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Jim Nill Deserves More Credit For The Stars 2017 NHL Draft

Trey Daubert / NHL / July 25, 2023

Jim Nill Deserves More Credit For The Stars 2017 NHL Draft

Jim Nill just signed a contract extension with the Stars and it was well deserved. There are a lot of bad general managers in the NHL (Yes, I’m looking at you Mike Grier) but Jim Nill is not one of them. Nill just won the GM of the year award and his contract extension was well deserved.

Maybe Nill deserves more or less credit for this. We’ll never truly know what went into this process. It’s just worth remembering that the 2017 NHL Draft has turned into a franchise changer for Dallas. What the Stars came away with during that draft is frankly remarkable.

During the 2017 NHL Draft, the Stars held the third, 26th, and 39th overall picks. They came away with Miro Heiskanen, Jake Oettinger, and Jason Robertson. I physically can’t remember a team coming away with that much talent in the same draft class ever. It’s not like the Stars were some tanking team that had a boatload of top end first round picks. They struck gold on early, middle, and late picks.

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All three of which are studs. Heiskanen is a top five defenseman in the league. Oettinger is the best young goalie in the league. Robertson just pocketed 87 goals over the last two years.

Talk about a hell of a job this front office has done. Maybe Jim Nill doesn’t have everything to do with it but he’s the man in charge and deserves a ton of credit for providing this franchise top tier young talent. Stars fans should be eternally grateful for that draft class.

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