"Hockey Will Never Work In Texas"
When you think of Texas, what's the first thing that comes to mind?
It's an obvious answer: football.
Hockey never really was big in Texas, nor is it today compared to Texas football. You've got "America's Team", the Dallas Cowboys. Everyone knows of the Texas Rangers with Nolan Ryan's success in his playing career and of the Dallas Mavericks and the German superstar, Dirk Nowitzki.
But to throw in the slogan from the Stars last season, "A New Star Is Rising" is ever so true in the North Texas area and the state of Texas.
The Stars seemingly defy the notion that hockey in the South cannont and will not work. Under the guiding vision and leadership of Stars owner, Tom Galardi, general manger Jim Nill, and president Jim Lites, along with the various amounts of people in the front office and behind the scenes, they've helped build one of the hottest products in the DFW area.
Another misconception people have is that hockey players from Texas are not good. Recent trends and NHL draft picks though have defied that train of thought as well.
Take for example, three recent draft picks that have come out of the North Texas area and are now in the NHL, whether it be on a pro roster or still with their junior clubs.
The first is the obvious star to come out of Texas, Seth Jones. Drafted fourth overall in the 2013 NHL Entry Draft, The son of former NBA star, Popeye Jones, was drafted by the Nashville Predators and is one of the mainstays on the blue line in the Music City in only his second season. In Jones' first season, he tallied six goals, nineteen assists in seventy-seven games played. Not only has he excelled in the NHL, but also on the international stage. In the 2013 World Junior Championships, Jones seven points in seven games and finished with a +8 plus-minus rating. Many believe the future is bright for the young Seth Jones, but only time will tell.
Another NHL player that many might not have heard of was born in the town of Flower Mound, Texas. Chris Brown was drafted 36th overall in the second round of the 2009 NHL Entry Draft to the Airzona (then Phoenix) Coyotes. Brown has not had a lot of NHL experience, only playing in twenty-two NHL games, including five this season for the Washingotn Capitals, who traded for him in the 2013-14 season, sending he and teammate Rostislav Klesla to Phoenix in exchange for Martin Erat and John Mitchell.
Of course, the one everyone remembers is Brian Leetch, who spent 17 of his 18 NHL seasons as a member of the New York Rangers. Little do people know that Leetch was born in Corpus Christi, Texas. Leetch played in 1,205 NHL games, scoring 247 goals, 781 assists, totalling up to 1,028 points. In his career he was a +25 in the plus-minus category, while capturing the Stanley Cup in the 1993-94 season. The Texan was also the 1988 Calder Trophy winner, and was awarded the Norris trophy twice, and the Conn Smythe trophy as the Stanely Cup Finals MVP in 1994. Easy to say, Leetch was the best hockey player to come out of the Lone Star State.
But turning our attention away from the home-grown talent, the next part of this post is going to focus on a young twenty-two year old budding superstar from Brampton, Ontario. You guessed it. Tyler Seguin.
Seguin was drafted second overall to the Boston Bruins in the 2010 NHL Entry draft and won the Stanley Cup in his first season with the team. Tyler said in his article on The Player's Tribune, "Reaching that pinnacle of hockey success in my first year was a tremendous blessing, but I almost wished it had happened later, when I could fully appreciate it."
The Bruins seemed to "give up" on Seguin, as he stated in his article, along with the cap issues they were having, which prompted Boston to move him to free up some cap space. In the summer of 2013, the Boston Bruins traded Tyler Seguin and Rich Peverley to the Stars in exchange for Loui Eriksson, Reilly Smith, and prospect Joe Morrow. In his season and a half with the Stars, he has netted an astounding 65 goals, 71 assists, and 136 points. That's one less point than Eriksson and Smith have in Boston combined over that same timespan. He's already only one career hat trick behind the Stars' all-time great Mike Modano standing at six. It's easy to say that Seguin is the hottest thing going for Dallas right now.
But is Seguin really as big as he could be if he was in a major hockey market? In some ways, it's good for the superstar, because he's settled down and become a more mature person both on and off the ice. It's a lot easier for him to fly under the radar in the football crazed state of Texas. He isn't a role player though, either. He is, to put it boldly, the face of the franchise right now, but not the "face of the NHL" as he could have possibly been if he had emerged as a superstar on the Bruins, Penguins, or any other team of the sort. Right now, he's the NHL's leading goal scorer, but isn't the top name like Sidney Crosby, Alexander Ovechkin, or Claude Giroux is. He is undoubtably up there with those players, but is not THE guy, and that's where the Texas hockey stereotypes hurt Seguin in the national spotlight.
He's the leading scorer of the league. He's an All-Star. But is he mentioned seemingly every day by NBC, the NHL Network, or TSN? No. Some still view him as that "cocky, young kid" he was in Boston, when the truth is, and he has admitted this himself, he's a much more mature man and has grown as a person with being in Dallas. But since he's not in the national spotlight like some of the other guys are, people do not see him as that, which is unfortunate for a player who has completely changed his image for the better. If the Stars and he keep trending up, my hope is one day people will relize how great of a player he is on and off the ice, but until then, he'll keep doing his thing in Dallas; scoring goals and tearing up the NHL, one game at a time.
To end this post, I'll end with the last line of Seguin's article on The Player's Tribune.
"Winning that first Stanley Cup in Boston was a dream. Now winning one for Dallas is my goal." - Tyler Seguin
