Dallas Stars legend Mike Modano and his family watch video during the unveiling ceremony of his statue at the American Airlines Center, Saturday, March 16, 2024, in Dallas,
Chitose Suzuki/Staff Photographer
ST. PAUL, Minn. — There’s no shortage of history between Dallas and Minnesota, and nobody knows that better than Mike Modano.
The Hockey Hall of Famer, who led the Stars to their lone Stanley Cup title in 1999, played in both cities and moved with the Minnesota North Stars to Dallas in 1993.
Article continues below this ad
He is known as one of the greatest players of all time, as the league’s leading goal-scorer among Americans. His legendary career is commemorated outside American Airlines Center on PNC Plaza with a statue unveiled in 2024 across from Mavericks legend Dirk Nowitzki. His No. 9 has been hanging in the arena’s rafters since 2014.
After his playing career ended, Modano returned to Minnesota and joined the Wild as an executive adviser in 2019, working alongside GM Bill Guerin in hockey operations.
As his former team and current employer face off in the first round of the Stanley Cup playoffs, Modano spoke with The Dallas Morning News to discuss the series, the intertwined hockey history between the two cities and his thoughts on the current Dallas Stars roster.
Make Dallas News a preferred source so your search results prioritize writing by actual people, not AI.
Add Preferred Source
(This interview has been edited and condensed for clarity.)
Article continues below this ad
What has it been like being a part of a series where you have such close ties to both teams?
Modano: “Well, it’s tough. It’s hard. Obviously, there’s history in both cities. I feel, with Minnesota, there will always be an emotional or sentimental tie to them, seeing that that was the start of my career, and I started in Minnesota with the fans and the people there. But business and life changes and things happen and you end up being in Dallas, playing there and moving there, which we never thought in a million years would have happened, but it did.
“You try to go down there and make the best of it because you know you’re there for a while, so that was kind of my mindset going down to Dallas is just to kind of have fun, try to sell the game, create some type of entertainment. One thing led to another, and our team started having some very good success. We won, and a lot of things happened personally for me there with the Stanley Cup and the jersey and the statue.
“It’s a bit of a back-and-forth thing, but I would love to see a great series. My loyalty, at the moment, is with Minnesota and the opportunity to work here and obviously being part of the hiring crew that helped [Wild GM] Billy Guerin get here, so that had a little bit of excitement to it that you’ve got a guy here that’s changed the complexion and culture of the organization here. I had a little bit of involvement there.”
Article continues below this ad
How have the Minnesota fans gone from loving you, to resenting you when you left, to embracing you once again when you joined the Wild in 2019?
Modano: “I think that was always the sensitive part of that whole time was that we never thought we would move. I think a lot of us players were frustrated that we didn’t have the support. We all felt like the city maybe just didn’t want us to stay there.
“I think fans, to this day, you bring it up, and it’s just a sore spot. It’s like their first-born moving on, and you never forget it. There’s obviously an attachment to those players and that time of hockey in that era — the colors, the logos, everything. I think fans still sorely miss that time. Everyone tries to eventually move on, but I think that’s just part of history that is always going to be there.”
What have you thought of the first three games of the Stars-Wild series?
Article continues below this ad
Modano: “It’s just a game of inches, but I think we all kind of knew going into it that it’s going to be kind of a special teams scenario. Who can stay out of the box longer, and who takes advantage on the power play?
“Obviously, [Wednesday] night, Dallas was the winner in that aspect, so that part of our game has to be better, penalty kill has to be better. If you can’t be aggressive 5-on-5 and really defend hard because you’re too worried about taking a penalty because your PK is struggling, then that’s going to be a really big mental issue to kind of get over.
“Likewise with Minnesota, they had their opportunities on the power play. It just didn’t click. But Dallas has got a lot of looks, a lot of different plays and scenarios that they run through a two-minute power play that makes them really tough to get a bead on.”
How involved are you with the Wild players? Are you giving them advice throughout a series from your own personal experience?
Article continues below this ad
Modano: “There’s just kind of picking spots where you might see someone that’s going through a little dry spell. For me, I know exactly what’s going through their mind and just trying to really simplify it, dumb it down a little bit and just kind of get back to some basics and not try to get too caught up mentally with what’s happening because that’ll just drain you physically as well.
“I try to add a little bit of my experience and my two cents of what I’ve gone through with the ups and downs of a season, things that happen on the ice, off the ice, those sorts of things. Sometimes they feel like they can come to me more comfortably and talk to me more than the coaches or whatnot. So, it’s been a good relationship with the guys, but I think they know I’m available if they ever needed to have someone to chat with.”
You played with Jamie Benn during his rookie season. How have you seen him evolve as a player, now toward the end of his career?
Modano: “The evolution has been interesting to watch and how his game has risen through his career. You can say it’s a little bit on the back nine, but still impactful. He makes the right plays. He’s very reliable in his own zone. He’s a very smart guy. He has that ability to get under people’s skins and make them get frustrated or discouraged. Maybe that’s his game plan to make them think more about him than anybody else on the team, and he handles himself really well in that aspect.
Article continues below this ad
“I know his opportunity to be a captain on a winning Stanley Cup team. Those chances don’t come around too often, so when you feel you have a good team, you try to make the most of it.”
How does this Stars team compare to yours that won it all?
Modano: “I think it’s very close, very similar. We had some good, physical defensemen that played hard. We had a few crafty, creative defensemen as well with [Sergei] Zubov and [Darryl] Sydor. We just had a good complexion of guys that could play gritty and dirty and were offensive as well. We defended really well. That was our MO. Our top guys were always expected to be really responsible, and it still is to this day. You see a lot of the teams that are successful, some of their top guys are expected to score and defend and do a lot of little things. When it’s April, it’s very highly regarded to play that type of style.
“The goaltending, you just have a key nucleus of guys you ride and hope you get some quality secondary scoring and some of the bottom-six guys pitch in here and there, which both sides have done to this point, so that makes it even harder to pick a winner.”
Article continues below this ad
Are you surprised it’s taken so long for the Stars to win another Stanley Cup?
Modano: “Yes and no. We all think we should have won in 2000 as well. That window was still there, and we had a great team. In ‘08, we lost to Detroit in the conference final. We feel in ‘03 we probably should have gone to the final again. We lost to Anaheim in that five-overtime game. We had three or four other opportunities where we felt like we deserved a little bit better fate.
“I always thought they’d be back more. I think with the way the economics have shifted and changed, that makes it a little harder. Then, when you have a good team, you have your good little run of eight, nine, 10 years, and then you’ve got to reboot it. All the teams have gone through it.
“But they’ve been consistently up there, so it is surprising that they haven’t broke through. But they’ve always had some good, competitive, hard-working teams that have always showed up. So, it’s hard to say, but it is hard to win.”
Article continues below this ad
Are you traveling to Dallas this series?
By signing up, you agree to our Terms Of Use and acknowledge that your information will be used as described in our Privacy Policy.
Modano: “I haven’t yet. If this thing continues on, I might try to skip down there for Game 5 or 7 if it heads that way.”
When you go to Dallas, do you always stop by your statue outside of American Airlines Center?
Article continues below this ad
Modano: “I’m usually staying downtown, so I’ll make an extra little walk around the corner to take a peek at it. It turned out great. It really looks sharp. I’m pretty lucky.”