The Dallas Stars have had some success this season grabbing useful players off of the league's scrap heap, and turning them into core contributors both on the ice and in the locker room. Sheldon Souray went from the Edmonton Oilers' doghouse, to the AHL's Hershey Bears, to being placed on re-entry waivers and finally being bought out. This summer, he signed on with the Dallas Stars in hopes of reclaiming his career, and now he is one of the Dallas entries to the NHL All-Star ballot.

Eric Nystrom had a similar route to Dallas, being passed over by every NHL team on both waivers and re-entry waivers before the Minnesota Wild traded him to Dallas in a strictly financial move to help us reach the salary floor. He now sits tied for the team lead in goals scored, and is a central figure in one of the best checking lines in Dallas Stars history.

Bargain bin shopping isn't exactly a new phenomenon for this club. Yesterday, I discussed the top 5 best reclamation projects in team history. In the second part of this two-part retrospective, I'll discuss the top 5 biggest misses.

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The Dallas Stars have had some success this season grabbing useful players off of the league's scrap heap, and turning them into core contributors both on the ice and in the locker room. Sheldon Souray went from the Edmonton Oilers' doghouse, to the AHL's Hershey Bears, to being placed on re-entry waivers and finally being bought out. This summer, he signed on with the Dallas Stars in hopes of reclaiming his career, and now he is one of the Dallas entries to the NHL All-Star ballot.

Eric Nystrom had a similar route to Dallas, being passed over by every NHL team on both waivers and re-entry waivers before the Minnesota Wild traded him to Dallas in a strictly financial move to help up reach the salary floor. He now sits tied for the team lead in goals scored, and is a central figure in one of the best checking lines in Dallas Stars history.

Bargain bin shopping isn't exactly a new phenomenon for this club. In this two-part retrospective, I'll discuss the top 5 hits and top 5 misses in the Stars attempts at reclaiming faltering careers.

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In recent years I've often felt that we as a collective fan base for the Dallas Stars look back a little too often on the team's past; more specifically on the late 90's / early 00's during the team's true glory days that netted the franchise it's first (and so far only) Stanley Cup.  After all, it's been more than 10 years since that fateful day in June 1999 and while pointing to the Cup banner (both the actual one in the real arena and the replica one I have in my own home) was nice for the first five years or so, I think fans should be more focused on the here-and-now if not future of a club.

But with the recent nominations of Joe Nieuwendyk and Ed Belfour to the hockey hall of fame it's gotten me to think of that past of course and how the Stars really have never truly honored that period in time.  Sure it was one Stanley Cup and it was won 12 years ago which kinda feels like ages past, but ask fans of the Vancouver Canucks or Toronto Maple Leafs or San Jose Sharks and I am sure they'd do anything (in Vancouver's case, maybe riot) for a chance to point to a Stanley Cup victory within the last two decades of existence.

Knowing that, it has dawned on me - and I'm sure I'm not the only one who feels this way - that the Stars franchise has never properly honored the past and the magnificent players who once wore the golden star on their chest.  Sure there was the reunion in 2007 during all-star weekend in Dallas, but beyond that?

That's why with the calls to the hall that GM Joe and Crazy Eddie have received, it's the perfect time and excuse to start making up for that lack of honoring by retiring some numbers, specifically those numbers worn by players who have been named to the hockey hall of fame and have made a significant impact on the Stars franchise during their time with Dallas.

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There have been 16 seasons of Dallas Stars hockey and while granted the last two haven't been all that fun to suffer through, Stars fans really can't complain a whole lot as the team has made the playoffs 12 of those 16 seasons.  True, some of those playoff runs ended far too early for any of our liking, but consider this:  In that same time span of 16 seasons, the San Jose Sharks have made the playoff 13 times and yet are still behind the Stars in terms of total amount of playoff series victories as the Sharks have only managed 11 series wins while the Stars have 14.

I think we can all agree, Stars fans have been spoiled a tiny bit which makes the current issues and struggles this team is going through that much tougher to take, but that's a whole other discussion for another time... Right now lets look at the past and remember five of the best - or most enjoyable as it were - seasons the Stars have had since moving to Dallas! (Sorry 1991 and 1981..)

#5 Best Stars Season - 2002 / 03

In sports there is always a lot of "woulda" "coulda" and shoulda" to go around, but to me the 2002/03 season was the biggest one the Stars will maybe ever have.  Finished first in the Pacific with a record of 46 wins, 17 losses, 15 ties and 4 overtime losses.  The team boasted six twenty goal scorers (Jere Lehtinen, Jason Arnott, Scott Young, Bill Guerin, Mike Modano and Brenden Morrow) - a feat that had never been done before in Stars history or since until this previous season's version of the Stars.  Marty Turco set a league record for lowest Goals Against Average in the modern NHL era (1.72).  Derian Hatcher had a monster season gaining Norris trophy attention and ended up earning a place as NHL 2nd team all-star.  Lehtinen also earned his third Selke trophy.  In the playoffs, the Stars dispatched the Edmonton Oilers in six games, but that grueling series along with meeting up with uber-hot goalie J.S. Giguere and the Mighty Ducks in round two was their undoing.    A tough way to end a season and one of the biggest "what ifs" in Dallas sports history.

Numbers four to one (you'll only need one guess to pick number one of course) after the jump!

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Tuesday, the last few pillars holding up the roof on the first Texas home of the Stars came crashing down (for some reason, I'm not able to embed the video into this post).

Since 1980, it also hosted an NBA expansion franchise known as the Dallas Mavericks, an indoor soccer team known as the Dallas Sidekicks, the SWC Men's Basketball Tournament, a Republican National Convention in 1984, an NBA All Star Game in 1986, a Final Four in 1988, and the WCT Tennis Tournament (which forced Game 5 of the Mavericks' first ever playoff series against Seattle to be moved to Moody Coliseum back in the spring of 1984)

TheBigAndTheBrown has his favorite Reunion Arena-era memories posted over at our sister site, Mavs Moneyball. But the Stars were able to fill the barn with quite a few of their own memories in the eight years that they called the building their own.

After the jump, I'll post my Top 5 memories, which was hard to choose as you can imagine. Quite probable it'll spark a little debate as well.

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[Note by Brandon Worley] I'd like to take this chance to formally welcome Mike Russo to Defending Big D. Mike has been part of the team for a while now helping us out behind the scenes, but every now and then he'll supply us with some good commentary and opinion as a special guest contributor. Mike is a former sports journalist and feature writer. He resides in Rochester, New York.

I'm not that guy. You know, the one who brags when his favorite team wins a championship. Actually, I never had the opportunity to be that guy - until the Stars took the Stanley Cup 10 years ago. Unfortunately, my bragging rights were severely compromised by Brett Hull's controversial, Game Six, triple overtime Cup clincher. You know the one.

Truth be told, as someone who lives less than an hour from downtown Buffalo, the victory by my beloved Stars had an asterisk next to it the size of a Jerry Jones TV set. "Great", I remember muttering to myself. "I can't even enjoy it." At least, not as much as I would had Hull scored on an unscreened slapshot from the blue line. No muss, no fuss.

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Every day this summer (well almost every day anyway...) Defending Big D will count down the greatest players in franchise history (both Dallas and Minnesota), based on the sweater number they wore. Keep coming back for a look at who's the best in Stars history. For a recap on the list so far, click here.

So as I looked over all the players who wore number 27, it struck me that there really was no one that stood out from the rest of the field.  Two players in particular caught my eye - one for his brief stay with fairly decent offensive numbers and the other for his fisticuffs skills.  In the end I couldn't pick between either guy, so I decided to go with both!

#27 - Brian MacLellan

The gifted left winger had already spent four seasons in the NHL - mostly with the Los Angeles Kings and very briefly with the New York Rangers before being traded to the North Stars before the start of the 1986 / 87 season. Despite having size at 6 foot 3 and 220 pounds, Brian was more of a finesse player and did lack a little bit in the overall defensive part of his game.  But his offensive skills - both even strength and on the power play - were what made MacLellan a valuable part of the team.

He instantly fit in with Minnesota as he racked up a career high in goals with 32.  His 63 points that season was good for second on the team behind Dino Cicerelli.  The next season his goal scoring totals dropped off a bit as he finished with 16 on the season which wasn't too bad considering he was used mostly as a 2nd line - and some times 3rd line - winger.  Just like his first season in Minnesota, nearly half his goals came on the power play (13 in 87 / 97 and 7 in 87 / 88) and those two seasons he also showed he had a knack for scoring in the clutch with 9 game winning goals.

He was again having a solid season in 88 / 89 even if the team itself was hitting rock bottom standings wise.  He amassed 16 goals and 39 points in 60 games played before being traded that season at the deadline to the Calgary Flames to help with their Stanley Cup push and ended up winning a ring with them.

Brian never saw the playoffs in his time with the North Stars, but he did finish his stint in Minnesota with 66 goals and 86 assists ( 152 points total) in 211 games played with the club.  Ironically when he was traded to Calgary one of the players the North Stars got in return also wore #27 and became a solid part of that team's history (not to mention the second choice of our pick at number 27.)

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You thought we had forgot about this series?  Guess again! After a bit of a break we're ready to resume our countdown of the greatest Stars by numbers (you can see the recap of the list by clicking here) and we start today with 28 and in the days leading up to the first exhibition games expect a wave of player recaps!

#28 - Steve Christoff

Perhaps best known more for being a member of the 1980 Miracle On Ice USA team than a solid professional player, Christoff joined the Minnesota North Stars after the Olympics and stayed with the team over the next three seasons from 1980 to 1982.

The Springfield, Illinos native played his collegate hockey and won an NCAA National title with the Minnesota State Golden Gophers and was already a very familiar name with Minnesota hockey fans by the time he was drafted by the Stars in the second round of the 1978 draft.  By the time he joined the Stars in 1980 his name was well known to all American hockey fans as he was a full-time member and key part of the gold medal winning 1980 US team and he didn't disappoint when he made the jump to the pros as he scored eight goals and seven assists in the final 20 games of the North Stars regular season.  He also added another eight goals in the Stars 1980 playoff effort which at that time was a team record for playoff goals scored by a rookie.

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