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 Thursday.
Benn, 36, was diagnosed with the injury on Tuesday in the third period of the Stars’ preseason game against the Minnesota Wild. He played 15:47 minutes in the Stars’ 3-2 overtime win.
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 Stars’ preseason and could be out for at least the first seven games of the regular season. Five of the Stars’ first seven games will be against teams that made the playoffs last season. If the initial timeframe is met, he could debut in the season on October 25 against the Carolina Hurricanes.
Benn is entering his 17th season with the only NHL franchise he has known. He finished with 16 goals and 49 points in 80 games for the Stars in the 2024-25 campaign, in which the club lost in the Western Conference final for the third consecutive year.
Last season also meant that Benn was in the final year of an eight-year contract, and he returned on a one-year deal worth $1 million to give the Stars 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 on the third line in the preseason alongside Matt Duchene and Tyler Seguin. Now he leaves a vacancy in the Stars’ top nine forward group.
In addition to the Stars competing for the Stanley Cup, this year was also going to be one in which Benn could reach several personal milestones. He is one goal away from 400 in his career, eight games away from reaching 1,200, and also 44 points away from scoring 1,000 in his career.
