The Vegas Golden Knights are the Stars closest thing to a rival

When I wrote my first book, 100 Things Stars Fans Should Know & Do Before They Die, I authored a chapter asking “Do the Stars have a rival?”

My conclusion, at the time of publishing in 2018, was that the Stars used to have a rival, but any past rivalries had long since simmered out.

The Detroit-Dallas rivalry of the 1990s was killed off by the Red Wings moving to the Eastern Conference, the Minnesota Wild-Stars rivalry is more one-sided pettiness, and the last great, consistent rivalry Dallas had came when the franchise was in Minnesota and the North Stars and Chicago Blackhawks simmered to the point of boiling.

The North Stars and Blackhawks played 169 times in 26 seasons, they met in the playoffs six times and the battles featured games like April 1, 1990 where the teams combined for 243 minutes and Shane Churla was ejected for having his hands taped like a boxer.

Why am I writing about this today, on Jan. 24, 2025?

Well, the Stars host the Vegas Golden Knights, and in today’s NHL, it’s about the closest thing to a rivalry game that will exist at American Airlines Center.

The Stars and Golden Knights have played 18 times in the regular season, with Vegas holding a 12-3-3 edge. That includes the first game in Vegas franchise history, where Marc-Andre Fleury stole a 2-1 game, and a shot by Reilly Smith knocked Ben Bishop out of the game in the third period, leaving a cold Kari Lehtonen to be beaten twice by James Neal.

In the regular season, the Golden Knights have dominated the Stars. No question.

But the teams have also played 18 postseason games against each other, with the Stars winning two of the series and holding a 10-8 record. In 2020 the Stars defeated Vegas in the bubble to reach the Stanley Cup Final, in 2023 the Golden Knights returned the favor in the same stage when Jamie Benn lost his cool in Game 3 and cross-checked Mark Stone in the neck.

Last spring they met in the first round, with Dallas ending the Vegas season in seven games and putting a stop to Vegas’ potential repeat run.

Through on-ice perspective the Stars and Golden Knights check the rivalry perspective, but they also are intertwined and operate slightly different off the ice, which adds to the drama and differences.

Vegas, since entering the league, has been cut throat in how it’s handled players. The Golden Knights have famously parted ways with franchise favorites, and had no issue using every limit of the NHL’s long-term injured reserve loopholes.

The Stars, right or wrong, haven’t been as vicious with players or handling departures. If anything, Stars general manager Jim Nill has been loyal to a fault at times. While the Golden Knights have fired two successful coaches (including current Stars coach Pete DeBoer), Nill has never actually fired a coach in Dallas for performance reasons (remember, Jim Montgomery was fired for unprofessional conduct, others like Ken Hitchcock or Rick Bowness and Lindy Ruff walked at the end of contract expiring.)

So, if you are a Stars fan, it’s easy to look at Vegas as the evil empire, which happened to win a Stanley Cup in 2023. The Stars don’t “do it right,” but it sort of feels that way when you think about the narratives surrounding the two franchises.

So it’s a rivalry, even if lopsided in the regular season, and one that for the Stars should be celebrated. Dallas will never re-kindle the old North Stars-Blackhawks wars, and this is about as close as it’ll get.