Meserve: The Road Was Ugly, but the Destination Mattered for the Texas Stars

(Credit: Andy Nietupski/Texas Stars)

What do you say at the end of a season like this one? It's rather strange to be happy at the way it turned out when the result is a first round exit, but we have to play the expectations game. Dallas' first round exit was a disappointment. Texas' was a success. It's all relative.

You've heard it a million times already, but let's make it 1,000,001 just for old time's sake.

These Texas Stars were not the same team that went to the Western Conference Final last May. The roster had massive turnover, as you always do when you succeed. Matěj Blümel, Justin Hryckowian, Alex Petrovic, Kyle Capobianco and even Arttu Hyry at the end of the year. They all found somewhere else to ply their trade. It's what you want to see from your development team, but those leaders and scoring were hard to replace.

Their head coach took his first NHL job, and a new face entered the coach's office for the first time since 2021 when Max Fortunus joined. In fact, it was a new face who had plenty of AHL experience but had never been a head coach anywhere before.

The roster needed surgery throughout the season. Texas jettisoned Christian Kyrou for Sam Tuomaala and Gavin White for Jeremie Poirier. And then Tuomaala needed a surgery of his own. He played all of 16 games with Texas before suffering a season-ending leg injury. While he was skating by the end of the season, it was a lost year for the Finn. Chase Wheatcroft only played eight before the end of his season due to injury.

And so it was a rough go. A really hard start to the year. 0-5-1 after six. The infamous 10-1 debacle at home against the world-beater Grand Rapids Griffins. An absolute pit of despair for the fans as they watched a promising club unable to score and a potentially banner year from Remi Poirier, who was about the only thing keeping Texas in games for the first two months, wasted because the offense ran dry.

But then... something started to click. I think you have to look at Cameron Hughes as the engine. He was rightfully a mid-season and end of season All-Star in the AHL and ended the year alone in fourth place on the Stars' all-time single-season points chart (17-51=68) behind Travis Morin, Mavrik Bourque and Blümel. 

Hughes was a key element and the driving force behind what became Texas' top line with Matthew Seminoff and Artem Shlaine. Seminoff, a guy who seemed destined for bottom-six duty for his career, found scoring touch in ways he had never shown before. Shlaine, an AHL contract out of college, blew the doors off the thing with 38 points in his rookie year.

Speaking of AHL contracts, which I am always up to do as you know, the Stars found gold in those hills with Shlaine, Jack Becker and Cross Hanas. All three on AHL contracts and sitting third, fourth and fifth in team scoring this year. Becker had the best plus/minus among forwards on the team and sat behind only defensive stalwart Michael Karow on the entire club. What a set of finds for Texas by GM Scott White. It looks like the cupboard will continue to be full in that regard as well as Ellis Rickwood, surely already signed to an AHL deal for next year but simply unannounced, scored a pair in his first game and went on to total five points in seven games overall in fourth line duty.

And speaking of the fourth line, I'm really not sure how to say it or what even there is to say right now, but it may be the end of the line in Texas for Curtis McKenzie. I'll have more words later, but the captain and Boudreau Award finalist does not have a contract for next year. It will be the end of an era if it comes to pass.

Finally, one additional shining light in the dark times (and the bright) of the season was Remi Poirier. The Stars have quite a luxury in Poirier, who seemed so locked in this year. The absolute luxury of being able see 2-on-1s or breakaways come at your goaltender and knowing that he's going to get that puck.

And so this club, scrappily and ploddingly, found its way into the playoffs. It wasn't just a fifth seed limping in. They skipped over the play-in and made it to third in a tough division.

All things equal, would they rather be waiting right now to learn the outcome of the Griffins/Moose series to gameplan for their next opponent? Definitely.

Would you, on November 15th, have been happy if I told you the Texas Stars played games into May? Also definitely.

The scene is set for a good year next year. We'll go over expiring contracts and all of the things that make up a summer here at 100 Degree Hockey. Thank you once again, as always, for your readership. Thank you for your interactions online or at the rink. 

We did a few things differently this year, including removing ads from the site. Our readership went up a decent amount after doing that, so I am happy to have made the experience better for everyone who visits our corner of the hockey world.

Thank you as well to the team and its media folks, including John Peterson, Catherine Morrison and Dylan Pescatore. Much love to the photographers who provide us with beautiful shots all year, including Andy Nietupski and Logan Foust. Thanks to Michael Delay for continuing to support independent journalism. Special shoutout to Brenda in back of house for always making sure the crew is fed.

A final thank you to the folks here who did the yeoman work every game and in between, the writing staff here at 100 Degree Hockey. Our crew here in Austin, Nicholas Kingman, Chris Chambers and Rochelle Zimmerman, were the bedrock of our coverage at the H-E-B Center and supported me and each other through 72 and beyond. The away crew, Autumn Limas and Robert Valentino, stepped into the fray whenever the team stepped on an airplane and delivered insightful and engaging coverage from afar, which is not an easy task.

Thank you to everyone, and we'll see you again soon.