But it\u2019s not about individual milestones for Benn; it\u2019s about the Stanley Cup championship that has eluded him thus far. The closest he\u2019s come was in 2019-20, when the Stars advanced to the Stanley Cup Final in the COVID-19 bubble in Edmonton but lost to the Tampa Bay Lightning in six games. They were eliminated by the Minnesota Wild in the Western Conference First Round last season in six games.<\/p>\n
It\u2019s why he\u2019s changed his workout routine and lost weight to keep pace with the younger, faster NHL players. He\u2019s also made sacrifices financially.<\/p>\n
Benn has been on a one-year contract in each of the past two seasons, for $1 million in 2025-26 and $850,000 this season. Stars general manager Jim Nill said he\u2019s sat with Benn at the end of the past two seasons to see where he is mentally and physically.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe have the good talk, and he comes back about a month later and says, \u2018No, I want to come back,\u2019\u201d Nill said. \u201cWe\u2019re in a (salary) cap situation. He understands he was paid very well, but he wants to win, so he\u2019s willing to sacrifice the salary part for the ability to give us more options to sign players. He\u2019s been a good teammate that way.<\/p>\n
\u201cHe\u2019s a little bit of a unicorn in today\u2019s game. There aren\u2019t many of those power forward guys left, and he\u2019s brought a lot to this franchise on the ice with his physicality and scoring ability. What he brings off the ice, too, is so important. He\u2019s the leader of the team. He directs the team and he\u2019s done a great job.\u201d<\/p>\n
Glen Gulutzan, who\u2019s in his second stint as Stars coach (2011-13) views Benn being a good teammate in other ways.<\/p>\n
\u201cFor me, the biggest thing with Jamie is just why he does what he does,\u201d said Gulutzan, who was hired as coach again on July 1, 2025. \u201cHe\u2019s the ultimate competitor. He just wants to win and he\u2019s here just to win, whether he plays 10 minutes, 20 minutes, power play, no power play.<\/p>\n
\u201cHe just wants to win. That\u2019s the mark of a great leader. Seeing him young and seeing him older \u2026 as an older coach, you\u2019re proud of a guy like that. He\u2019s really matured into a good human.\u201d<\/p>\n
As happy as Benn is on the ice, he\u2019s doubly so at home. His son, Knox Jay, was born April 3, 2025. Fatherhood has brought levity.<\/p>\n
\u201cThis is Year 2 with the little guy,\u201d Benn said. \u201cIt\u2019s fun coming home and just checking out mentally from hockey, to come home and be a good father and a good husband. My wife (Jessica), she\u2019s the champion. She does most of the work. She makes my life pretty easy.<\/p>\n
\u201c(Being a father) is the best. Obviously, they don\u2019t know — win or lose, they\u2019re always super happy. It\u2019s a lot of fun coming home to a happy kid who just loves you, and vice versa. Time off, there\u2019s no laying on the couch. It\u2019s mini hockey, it\u2019s baseball, it\u2019s anything that keeps you on your feet.\u201d<\/p>\n
Benn will have more time with his family soon enough. For now, he knows he must relish every moment, unaware how much longer his playing days will last.<\/p>\n
\u201cWhen you\u2019re younger, you just enjoy playing the game, and then the older you get the more you appreciate the game,\u201d he said. \u201cYou can\u2019t play this game forever. As I\u2019ve gotten older, I\u2019ve really enjoyed coming to the rink every day and putting in the work and having a lot of fun with these guys.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"But it\u2019s not about individual milestones for Benn; it\u2019s about the Stanley Cup championship that has eluded him…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":934758,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[556],"tags":[64,63,575,85],"class_list":["post-934757","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-nhl","tag-au","tag-australia","tag-nhl","tag-sports"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/934757","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=934757"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/934757\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/934758"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=934757"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=934757"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=934757"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}