This will be remembered as one of the most disappointing seasons in franchise history, but the Stars hope to use it as a springboard to improvement.
Dallas fell from the best record in the Western Conference at 50-23-9 (109 points) last season to one of the worst this year at 33-37-11 (77 points), confounding experts and insiders along the way. But the pile of dirt that was the 2016-17 season now has to become the foundation on which the future is built.
"This has been a tough challenge, and there has been a lot of adversity, but I think you definitely can learn from adversity," Stars general manager Jim Nill said.