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The Dallas Stars will be watching for a large portion of tonight's 2023 NHL draft.
After trading away their first-round pick to the New York Rangers in exchange for Nils Lundkvist, Dallas will not take part in the draft until the 61st pick in the second round. After that, the Stars won't pick again until the 125th slot in the fourth round, as they also traded away their third-round selection to the Arizona Coyotes for Scott Wedgewood.
It is not an ideal draft order but GM Jim Nill was well aware of that when he made those deals happen. Wedgewood has worked out perfectly, while Lundkvist still holds lofty expectations.
The Dallas Stars will look to make their only pick in the first 100 really count. Outside of the first few rounds, things become very unpredictable. So just how important is making the right choice early on?
Well, to explain that let's look at the Dallas Stars 2017 draft class.
The 2017 draft class changed the Dallas Stars franchise
In 2017, Dallas selected Miro Heiskanen fourth overall, Jake Oettinger 26th overall, and Jason Robertson 39th overall. Do those names sound familiar? They make up a massive portion of the current Dallas Stars core and are some of the best players at their position in the NHL.
Heiskanen recorded a career-high in points and finished in the Norris Trophy voting, Robertson was named to the NHL's first All-Star team and finished fourth for MVP, and Oettinger was in the top 10 of goaltenders all season long, finishing fifth in the final votes.
To put it simply, 2017 completely transformed the Dallas Stars franchise.
What is crazy is how different things could have been. Dallas originally held a much different draft order before being picked in the draft lottery, making a few trades, and having things fall into place that allowed them to pick their three key superstars.
Stars Assistant GM Mark Janko spoke about the situation (via NHL.com):
"If you just go step by step, it's incredible. If we don't win the lottery, we probably take a forward at eight, and that changed everything.
"Then, if we don't do the trade with Anaheim, and they don't advance, we don't have an extra first-round pick and we don't get Oettinger. Then, after that, I'm not sure what happens.
"We went from potentially having the eighth, 39th and 60th pick in the draft to having maybe the most important draft in franchise history. That's pretty incredible."
In the NHL draft, anything can happen. If you need confirmation, just take a look at when Jamie Benn (129th) and Joe Pavelski (205th) were drafted.
Now, in 2023, the Stars could make a 61st overall pick that they look back with similar images. That cannot be taken lightly, no matter how low that first pick falls.
