The NHL proved that it could conduct an outdoor game in a southern market during the 2014 Stadium Series when the Anaheim Ducks and Los Angeles Kings played at Dodger Stadium. So should we expect to someday see an outdoor contest hosted by the Dallas Stars?
Perhaps, but Stars president Jim Lites warned that it was “probably a ways off.”
“It’s not something that has been talked about much lately, so it’s sort of up in the air,” Lites told the Dallas Morning News. “I would prefer if we were a visitor first and had a chance to go through the experience before we tried to host one, but you sort of just react to what the league tells you.”
Lites believes that if Dallas is to host an outdoor game, it would probably have to be as an extension of the Stadium Series rather than the Winter Classic. That’s in part due to the lack of availability in January at the Dallas Cowboys home, AT&T Stadium. However, he thinks a game in February would be doable.
If the Stars were to be the guests in an outdoor game, one possible opponent would be the Minnesota Wild, given the Stars roots as the Minnesota North Stars.
Although it’s impossible to predict what the rosters would be like for a theoretical game that might take place at some unspecified point in the future, Dallas would certainly bring star power to the event with Tyler Seguin, Jamie Benn, and Jason Spezza leading the charge. All three of them are signed through at least the 2016-17 campaign. It would also be a homecoming for Alex Goligoski, who grew up in Grand Rapids, Minnesota.
He played in the 2011 Winter Classic between Pittsburgh and Washington.
“Yeah, you could definitely say I would be on board with it,” said Goligoski. “It rained in the one I played in, so playing in one in Minnesota with the snow and cold, that would be great. That’s what I grew up with.”