The Remarkable Consistency of the Texas Stars

Texas wins it all in St. John's (Credit: Colin Peddle)

On Sunday, March 23, the Texas Stars qualified for the postseason for the 11th time in 14 chances^✝. It tied a team record for the earliest clinch. 

Since its founding in 2009, Texas has never missed the playoffs in consecutive seasons and has taken three trips to the Calder Cup Finals. With a handful of games left, Texas is also in pole position to win their division for the fourth time in team history.

Can we just stop for a second and talk about how incredible that is?

I was curious about how truly uncommon the success that Texas has had is across the league. I enlisted the stats help of Jason Chaimovitch, the league's VP of Communications, to put the Stars' success in context. "Chaimo", as many call him, and I joked during the 2018 Calder Cup Finals that we'd see him again in 2022 in Cedar Park when Texas would inevitably continue its every-four-years cycle to the Finals. 

Since Texas entered the AHL in the 2009-10 season, they are tied for second place in playoff appearances across the league. You can see the stats below.

AHL Teams by playoff appearances since 2010 with trophies representing Cup wins
and second place medals representing Finals runners up.

The other really great factor for the team and its fans is that Texas has not been qualifying by the skin of its teeth and getting bounced in the first round for those ten appearances. The Stars trail only powerhouse Hershey in terms of the number of appearances in the Calder Cup Finals since 2010, where those same two teams met in the final dance in Texas' inaugural year.

What is it about this team that has made them so successful for 16 year now? With five head coaches and hundreds of players, it's not a system or a single franchise talent who has pulled them along for over a decade and a half.

First of all, the Texas Stars have had one general manager in team history. The same guy who opened the doors on Day 1 and signed eventual franchise pillars Greg Rallo and Travis Morin to AHL PTOs is still at the helm. Scott White parlayed success here into an assistant GM gig with Dallas, where he now resides. Part of the appeal of having Texas three hours away is the fact that this arrangement can work. White lives in Dallas but makes it down for tons of Texas home games every season. He has probably stopped at Buc-ee's more times this year than you have in your lifetime.

Then rookie, now captain, Curtis McKenzie and franchise legend, now assistant coach, Travis Morin enjoying an adult beverage. (Credit: Colin Peddle)

The consistent leadership and approach demonstrated by having the same person at the helm for that long is a massive boon. White has also demonstrated a knack for finding AHL free agents who become NHL contracted players. I joked with him recently while discussing ATOs that it wouldn't be his team if there wasn't at least one ATO from a university in Michigan. He laughed, but he also signed Artem Shlaine, who started his college career at Northern Michigan, just two weeks later.

The other consistent leadership element that can't be overstated is Jim Nill, of course, and the work he does to infuse the entire organization top to bottom with his management style. Just this week, we learned, from the inimitable Sean Shapiro, about how Justin Hryckowian decided to come to Dallas, and ultimately Texas, because of the personal touch that the team put in when they visited Boston two years ago to reach out and connect him with Joe Pavelski.

As much as Dallas is a free agent magnet due to its friendly climate and no-state-tax status, the same can be said for Cedar Park. You can pretty much guarantee that someone on the team is going to be on the links anytime there's a two-day gap in the home schedule. The fact that you can do that in January is also enviable. At one point, the aforementioned Scott White told me that part of their free agent recruiting strategy was trying to get cold-weather, cross-conference AHL teams to play in Cedar Park in January. It's a persuasive argument, for sure, when you're leaving snow on the ground to wear shorts on off days.

Maxime Fortunus with his son in 2014. (Credit: Michael Connell)

The other element of free agent magnet status is, at least in Texas, the family atmosphere that has developed. Curtis McKenzie, Gavin Bayreuther and Alex Petrovic, among others, have all talked to me extensively about their options to go elsewhere and the fact that the family-friendly vibes in the Stars locker room were part of their decision to raise their family here in Central Texas. For what it's worth, the current coaching staff also has a lot of younger kids. For anyone who is or has been in that place, you know that having someone in the same stage of life as you gives instant empathy and connection. How many times have I been at a birthday party for my oldest and been able to connect with someone of the mundane aspects of parenting? It may seem silly, but when you need 23+ guys to act as one, anything helps.

There are a ton of other aspects, but the last one I'll mention is this: winning breeds winning.

When I visited Neil Graham in 2017 when he was in Boise, we talked about the (to me at least) absolutely wild fact that all ECHL contracts are one-year deals. How is it possible that all ECHL contracts are one-year deals and certain teams, including Idaho, just seem to reload every single year and compete?

Well, winning breeds winning. If you're a top player on a bottom feeder team that misses the postseason, your options are more limited for your next contract. If you are on a successful team, you have more possibilities. Yes, Idaho may see big churn year over year but they reload because a lot of those guys are going to bigger contracts in Europe or getting an AHL deal that they didn't get offered the prior year.

Winners want to play with winners and winning helps you win more. It's a bit hackneyed, but it's true. Just look at some of those teams on the chart above. The places where they win, continue to win.

Of course, as it says in the locker room and as you must be sick of hearing me write by now, "We Win Here".^‡

✝ - Texas has played 16 seasons in the AHL. For this analysis we have removed 2020 and 2021, as the Calder Cup was not awarded in either year due to the COVID-19 pandemic.
‡ - No, this article was not a shameless excuse to plug the book, but hey, you're here now sooooo......