Stars Jamie Benn reaches 1,000 games The chameleon has adapted many times -

When Trevor Daley thinks back to Jamie Benn’s first day in Dallas in 2009, when former Stars teammate James Neal brought the 20-year-old Benn to his house, Daley can’t help but let smile. Did the former longtime Stars defenseman know Benn eventually would become a franchise icon?

“When I saw him play, yes, but when I first saw him, absolutely not,” Daley said, breaking into laughter. “When I first met him, he still had some baby fat and I was like, ‘This guy plays hockey?’ When you watched him on the ice, I caught the play right away. Once I watched him play the game, I knew he was going to be special.”

On Monday, Benn will take the ice for his 1,000th regular-season game in a Dallas Stars sweater, becoming just the second player behind Mike Modano in franchise history to reach the milestone. The careers of the two franchise icons only briefly overlapped, when the 39-year-old Modano and the rookie Benn were teammates in 2009-10, but it was a fitting passing of the torch, even if it wasn’t known to be in the moment.

Modano, a former No. 1 overall draft pick, was the player the franchise built around when the Minnesota North Stars relocated to Dallas in 1993. Benn, a 2007 fifth-round pick, wasn’t thought of to be that caliber of a player. His arrival on the scene, though, coincided with the roughest stretch for the franchise in its history. Modano was on his way out, the Stars missed the playoffs the season prior to Benn’s arrival and they were headed for four more consecutive non-playoff seasons. The bitter cherry on top was bankruptcy, which sprung in an ownership change.

When Tom Gaglardi took over as the Stars owner, he wanted Jim Nill to be the general manager. Nill agreed to come, thanks in large part to No. 14.

“My job back then was scouting and helping build a team in Detroit,” Nill said. “Jamie Benn, a few years before (2013), took his team down in Austin to the (Calder Cup Final). We saw him play in juniors, we saw him play in minors and saw what he did. I knew he was going to be an impact player. He’s one of the reasons I made the decision to come down to Dallas (in 2013). I knew that they had a core guy to build around.”

What made Benn most appealing was the diversity in his game. Benn was branded as a power forward but when he got on the ice, he proved to be much more. Veterans such as Daley and former Stars captain Brenden Morrow were struck early by how he adapted to situations on a nightly basis, whether it was within the Stars’ lineup or against the opposition.

“He could play any style of the game you threw at him,” Daley said. “If you wanted to play a finesse game, Jamie Benn would win you an Art Ross Trophy. If you wanted to drop the gloves and fight, Jamie Benn would drop the gloves and fight Jarome Iginla. He just had that presence to him from Day 1.”

Benn could also adapt to his teammates. For the bulk of his career, he formed a lethal duo with Tyler Seguin. In 2013, the third member was often a young Valeri Nichushkin. Cody Eakin got some run with the duo, as did Patrick Eaves and Jason Spezza. Then came Alexander Radulov and for years in Dallas, Benn, Seguin and Radulov rolled off the tongue as the de facto top line.

When the top line wore out its welcome and injuries knocked out Seguin and Radulov for the 2020-21 season, Benn played with a rotating cast of forwards, including the versatile Jason Dickinson.

“He was so easy to play with,” Dickinson said. “I feel like he’s a chameleon out there. He’s able to adapt to everybody. He’s just such a smart hockey player, being able to read guys and their tendencies and able to get the most out of them. He’s also a really good communicator. He wasn’t abrasive about his approach. It was all about teaching and how can I help him get better?”

This season, Benn has helped along 19-year-old rookie Wyatt Johnston. It has been a mutually beneficial relationship, and there was a good reason why Nill and new Stars head coach Pete DeBoer made the preseason decision to pair Benn with Johnston. They wanted to give their youngest asset the best chance to succeed. Even though Benn ‘s recent years had featured diminishing productivity, his best chance at success still came with Benn by his side.

“There are times where I don’t even know how he saw me and he made a play to me,” Johnston said. “He’s an underrated playmaker, maybe just because of his size and how he plays physically and fights. That distracts people from his actual skill on the ice.”

In his 14-year career, Benn has missed a total of 45 games. Thirty-one of those 45 came in his first four seasons, when Benn was still learning how to condition himself for the NHL.

“His last year in juniors, he scored a bunch of goals but I don’t think he realized what it meant to be in shape,” Morrow said. “We were playing Vancouver (in 2011) and he separated his shoulder. It took him about three or four weeks to come back from that injury. He did conditioning and training and came back and dominated. I think that was his learning curve he needed from juniors to pro, understanding conditioning and training. He was a beast ever since then.”

Jamie Benn. (Eric Hartline / USA Today)

The 1,000-game milestone is one of Benn’s most impressive accomplishments in a career filled with them. As much as Benn could adapt to any style, he largely stayed true to his reputation as a true power forward. It took a toll on his body, not just with the hockey mileage but from the amount of wear-and-tear that came from imposing himself on the opposition and playing through numerous injuries.

Because of that style, he was already in the heads of opposing players and coaches, even before the puck dropped. DeBoer’s NHL coaching career lines up parallel to Benn’s career. DeBoer’s second year as a coach was Benn’s rookie season, and DeBoer game-planned against Benn every year since until taking the job in Dallas.

“With him, it was always, don’t piss him off,” DeBoer said. “He was always skilled and he could always score and that was always something you game-planned for, but if you also decided to poke the bear, it was going to be a long night.”

Upon arriving in Dallas, DeBoer experienced a different version of Benn. The day after a particularly rough game this season, DeBoer pulled Benn aside. DeBoer was going to run a video session with the team and knew it was going to be unflattering for everybody. DeBoer gave Benn a heads-up that he’d be using the Stars’ captain as an example in a bunch of the clips.

“If that helps us get better, you do what you have to do,” Benn told DeBoer.

As the video session began, Benn took a seat in the front row.

“There’s no agenda other than, ‘Is this going to help us win?’” DeBoer said of Benn. “’If this helps us win, I’m willing to do whatever you want done, whether that’s make an example of me, go take on someone in a fight, say the right thing between periods in the dressing room.’ That’s true leadership, when that’s your only agenda. It’s not personal statistics.

“It’s the same as when I went to him and said, ‘I’m thinking of playing you with Wyatt Johnston (in training camp). This is a guy that led the league in scoring (in 2015) and is looking to bounce back and all of a sudden, the coach is telling him you’re playing with a 19-year-old kid who has never played before in the league. He was all in. That selflessness, with the only agenda being if this helps us win, I’m all in, that’s gold for a coach.”

Benn is as well-versed as one can be in breaking in new head coaches; DeBoer is Benn’s seventh coach. But there’s a reason why each of the head coaches who came through the doors never touched the “C” on Benn’s jersey, which has been there since 2013, making him the longest-tenured captain in franchise history. His attitude behind closed doors was as adaptable as his play under the spotlight.

When Lindy Ruff wanted to play with offensive fireworks, Benn produced three of the highest-scoring seasons of his career. When Ken Hitchcock made his one-season cameo, Benn had 79 points in 82 games. When Jim Montgomery entered the NHL ranks for the first time, Benn was in the room to help bridge the gap. When Rick Bowness wanted a defensive identity, Benn bought in completely. When DeBoer asked for more offensive flow while mentoring a rookie, Benn went back to producing offensive numbers.

Benn’s statistics — the 348 goals, the 813 points, the 32 fights, the Art Ross Trophy, the 2020 Stanley Cup run — are impressive, but Benn’s leadership has arguably become his greatest legacy.

“For years, Jamie sets the tone,” Dickinson said. “When he’s on, you can see it — the rest of the team is on. Some nights he’s going to be off and you’ll notice, there’s no presence on the ice. It feels motionless and flat. He brings that emotion to everybody. As soon as you see a guy like him doing things, you automatically want to join.”

Beyond his play leading by example, Benn’s voice remains the strongest one in the Dallas locker room.

“For Jamie, it’s more quality over quantity,” former longtime teammate Brenden Dillon said. “He’s a guy that, when he does speak, everybody listens. It’s with substance, too. It’s not your clichés of, ‘Oh, we’ve got to work harder,’ or, ‘We’ve got to be better.’ It’s, ‘Hey guys, we’ve got to improve on the forecheck,’ or, ‘We’ve got to buckle down and play our roles and play our system,’ or whatever that case may be.”

Daley played under the captaincy of Modano and Morrow in Dallas before playing under Jonathan Toews in Chicago, Sidney Crosby in Pittsburgh and Henrik Zetterberg in Detroit. What he saw from Benn, as a player, teammate and captain, puts Benn in the highest ranks, in Daley’s opinion.

“He’s right up there with every one of them,” Daley said. “(Most) captains I’ve played for are Hall of Famers. He’s going to be a Hall of Famer.”

(Top photo of Jamie Benn: Jerome Miron / USA Today)

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