Remember Martin Vagner? Ivan Vishnevskiy? How about Scott Glennie, the eighth overall pick in 2009? Or pre-Toronto Jack Campbell, the first goalie taken in 2011? Or maybe pre-Cup champion Valeri Nichushkin?

Those are just a few of Dallas’ first-round picks from the 21st century that didn’t work out. In fact, from 2000-2010, Steve Ott (848 games), Mark Fistric (325) and Matt Niskanen (949) are the only first-round picks by Dallas to break the 300-game barrier. They had a bit more success in the early 2010s but still had notable misses like 2014’s Julius Honka. The 2014 Draft was a complete disaster, with Honka (87 games played) being the only player out of the nine selected to ever play in the NHL.

So, no wonder the Stars were viewed as such a mediocre squad year after year. But that’s quickly changing.

Public prospect followers have begun giving the Stars props at the draft table annually for the past few years. It consistently seems like they’re making noise no matter what. You often don’t need a ton of prospects to hit it big to start striking gold, but when you get depth throughout, that can be a game-changer. And that’s exactly where the team is right now, humming along with the Central Division lead.

It’s been a weird few years for the Stars. They ground their way to the Cup final in 2020 before missing the playoffs in 2021. They were then knocked out of the first round last year despite an incredible performance by young goaltender Jake Oettinger.

But, hold on a sec. Oettinger was taken in 2017. So was Miro Heiskanen. So was Jason Robertson. Three of the team’s most important players were selected in the first 39 picks of the 2017 draft. One is an incredible defenseman. One is a future Vezina Trophy candidate. The third is battling Connor McDavid for the NHL scoring title. Holy bleeping bleep, Batman.