Better with age: How Matt Duchene is hitting his stride with Stars

The irony of Matt Duchene’s game is that slowing down his mind has made him faster on the ice.

The Stars’ leading scorer through 11 games, Duchene is playing some of the best hockey of his career with 15 points (7 goals, 8 assists) and a plus-6 rating. It’s the most points he’s ever had through the first 11 games in his 16 NHL seasons.

“He’s been playing at an elite level,” said Stars coach Pete DeBoer. “We wouldn’t have the record we have to start the season without him. He’s been arguably our best player.”

That’s a bit surprising for a 33-year-old on his fifth NHL team, but Duchene said it shouldn’t be.

“It’s funny, when you turn 30, people look at you like you should be tapering off - and I feel the opposite,” Duchene said. “I feel like I’m just starting something. All around, mentally, physically, experience, I feel a lot better than I did when I was in my 20s and everyone thinks you should be in your prime.”

The confluence of elements actually makes a lot of sense. Duchene was the third overall pick in 2009 and has played 1,067 games for Colorado, Ottawa, Columbus, Nashville and Dallas. In 2019, he signed a seven-year deal with Nashville that averaged $8 million a year. When the Predators changed management two summers ago, they bought Duchene out of the final three years of his contract – delivering an emotional punch to the gut, but also a new opportunity.

Duchene has signed two team-friendly one-year contracts at $3 million apiece with Dallas, and that has given him the opportunity to fit financially on a very good team. Duchene now is in a group of centers with Roope Hintz and Wyatt Johnston while also being linemates with Tyler Seguin and Mason Marchment.

“It’s natural when you sign a contract like Dutchy signed in Nashville to measure yourself on points, and I think coming to us in the situation he came to us, you don’t have that pressure,” DeBoer said. “You just have to play the right way and help us win. And most times when you do that, the points come.”

Duchene is a thinking man’s hockey player – to a fault, at times. He will analyze every aspect of his game and spend way too much mind-space on minutia, and that can hurt his performance. This season, he said he has made an effort to quiet all of the noise.

“I’m just trying not to care too much,” he said. “I’m not saying that in a bad way, you can just try too hard and overanalyze things and overthink things, and for me it’s just enjoying the game.”

Ironically – there is that word again – Duchene has found a happier place by experiencing the biggest pressure of his career. He had not made it to the third round of the playoffs in the first 14 years of his career – playing just 32 postseason games in total. Last season, he helped the Stars to the Western Conference Final and played in 19 playoff games.

It was eye-opening.

“That playoff run was such a great experience for me,” he said. “I learned a ton. There were parts I thought I handled really well and parts I want to be better at going forward. That’s stuck with me, and it’s really helped me. I know what I need to do. I know how bad it hurt when we lost, and I know what I did well, what the positive feelings were. It was just a great experience.”

Now, he very much wants to get back and feel that again.

“If you’ve never been through something like that, you just don’t know,” he added.

Of course, the big lesson in “knowing” is that you have to be patient. You have to not overthink and fret. You have to let October come to you.

And Duchene did that.

On a team that has had some injuries, Duchene has been the rock that DeBoer builds his lineup around. With Joe Pavelski retired and Jason Robertson missing camp, the Duchene line has been huge. With Jamie Benn and Johnston still trying to find their magic again, Duchene has been Mr. Consistent.

Getting chemistry with Seguin and Marchment has been key, and while each has battled their own lineup absences, Duchene finds a way. It’s sort of a mashup of the natural skill and hockey smarts that have been brewing for 33 years now.

“He’s playing a real complete game for us,” DeBoer said. “You don’t play on a Canadian Olympic team and win a gold medal unless you’ve got that part of your game. But here, I don’t think he has the pressure of being the highest paid guy on the roster who has to score every night.”

Duchene has slowed his mind down, he has calmed the external voice, he has lifted a weight at just the right point in his career – and his play looks as light as a feather right now.

“I have had a lot of people say that,” he said.

Now, he just needs to keep it up.

“It’s a long season,” he said. “And we’re just getting started.”

This story was not subject to the approval of the National Hockey League or Dallas Stars Hockey Club.

Mike Heika is a Senior Staff Writer for DallasStars.com and has covered the Stars since 1994. Follow him on X (formerly Twitter) @MikeHeika.