How the Dallas Stars are juggling new babies, wedding planning during a playoff push

This season has been a year of firsts for the Dallas Stars.

The team won eight consecutive games for the first time in franchise history. It saw eight players score 20 or more goals for the first time. It won 50 games for the first time since 2005-06, and won its division for the first time since 2015-16.

The 2023-24 season will be one each player on the team remembers for a number of reasons — but those firsts haven’t been limited to play on the ice.

As the Stars have been making a push for the Western Conference crown and Presidents’ Trophy, many of the players are experiencing some of life’s biggest events for the first time, from new babies to weddings.

“This is becoming a really big family team,” Stars head coach Pete DeBoer said. “There’s a lot of new marriages, young couples, babies, things like that. They’re all fantastic life events.”

A handful of the Stars players are in the middle of one of the most difficult balancing acts that professional athletes face. Entering the most important two months of the year for their careers, Scott Wedgewood and Miro Heiskanen have new babies at home, and Jamie Benn, Mason Marchment and Jake Oettinger are preparing for weddings just months away.

“Throughout the season, it’s been obviously in the back of my head,” Wedgewood said.

For months leading up to the birth of his daughter, Scarlett, Wedgewood was watching the schedule, hoping the timing would work out.

The Stars season has been punctuated by long road trips, and the month of March — when his daughter was expected — had two of them.

But before Dallas hit the road for a four-game, west-coast trip, Wedgewood was able to be with his wife, Brittany, for the life-changing moment.

“It’s emotional,” Wedgewood said. “I don’t know if I’ve felt that helpless. There was that relief that I was here, and I was able to help her through it. Now, it’s just making sure she’s taken care of for the rest of my life.”

Wedgewood missed the March 20 game against Arizona for his daughter’s birth which had been highly anticipated since he unveiled a new goalie mask in December. The Mario Kart-themed mask had Baby Peach on one side of it to represent his firstborn.

“She’s been on the helmet all year,” Wedgewood said. “Like any parent, your first thought is no longer you or your wife or your dogs. It’s now her.”

The Stars’ backup goalie isn’t alone in that experience. Heiskanen missed Dallas’ game against the Bruins on Feb. 19 for the birth of his first child. If it weren’t for DeBoer announcing he would be out of the lineup, the birth of Heiskanen’s child likely would’ve been kept private. The defenseman prefers to keep his personal life out of the public eye.

Chris Tanev and Matt Duchene both understand what Wedgewood and Heiskanen have gone through this season. All three of Duchene’s children were born during the season. So was Tanev’s firstborn.

“It’s a different life for sure,” Tanev said. “It’s obviously something that you never forget and you look forward to for quite some time.”

“You definitely miss them when you go on the road, and it’s crazy how much they change during the season when you are gone,” Duchene added. “But at the same time, it’s maybe a good time because in the summer you have more time off, and they’re at that age where you as a husband can contribute more.”

The new dads aren’t the only Stars experiencing major life events. Seguin got married last summer. Benn got engaged over Christmas in 2022. Marchment and Oettinger both got engaged last summer.

With a conference title and playoff seeding on the line, the day-to-day grind of late-season and postseason hockey can be all-consuming. But DeBoer said he’s excited for his players going through these milestones, even at the point of the season when focus must be at an all-time high.

“Every time something like that happens, it’s great perspective for your group,” he said. “You get locked into the daily grind of the NHL and the importance of the games and the standings, and it kind of snaps you back to the reality that there is life going on outside of that and a lot of really important things are happening.”

While the Stars players may rely on the summers for wedding days and quality time with their growing families, they’re in no rush to get there. Even if it means a shorter summer, a playoff run is still the priority, knowing their wives, fiancées and even their new babies will be there in the stands taking in what could be another major milestone this year.

“It’s obviously a huge moment in my life and my fiancée’s life. We have that to look forward to,” Oettinger said. “But we’ve got a lot of work to do before then. I think that’s going to be, hopefully, icing on the cake of a Stanley Cup run. If we win the Cup, that’ll make the wedding that much better.”

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