Stars captain Jamie Benn again has a decision to make about whether to play another season

FRISCO, Texas (AP) — Dallas Stars captain Jamie Benn again goes into the offseason with a decision to make about whether to come back for another NHL season.

His coach wants him to keep playing, and so does longtime teammate Tyler Seguin. Benn, who will turn 37 on July 18, sounds as though he will take some time to ponder an 18th season — all in Dallas — and another shot at a Stanley Cup title.

“Right now I’m just hanging out, being a dad, and figure it out later,” Benn said.

During the Stars' season-ending availability Monday, after they were eliminated in the first round of the playoffs, Benn was asked if he knew exactly when or how he would make the decision.

“Probably just wake up one day (and know), to be honest,” he said.

After fielding the same questions about his future last summer, Benn played this season on a one-year, $1 million contract and earned an additional $2 million in bonuses. General manager Jim Nill said last offseason, after the expiration of a $76 million, eight-year deal, that Benn had earned the right to continue to be part of the Stars as long as he wants. There have been no indications since of any changes to that thought.

“For me, it’s a slam dunk. He needs to come back,” coach Glen Gulutzan said of the only Stars player he also coached during his first tenure behind the Dallas bench (2011-13).

Seguin, who is 34 and has one year left on his contract after being limited to 47 games the past two seasons because of hip and knee injuries, said he certainly hopes they get another season together. Seguin and Benn have been teammates since 2013-14, after Seguin was traded from Boston and the same season Benn became the Stars captain.

“I don’t think anyone knows what Jaime is going to do until Jamie does it,” Seguin said. “I’ll stay out of his way, let him come to his own decisions, but I’d obviously love to have him for one more shot.”

Hall of Fame center Mike Modano is the only player in franchise history with more than Benn’s 1,252 regular-season games, 414 goals and 992 points. Benn has played in 126 postseason games, but the only time he has been to the Stanley Cup Final was when the Stars lost in six games to Tampa Bay during the 2020 postseason played in a bubble in Canada because of the COVID-19 pandemic.

The Stars had made the Western Conference finals three seasons in a row before falling in six games to Minnesota in the first round of the playoffs this year.

“The goal is to win the Stanley Cup, and when you don’t do that, there’s an empty space, a little pit in your stomach where you have some fire to change things up for next year,” Benn said.

After missing this season's first 19 games because of a punctured lung, Benn was out another three games in January with a broken nose. While 60 games were his fewest in a full 82-game regular season, he finished with 15 goals and 21 assists while playing just more than 13 minutes a game, a career low.

Leading scorer Jason Robertson can become a restricted free agent this offseason after the completion of the $31 million, four-year contract he got following a training camp holdout in 2022. The Stars and the forward who turns 27 on July 22 had said they would play out this season before negotiations on a new deal.

“I understand it's a business on both sides, right? I'm optimistic, I hope,” Robertson said. “It's not like what it was when I was 10 years old, getting to the NHL, anymore. It's a business. I learned that four years ago.”

The Stars will retain negotiation rights for Robertson, and could match any offer he gets from another team, if they make a $9.3 million qualifying offer by June 29. He could become an unrestricted free agent next summer.

Robertson was coming off a 41-goal season when he got his last contract. He has since played all 328 regular-season games, with 365 points in that span (155 goals and 210 assists). He and Wyatt Johnston each had 45 goals this season, and Robertson had a goal in each of the first five playoff games.

AP NHL playoffs: https://apnews.com/hub/stanley-cup and https://apnews.com/hub/nhl

Dallas Stars left wing Jamie Benn skates with the puck against the Minnesota Wild during the first period in Game 5 of a first-round NHL Stanley Cup playoffs hockey series, Tuesday, April 28, 2026, in Dallas. (AP Photo/Julio Cortez)

Dallas Stars left wing Jason Robertson speaks during media availability Monday, May 4, 2026, in Frisco, Texas. (AP Photo/LM Otero)

Dallas Stars forward Tyler Seguin speaks during a media availability Monday, May 4, 2026, in Frisco, Texas. (AP Photo/LM Otero)

Dallas Stars left wing Jamie Benn stands at the podium for questions during a media availability Monday, May 4, 2026, in Frisco, Texas. (AP Photo/LM Otero)

RALEIGH, N.C. (AP) — Rick Tocchet got the response he wanted from his Philadelphia Flyers. Rod Brind'Amour had reason to be frustrated with his Carolina Hurricanes taking too many penalties, disrupting their preferred 5-on-5 rhythm.

And yet, the Hurricanes are still unbeaten in the NHL playoffs, thanks to a comeback from their first deficit of the postseason and a gritty-effort overtime winner from Taylor Hall.

Carolina's 3-2 win Monday night gave the Eastern Conference's top seed a 2-0 lead in the second-round series, coming after an uphill climb with the Flyers getting to their game much more effectively than in the series opener to build some confidence as the series shifts to Philadelphia.

“We don't quit. I think we've shown that all year,” said Carolina winger Nikolaj Ehlers, who had a goal and assisted on the tying score in the third period. "If we keep playing the right way and keep putting a lot of pressure on their players, every single shift, we will get back to playing some pretty good hockey and creating a lot of turnovers, a lot of good chances.

“You want adversity. We had that in the Ottawa series as well, because it's going to happen again. And now we know what we need to do for the next time it happens."

Carolina swept that first-round series against the Senators and never trailed. That series started with a home shutout and then a 3-2 double-overtime win in Game 2. The Hurricanes started this series in similar fashion, first with a Game 1 shutout and then another 3-2 win in extra time on Hall's score at 18:54 of OT.

The Flyers host the next two games in the best-of-seven series, with Game 3 set for Thursday night.

The Hurricanes had at least one clear area to clean up: penalties. Carolina committed eight — two for delay of game for putting pucks over the glass, one for too many men on the ice — and had a steady line of players heading to the penalty box.

The penalty kill was good enough to hold Philadelphia to a 1-for-7 showing Monday, pushing Carolina to 30 for 32 (.938) this postseason. Brind'Amour, however, said the rash of penalties “kills your team, kills your momentum, kills everything.”

“We're taking too many," the coach said. "The ones that are self-inflicted for me — the over the glass, little tic-tac ones — you've got to avoid these. Too many men. We've had too many of those here. We've gotten away with it, because we've been able to kill it. But it's not how you draw it up.”

As for Tocchet, Monday's loss offered a welcome sign of pushback after Game 1, which left the Flyers coach talking about the need for his players to react quicker against Carolina’s aggression and speed, as well as to carry the puck more into the tough areas of the ice.

“Mentally and physically I just thought we had more energy, and I think we believed that we can compete with this team,” Tocchet said.

Philadelphia did that early, with Jamie Drysdale and Sean Couturier scoring in a 39-second span of the first period for the Flyers. And they outshot Carolina 15-8 in overtime to carry that competitiveness to the end despite playing again without injured regular-season goals leader Owen Tippett.

Yet this one ended with Hall hopping to his feet after being knocked to the ice by Denver Barkey as Hall charged toward the crease, then grabbing a loose puck kept alive by Jackson Blake to slip it past Dan Vladar's left skate for the winner.

That pushed Carolina to a 2-0 lead in a best-of-seven series for the 10th time in the Hurricanes' eight-year playoff run under Brind'Amour. Carolina has won eight of the previous nine, the outlier being a seven-game loss to the New York Rangers in the 2022 second round.

Then again, the Flyers became the first NHL team to make the playoffs after being 10 points out with 22 or fewer games remaining, securing Philadelphia's first postseason appearance since 2020. Then the Flyers beat Pittsburgh in six games in the first round.

“Just the belief in the room, I think that really helps,” Tocchet said. “The belief in the room of just staying with it. And we've been dead before, and we've climbed out of the grave. We keep hearing we're dead and dead, but the guys won't give up. So that's why I'm proud of them.”

AP NHL playoffs: https://apnews.com/hub/stanley-cup and https://apnews.com/hub/nhl

Carolina Hurricanes' Taylor Hall (71) celebrates after his winning overtime goal against the Philadelphia Flyers during Game 2 of an NHL hockey Stanley Cup second-round playoff series in Raleigh, N.C., Monday, May 4, 2026. (AP Photo/Karl DeBlaker)

Carolina Hurricanes' Seth Jarvis, right, celebrates after his game-tying goal with teammate Sean Walker (26) during the third period of Game 2 of an NHL hockey Stanley Cup second-round playoff series against the Philadelphia Flyers in Raleigh, N.C., Monday, May 4, 2026. (AP Photo/Karl DeBlaker)

Philadelphia Flyers head coach Rick Tocchet speaks at a news conference following Game 2 of an NHL hockey Stanley Cup second-round playoff series against the Carolina Hurricanes in Raleigh, N.C., Monday, May 4, 2026. (AP Photo/Karl DeBlaker)

Carolina Hurricanes head coach Rod Brind'Amour, center top, protests a call during the third period of Game 2 of an NHL hockey Stanley Cup second-round playoff series against the Philadelphia Flyers in Raleigh, N.C., Monday, May 4, 2026. (AP Photo/Karl DeBlaker)