
Trading for and locking up Rantanen through the 2033 season means the Stars have an extremely talented core together for years to come. That’s what the best-run franchises do. Identify your talent, secure it, and open a wide window for championship contention.
Goalie Jake Oettinger is only now entering his prime at age 26, and the Stars extended him back in October of ’24 to secure his services through the 2033 season. Roope Hintz, already with multiple 30-goal seasons, is just 28 years old and is locked in through 2031. Wyatt Johnston, only in his third season, is well on his way to a second straight 30-goal season. He was signed to an extension the same day the team traded for Rantanen. Two of the team’s best three defensemen, Miro Heiskanen and Esa Lindell, are under contract through 2029 and 2030, respectively, and their other top defenseman, Thomas Harley, should get a contract extension offered next season.
If you’re following along at home, that’s three top-scoring forwards, three top defensemen, and their all-star goalie, who are all secure for the next handful of seasons. The core of this team is together and will continue to be one of the annual Stanley Cup contenders for the next few years. Will they finally get over the hump and bring Dallas their first title since 1999? Only time will tell. But, with smart moves in free agency to add affordable pieces around the core, like Matt Duchene, and young talent developed through the system, like former draft picks Mavrik Bourque, Oskar Back, and Lian Bischel, it’s a very bright time to be a Dallas Stars fan. Clearly, they are a shining example to a couple of other local teams of how things should be done.
If you’re frustrated at the Cowboys for their continued inaction in free agency or as pissed-off as I am that the Mavericks gave away a generational talent, then turn your attention to the Dallas Stars if you haven’t already. They’ve been doing it right for years and have set themselves, and all of us, up for an inspiring summer on the ice.
After all these years, it is safe to chant the way we all did in 1999 when Mike Modano and his trophy-winning crew took down the Buffalo Sabres: “We want the Cup! We want the Cup!”