Dallas Stars Daily Links: Jamie Benn Taken Next-To-Last In All-Star Game Draft

With these words, Zdeno Chara put an end to Jamie Benn's long night backstage.

"It’s never easy to leave one guy standing, to be the last one," Chara said as he made his selection. "But Jamie really deserves to be picked because he had surgery a couple days ago and he still showed up. That’s a big credit to him. So I am picking Dallas Star Jamie Benn."

Benn was technically the last player selected in the 2012 All-Star draft as Logan Couture was given to Daniel Alfredsson's team by default.

And even though Benn had joked before the game about wanting to be the last pick to be given a free car, afterwards, he said he was happy he didn't have the lonely wait backstage.

"Coming down to the wire it was a little nerve-wracking, but fun at the same time. We’re here for a good weekend and I am looking forward to it," Benn said. "I don’t think [where you get picked] matters. I think just getting the chance to be at an All-Star game is a pretty good honor. For Zdeno to throw out a shout out there was really nice of him."

For more from Benn after the draft, check out the audio posted by the Stars here.

After the jump, a couple Stars notes from the past few days, someone found a white elephant buried under the old Maple Leaf Gardens and more fun moments from the All-Star draft.

• A teeny bit about when the Stars will be back on the ice and how coach Glen Gulutzan expects them to prepare. [DallasNews.com]
• January wasn't exactly the best month the Stars have ever had, and Mark Stepneski has all the gruesome numbers here. [ESPN Dallas]
• More glimmers of the emerging, self-deprecating Jamie Benn public personality emerge at the end of this article that was written before the All-Star draft. [NHL.com]
  
• Todd offers us his always amusing take, this time on the subject of trades. I think this was my favorite line: "Not to mention the fact that no good team trades key pieces for picks at the deadline. Mediocre teams do that sometimes, and absolutely terrible teams do it more often than you've had hot meals." [Thursday Morning Cupcheck]
• Besides, you don't really want to trade Brenden Morrow. He is teachings kids science. [New York Times]
• If you're in high school in the Dallas area and want to be a member of the sports media when you grow up, I think the Stars high school media day program is quite cool. [DallasStars.com]
• While a lot of guys are hitting the beach or the slopes over the break, fourth-line center Jake Dowell headed home to Eau Claire, Wisconsin, to visit his brother and father, who both suffer from Huntington's Disease. [WEAU]
• Checking in on the Western Conference at the midway point of the season. [The Sporting News]
• I thought this story was rather neat. While doing some work on the site of the old Maple Leaf Gardens, workers discovered a time capsule from the 1930s. That's neat, even if they aren't sure what all of the contents represent. [TSN.ca]
• Around the Pacific Division, the all-stars: Standing next to Benn waiting to be the last player picked was Logan Couture of the San Jose Sharks, and he took his last-man-standing position pretty well, all things considered. [The Globe and Mail]
  
• Around the Pacific Division, the regular season: The Sharks have also been busy boys off the ice. On Thursday, goalie Antero Niittymaki cleared waivers, and the team made a minor trade by picking up forward Tim Kennedy from the Florida Panthers for defenseman Sean Sullivan. [San Jose Mercury News/Litter Box Cats]
• I'm going to file this one under "logistical errors." Apparently the bathroom facilities were rather limited for the 46 players who were participating in the All-Star draft, so that led to some interesting revelations when the night was over. [Puck Daddy]
• Someone who might have needed to use those facilities was Carey Price, who had an interesting moment with his water when he was picked by Zdeno Chara and Joffrey Lupul. [Backhand Shelf]
• Want to know what a new owner skating with his coach, GM and all-star looks like? Tom Gaglardi gave us just that as he stopped by Frisco on Wednesday. I'm amused that everyone except him was apparently required to be in close-to-full gear while he went with the coach's sweatsuit.
  

Follow @ErinB_DBD
Follow @DefendingBigD