Dallas Stars Daily Links: The Stories Behind the Stars’ Jersey Numbers

Do you ever look at a Dallas Stars player and think to yourself, “I wonder why he chose that number?” Well wonder no more; Sean Shapiro and Saad Yousuf of The Athletic decided to talk to (almost) every skater on the team to find out why.

For many players, they wear their number simply because that’s what was first given to them. For others, like Jason Spezza and Tyler Seguin, it’s based off of who their favorite players were growing up:

[Spezza] I always wore No. 9. Nine was my favorite number, like as a kid, I was 9 growing up. Nine is a number that’s always retired everywhere so it’s a tricky number. So 19 because of Stevey Y [Steve Yzerman]. When I came to Dallas 19 and 91 weren’t available so 90 made sense.

...

[Seguin] I’d always been No. 9 growing up and once I made the NHL, Steve Yzerman was always my favorite player. Joe Sakic was a good player and there are a lot of good 19s out there. I said you know what, I’m gonna choose this and go for it.

Speaking of which, those two skaters are the only ones on the team with a number in the 50s or above. Stars General Manager Jim Nill explained why that is:

...for the most part, the Stars try to avoid “football numbers.”

“We like to keep lower numbers,” Nill said. “The lower the number, the better, just out of etiquette of the game a little bit.

You can read more over at The Athletic.

---

Stars Stories

ICYMI, the Stars called up former 1st round pick Denis Gurianov yesterday:

As part of some shameless self-plugging, I wrote on why Gurianov deserved the call-up about a month ago: [DefendingBigD]

...and then Wes proceeded to tell me I was dead wrong and that it was — and perhaps still is — too early. [DefendingBigD]

FYI:

I remain emphatic that the Stars did not play a game last Tuesday, but apparently Sean thinks they did, considering he wrote a 20/20 about it: [The Athletic]

The Stars will play tonight, however, against the San Jose Sharks:

---

Central Census

There were only three games yesterday, one of which was a showdown between two of the Central’s best: the Nashville Predators built upon their first place lead with a 4-1 win over the Colorado Avalanche. [On the Forecheck]

Here’s your daily reminder that the Central sucks. I mean, the teams don’t suck — most of them are quite good, actually — but being in the division does:

---

League Links

Miro Heiskanen makes a list of 10 rookies not named Elias Pettersson that you should keep an eye on this NHL season: [The Hockey News]

USA! USA!

Jason Spezza and Jim Montgomery get a shoutout in Elliotte Friedman’s latest 31 Thoughts: [Sportsnet]

This article needs more Sergei Zubov in it, but at least he gets a shoutout:

---

Finally...

Ty Dellandrea, the Stars’ most recent first round pick, has been stuck on a Flint Firebirds team that went winless for 17 straight games. Yes, that’s right: “went.”