# 2008–09 Dallas Stars season

The 2008–09 Dallas Stars season was the 42nd season for the National Hockey League franchise that was established on June 5, 1967. The Stars attempted to win the Stanley Cup for the second time in franchise history but the Stars would end the season missing the Stanley Cup playoffs for the first time since 2002 having missed the 2009 playoffs by eight points.

## Pre-season

The Stars finished the pre-season with a 1-5-1 record.

## Regular season

The Stars finished the regular season having scored the fewest shorthanded goals in the NHL, with just two.
On February 6, 2009, the Stars defeated the New York Rangers at home by a score of 10–2. It was the first time that the Stars had scored 10 goals in a game since they defeated the San Jose Sharks at home by a score of 10–3 on November 28, 1992, when the franchise was still based in Minnesota.
On April 4, 2009, Trevor Daley scored just 16 seconds into the overtime period to give the Stars a 5–4 home win over the St. Louis Blues. It would prove to be the fastest overtime goal scored during the 2008–09 regular season.

### Divisional standings

Pacific Division :
| | | GP | W | L | OTL | GF | GA | Pts |
| 1 | p – San Jose Sharks | 82 | 53 | 18 | 11 | 257 | 204 | 117 |
| 2 | Anaheim Ducks | 82 | 42 | 33 | 7 | 245 | 238 | 91 |
| 3 | Dallas Stars | 82 | 36 | 35 | 11 | 230 | 257 | 83 |
| 4 | Phoenix Coyotes | 82 | 36 | 39 | 7 | 208 | 252 | 79 |
| 5 | Los Angeles Kings | 82 | 34 | 37 | 11 | 207 | 234 | 79 |
Note: No. = Division rank, CR = Conference rank, W = Wins, L = Losses, T = Ties, GF = Goals For, GA = Goals Against, Pts = Points
 Teams that qualified for the playoffs are highlighted in bold.

### Conference standings

Western Conference :
| R | | Div | GP | W | L | OTL | GF | GA | Pts |
| 1 | p – San Jose Sharks | PA | 82 | 53 | 18 | 11 | 257 | 204 | 117 |
| 2 | y – Detroit Red Wings | CE | 82 | 51 | 21 | 10 | 295 | 244 | 112 |
| 3 | y – Vancouver Canucks | NW | 82 | 45 | 27 | 10 | 246 | 220 | 100 |
| 4 | Chicago Blackhawks | CE | 82 | 46 | 24 | 12 | 264 | 216 | 104 |
| 5 | Calgary Flames | NW | 82 | 46 | 30 | 6 | 254 | 248 | 98 |
| 6 | St. Louis Blues | CE | 82 | 41 | 31 | 10 | 233 | 233 | 92 |
| 7 | Columbus Blue Jackets | CE | 82 | 41 | 31 | 10 | 226 | 230 | 92 |
| 8 | Anaheim Ducks | PA | 82 | 42 | 33 | 7 | 245 | 238 | 91 |
| 8.5 ||||||||||
| 9 | Minnesota Wild | NW | 82 | 40 | 33 | 9 | 219 | 200 | 89 |
| 10 | Nashville Predators | CE | 82 | 40 | 34 | 8 | 213 | 233 | 88 |
| 11 | Edmonton Oilers | NW | 82 | 38 | 35 | 9 | 234 | 248 | 85 |
| 12 | Dallas Stars | PA | 82 | 36 | 35 | 11 | 230 | 257 | 83 |
| 13 | Phoenix Coyotes | PA | 82 | 36 | 39 | 7 | 208 | 252 | 79 |
| 14 | Los Angeles Kings | PA | 82 | 34 | 37 | 11 | 207 | 234 | 79 |
| 15 | Colorado Avalanche | NW | 82 | 32 | 45 | 5 | 199 | 257 | 69 |
bold – qualified for playoffs, y – division winner, p – Presidents' Trophy winner CE – Central Division, NW – Northwest Division, PA – Pacific Division

## Schedule and results

2008–09 Game Log :
Legend:
  Win (2 points)
  Loss (0 points)
  Overtime/shootout loss (1 point) :

## Playoffs

The Dallas Stars failed to qualify for the 2009 NHL playoffs.

## Player statistics
### Skaters

Regular season :
| Player | GP | G | A | Pts | +/− | PIM |
| Mike Ribeiro | 82 | 22 | 56 | 78 | -4 | 52 |
| Loui Eriksson | 82 | 36 | 27 | 63 | +14 | 14 |
| Brad Richards | 56 | 16 | 32 | 48 | -4 | 6 |
| Mike Modano | 80 | 15 | 31 | 46 | -13 | 46 |
| Steve Ott | 64 | 19 | 27 | 46 | +3 | 135 |
| James Neal | 77 | 24 | 13 | 37 | -11 | 51 |
| Matt Niskanen | 80 | 6 | 29 | 35 | -11 | 52 |
| Fabian Brunnstrom | 55 | 17 | 12 | 29 | -8 | 8 |
| Stephane Robidas | 72 | 3 | 23 | 26 | +10 | 76 |
| Trevor Daley | 75 | 7 | 18 | 25 | +2 | 73 |
| Jere Lehtinen | 48 | 8 | 16 | 24 | +1 | 8 |
| Brenden Morrow | 18 | 5 | 10 | 15 | -4 | 49 |
| Mark Parrish | 44 | 8 | 5 | 13 | -3 | 18 |
| Darryl Sydor$^†$ | 65 | 2 | 11 | 13 | -2 | 16 |
| Chris Conner | 38 | 3 | 10 | 13 | -5 | 10 |
| Nicklas Grossmann | 81 | 2 | 10 | 12 | -8 | 51 |
| Toby Petersen | 57 | 4 | 7 | 11 | +1 | 14 |
| Sean Avery$^‡$ | 23 | 3 | 7 | 10 | +2 | 77 |
| Brendan Morrison$^†$ | 19 | 6 | 3 | 9 | +3 | 16 |
| Brian Sutherby$^†$ | 42 | 5 | 4 | 9 | -5 | 52 |
| Krys Barch | 72 | 4 | 5 | 9 | +1 | 133 |
| Landon Wilson | 27 | 2 | 6 | 8 | +5 | 21 |
| Joel Lundqvist | 43 | 1 | 5 | 6 | -9 | 20 |
| Andrew Hutchinson$^†$ | 38 | 2 | 3 | 5 | -4 | 12 |
| B. J. Crombeen$^‡$ | 15 | 1 | 4 | 5 | -1 | 26 |
| Sergei Zubov | 10 | 0 | 4 | 4 | -4 | 0 |
| Mark Fistric | 36 | 0 | 4 | 4 | -1 | 42 |
| Philippe Boucher$^‡$ | 16 | 0 | 3 | 3 | -4 | 15 |
| Tom Wandell | 14 | 1 | 2 | 3 | -1 | 4 |
| Steve Begin$^†$ | 20 | 1 | 1 | 2 | -1 | 15 |
| Garrett Stafford | 3 | 0 | 2 | 2 | 0 | 0 |
| Ivan Vishnevskiy | 3 | 0 | 2 | 2 | +1 | 2 |
| Doug Janik$^‡$ | 13 | 0 | 1 | 1 | -2 | 2 |
| Raymond Sawada | 5 | 1 | 0 | 1 | -1 | 0 |
| Dan Jancevski | 3 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 |

### Goaltenders

Regular season :
| Player | GP | Min | W | L | OT | GA | GAA | SA | SV | Sv% | SO |
| Marty Turco | 74 | 4327 | 33 | 31 | 10 | 203 | 2.81 | 1993 | 1790 | .898 | 3 |
| Tobias Stephan | 10 | 437 | 1 | 3 | 1 | 27 | 3.70 | 208 | 181 | .870 | 0 |
| Matt Climie | 3 | 185 | 2 | 1 | 0 | 9 | 2.92 | 85 | 76 | .894 | 0 |
| Brent Krahn | 1 | 20 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 3 | 9.00 | 9 | 6 | .667 | 0 |
$^†$Denotes player spent time with another team before joining Stars. Stats reflect player's season totals. $^‡$Traded mid-season Bold/italics denotes franchise record

## Awards and records
### Milestones

Regular Season :
| Player | Milestone | Reached |
| James Neal | 1st NHL Game 1st NHL Goal 1st NHL Point | October 10, 2008 |
| Fabian Brunnstrom | 1st NHL Game 1st NHL Goal 1st NHL Point 1st NHL Hat Trick | October 15, 2008 |
| James Neal | 1st NHL Assist | October 15, 2008 |
| Fabian Brunnstrom | 1st NHL Assist | October 20, 2008 |
| Mike Ribeiro | 300th NHL Point | October 23, 2008 |
| B. J. Crombeen | 1st NHL Goal | October 25, 2008 |
| Joel Lundqvist | 100th NHL Game | October 25, 2008 |
| Stephane Robidas | 500th NHL Game | October 31, 2008 |

## Transactions
### Trades

| Date | Details | Details |
| November 16, 2008 | To Pittsburgh Penguins Philippe Boucher | To Dallas Stars Darryl Sydor |
| November 30, 2008 | To Tampa Bay Lightning Lauri Tukonen | To Dallas Stars Andrew Hutchinson |
| December 14, 2008 | To Anaheim Ducks David McIntyre Conditional pick in 2009$^1$ | To Dallas Stars Brian Sutherby |
| February 26, 2009 | To Montreal Canadiens Doug Janik | To Dallas Stars Steve Begin |
* Condition not satisfied.

### Free agents

| Player | Former team | Contract Terms |
| Sean Avery | New York Rangers | 4 years, $15.5 million |
| Player | New team |
| Niklas Hagman | Toronto Maple Leafs |
| Nolan Baumgartner | Vancouver Canucks |
| Antti Miettinen | Minnesota Wild |
| Brad Winchester | St. Louis Blues |
| Byrce Lampman | Amur Khabarovsk |
| Johan Holmqvist | Frölunda HC |
| Lauri Tukonen | Ilves |

### Waivers

| Player | Former team | New team | Date claimed off waivers |
| Doug Janik | Chicago Blackhawks | Dallas Stars | October 2 |
| Sean Avery | Dallas Stars | New York Rangers | March 3, 2009 |
| Brendan Morrison | Anaheim Ducks | Dallas Stars | March 4, 2009 |

### Retired

| Player | Date retired |
| Mattias Norstrom | June 10, 2008 |
| Stu Barnes | August 8, 2008 |

## Draft picks

The Stars' picks at the 2008 NHL Entry Draft in Ottawa, Ontario.
| Round | # | Player | Position | Nationality | College/Junior/Club team (League) |
| 2 | 59 | Tyler Beskorowany | (G) | Canada | Owen Sound Attack (OHL) |
| 3 | 89 | Scott Winkler | (C) | Norway | Cedar Rapids RoughRiders (USHL) |
| 5 | 149 | Philip Larsen | (D) | Denmark | Frölunda HC (Elitserien) |
| 6 | 176 (from Montreal) | Matthew Tassone | (C) | Canada | Swift Current Broncos (WHL) |
| 7 | 209 | Mike Bergin | (D) | Canada | Smiths Falls Bears (CJHL) |