Light Work: A small preview of the 2025-2026 season, and a small bone to pick with your rankings

Jason Robertson. Why have they forsaken you?

I have a preview of the Stars at my general NHL coverage place.

It’s weird, writing about the Stars for a different audience. Because it’s meant to be a fast food version of what we’ll have here, hardcore fans and sickos won’t find as much to chew on. That’s not to say my estimations are any less genuine. On the contrary. By focusing on the broad strokes, I get to step away from that perspective as a “Stars writer” and “Stars fan” — which in the end, makes for a more objective take.

It kind of took me by surprise, as pretentious as that sounds. We don’t flirt with our other selves enough. I’m sounding like Searle from Sunshine aren’t I? “I recommend it.”

With a lot of this previewing in mind, Sean Shapiro did his roster rankings, including me on a panel of everyone in the Stars mediasphere, with the following request: rank the Stars roster from 23 to 1, with 1 being the big enchilada. The top dog. Etc. You can see the end result here.

Ranking the Dallas Stars Roster from No. 23 to No. 1

This is a consensus ranking, so I’m not here to argue with Sean. Nor I am here to be sports mad. I’m only here to snip at what I think is a growing perception, including at The Athletic when it comes to Jason Robertson.

Thomas Harley above Jason Robertson? Let’s talk about this one. If you’re new here, you should know that I’ve been steering the Harley hype train since 2023. In 2024. This year. Harley doesn’t just look the part of a special player. He acts like one.

But I have to wonder how much recency bias plays into some people’s perception. It’s no secret that Robertson had a down year. Not only did his regular season performance take a minute to get going, but the postseason was another story entirely. Nonetheless, unlike other players in the postseason, Robertson’s performance has an accounting: injuries.

Over the last two seasons, Robertson has 160 points among all forwards, which is 23rd. Harley has 97, which is 17th among defenders. On the surface, this looks like an argument for Harley. Except Robertson is competing against a larger pool of players, as there were 304 more forwards than defenders who played in the NHL last year. As a result, break them down by cohorts, and Robertson sits in the 97th percentile among forwards while Harley sits among the 95 percentile.

Are we nitpicking? Of course. What would be the point otherwise? But this is not like deciding between which is the better Mexican sweetbread: the marranito or the concha¹. I feel like this consensus — again not just in terms of rankings — has a short memory. Robertson has a larger body of work, and that body of work has been impressive by any measure. He’s had two seasons where he’s been worth at least two wins in the standings, with the 2022-2023 season marking a value of more than three wins — the highest of any Stars forward post-Covid.

None of this is to say that the debate is settled because of SPAR. The numbers, as I’ve argued ad nauseum, are always a story onto themselves.

Only that I think both Robertson’s floor and ceiling have been established whereas with Harley, I believe we still yet have to figure out which is which. Again, none of this is a big deal in the grand scheme of things. Stars fans get to have both on their favorite team. Not only would any roster be lucky to have them, they’re also players who weren’t even conventional picks, which is a testament to Dallas’ amateur scouts.

However, it wouldn’t be fair for me to pick apart the lists of others if I didn’t give others the opportunity to pick apart my own. This was the list I submitted to Sean.

1. Miro Heiskanen

2. Mikko Rantanen

3. Jake Oettinger

4. Jason Robertson

5. Wyatt Johnston

6. Roope Hintz

7. Thomas Harley

8. Esa Lindell

9. Matt Duchene

10. Tyler Seguin

11. Jamie Benn

12. Lian Bichsel

13. Mavrik Bourque

14. Casey DeSmith

15. Sam Steel

16. Nils Lundkvist

17. Ilya Lyubushkin

18. Radek Faksa

19. Colin Blackwell

20. Nathan Bastian

21. Alexander Petrovic

22. Oskar Back

23. Vladislav Kolyachonok

The asterisk is that I didn’t want to insert too much of my own opinions into this list, so I erred on the side of…somewhere between public perception and ‘best.’ A list according to my own personal opinion?

This would be it.

1. Miro Heiskanen

2. Wyatt Johnston

3. Jason Robertson

4. Thomas Harley

5. Mikko Rantanen

6. Roope Hintz

7. Jake Oettinger

8. Esa Lindell

9. Matt Duchene

10. Lian Bichsel

11. Jamie Benn

12. Tyler Seguin

13. Mavrik Bourque

14. Casey DeSmith

15. Sam Steel

16. Nils Lundkvist

17. Ilya Lyubushkin

18. Vladislav Kolyachonok

19. Colin Blackwell

20. Radek Faksa

21. Nathan Bastian

22. Oskar Back

23. Alexander Petrovic

Did I “cheat” and rank according to sG, or Bloviations per 60? No. My rank here is somewhere between judging them by their immediate past, analytic present, and broad future, with yes — a few “yea but the numbers here” asterisks to give certain players upticks and others downticks.

Nonetheless: have at it!

1. Marranitos all day.