Jamie Benn, captain of the Dallas Stars, Out with Injury
Dallas Stars captain and left wing Jamie Benn will be out of action for at least four weeks after undergoing surgery for a collapsed lung. The team announced this on Thursday.
Benn, 36, was diagnosed with the injury during the third period of the Stars’ preseason game against the Minnesota Wild on Tuesday. In that game, Benn played 15:47 minutes and the Stars won in overtime with a score of 3-2.
Benn is expected to make a full recovery and will be evaluated by the team in four weeks, according to the Stars.
The absence of Benn for at least four weeks means he will miss the rest of the preseason and could be out for the first seven games of the regular season. Five of those first seven games will be against teams that made the playoffs last season. If the recovery follows the planned schedule, he could debut in the season on October 25 against the Carolina Hurricanes.
Benn is about to start his 17th season with the only NHL franchise he has known. In the 2024-25 season, he finished with 16 goals and 49 points in 80 games for the Stars, who fell in the Western Conference final for the third consecutive year.
Last season also marked the final year of Benn’s eight-year contract, but he returned on a one-year deal worth $1 million, providing the Stars with a valuable top-nine forward for a team that now has much of its cap space invested in key players like Miro Heiskanen, Wyatt Johnston, Jake Oettinger, Mikko Rantanen, and Jason Robertson.
Before the injury, Benn had been playing on the third line of the preseason alongside Matt Duchene and Tyler Seguin. Now, his absence opens a spot in the Stars’ top nine forward group.
In addition to the Stars’ pursuit of the Stanley Cup, this year also promised to be one in which Benn could reach several personal milestones. He is one goal away from reaching 400 in his career, eight games away from reaching 1,200, and 44 points away from accumulating 1,000 in his professional career.
