Johnston benefiting from 'true leadership' of living with Stars teammate Pavelski

FRISCO, Texas -- Wyatt Johnston has a Joe Pavelski figurine on a shelf in his stall at the Dallas Stars practice rink.

"He’s living in my stall," Johnston said with a laugh. "I'm living in his house."

Good deal, eh?

Johnston, 21, has spent two seasons living with Pavelski, 39. He has his own room at the house and sits down for family dinners. He pays no rent, though he helps with the groceries and dishes, and hangs out with Pavelski's 13-year-old son, Nathan, watching TV, playing mini-sticks and video games.

Most important, the center gets to learn from a veteran forward who has scored 74 goals in the Stanley Cup Playoffs, more than any other active player, and is making his seventh appearance in the Western Conference Final.

The Stars play the Edmonton Oilers in Game 1 at American Airlines Center on Thursday (8:30 p.m. ET; MAX, truTV, TNT, SN, TVAS, CBC).

"He's been awesome," Johnston said. "He's been more than generous. I'm pretty lucky."

The arrangement has helped Johnston, who led the Stars with 32 goals during the regular season and leads them with seven goals during the Stanley Cup Playoffs. It speaks well of Pavelski, who also housed rookie forward Logan Stankoven for a few weeks down the stretch, and the team culture.

Teams often say they are family, but some can be, well, dysfunctional. The Stars roster has a mix of players at different ages and stages of their careers.

"You never know how those groups are going to interact," Dallas coach Pete DeBoer said. "But it's been fantastic. They've come together. They've taken care of each other. I think it starts with guys like Joe Pavelski taking Johnston and Stankoven in his house.

"I've been on teams in these situations before, and sometimes the veterans are threatened by the younger guys, right? They're getting to the twilight of their career. They're having to take a lesser role on the team. They're seeing young guys take bigger roles, and sometimes that's tough. But we've got such a good group of veteran guys."

DeBoer called it "true leadership."

"It's not leading when things are going well for you," DeBoer said. "It's leading when you might have to take a little bit less and someone else might be stepping into a role you used to play for a long time in this league and being supportive of that, and that's rare."

This came about last season when the Stars decided Johnston, the No. 23 pick of the 2021 NHL Draft, would start in the NHL. He was 19 at the time. Pavelski said the coaches asked if anyone wanted to help out, and he and his wife, Sarah, volunteered.

"We kind of said, 'Yeah, no problem,'" Pavelski said. "'We'll take him for the start and see what happens and how it goes from there.'"

Well, Johnston stuck in the NHL, and he stuck around the Pavelski house.

Johnston had 41 points (24 goals, 17 assists) in 82 regular-season games and six points (four goals, two assists) in 19 playoff games as a rookie. He has taken another step this season, with 65 points (32 goals, 33 assists) in 82 regular-season games and 11 points (seven goals, four assists) in 13 playoff games.

"He's been awesome," Pavelski said. "He's been a huge part of our family, just every day having him around and dinnertimes and after games sitting on the couch kind of going over the night and just kind of relaxing. He's been a treat to have around the house, and hopefully he gets a little bit of something from us, but we have a lot of fun."

Pavelski is paying it forward. He remembers breaking into the NHL with the San Jose Sharks in the mid- to late-2000sand receiving help from veterans like Patrick Marleau, Joe Thornton and Rob Blake.

The seventh-round pick (No. 205) in the 2003 NHL Draft became a star, with 1,068 points (476 goals, 592 assists) in 1,332 regular-season games and 143 points (74 goals, 69 assists) in 195 playoff games. He had 67 points (27 goals, 40 assists) in 82 regular-season games this season and has four points (one goal, three assists) in 13 playoff games.

"I was pretty fortunate, and I'll always say it: Coming into this League, if you can go to a team that has a little bit of that, you can learn a lot in a hurry, and it can definitely build a foundation for yourself of kind of doing it the right way," Pavelski said. "In my case, I believe that was a huge part of it and a stepping stone.

"So to have him around, hopefully he sees some of it. There's scenarios where you might be in a slump, or this situation's going on, and you've lived it for the most part, so you just share your story. Maybe he gets something out of it, maybe not. It's also a nice reminder for myself at times when you're talking about those stories, because you go through different moments in the season where you're just experiencing it again in a different way."

When Stankoven was at Pavelski's house, he also had his own room. Everyone would watch hockey together while Pavelski used a roller and stretched on the carpet, taking care of his body.

"I've been able to pick his brain a bit when I was living there," Stankoven said. "He just kind of seems to stay so level-headed, whether he has a bad game or a good game. That's the thing that he kind of talked to me about. I'm still trying to learn that. Stay level-headed no matter if you score or you're minus-4 that night."

Johnston said he and Pavelski ride to the rink together sometimes, though he has his own car and they often drive separately on game days because he likes to leave the house and the rink later than Pavelski does. He said they have little conversations all the time.

"I think that's been huge for me," Johnston said. "I think for the most part it's mostly just kind of like the everyday stuff that I kind of get to see and kind of learn from him and what he does. There have been definitely some bigger things that we've kind of talked about. We're always kind of talking. I'm trying to ask as many questions as I can, and if I have any questions he's obviously awesome."

Johnston laughed.

"I can ask a million questions," he said, "and he probably won't get too upset with me."

No, he probably won't. Pavelski sounds proud of Johnston, like an older brother, an uncle. Maybe even a dad.

"I think at the end of the day, we see it every day at the house, how good of a person he is and the character he has and just the head," Pavelski said. "You see kind of how he's thinking things and watching. That's, I think, where it starts for the ice. And obviously he works hard and is a skilled player and all that, but he stays grounded and he wants more, and it's awesome to see."