LeBrun: Stars captain Jamie Benn is a ‘catapult’ who gets his team going when it matters

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DENVER — This is exactly the kind of story that Jamie Benn would hate.

Because it’s about him.

“Exactly right, exactly right,’’ laughed former Dallas Stars head coach Rick Bowness. “That’s what you love about him. There’s no out-of-place ego. The team comes first at all costs. It’s all about the team. That’s why he’s the perfect captain and that’s what you love about him.’’

Is there a captain in the NHL who shuns the spotlight more than Benn?

“He just wants to go about his business, and for the lack of a better term, be left alone,’’ his brother Jordie Benn, in player development for the Stars, said Thursday. “He’s come a long way. He was a lot quieter when he was younger. He really took to Brenden Morrow and a lead-by-example role. Nowadays, he’s definitely louder than he was, but he’s still a lead-by-example guy.’’

Morrow, the longtime Stars captain who handed the “C’’ over to Benn in 2013, is unbelievably proud of Benn, whom he took under his wing in 2009-10 when the young power forward entered the league.

“That’s what makes Jamie special. He’s the ultimate teammate, he doesn’t want the attention or the glory, but he’s what makes the team go,’’ Morrow said Thursday.

“Me knowing him, he’s a quiet guy who leads by example,’’ Morrow added. “That resonates a little because that’s how I did it. So I can appreciate it.’’

Spotlight? No thanks.

“Everything is about the team in this league,’’ Benn, shrugging his shoulders, told The Athletic in an interview Friday. “I’m not looking for cameras. I’m just trying to go out there, be a good teammate, be a good hockey player, and help my team win.’’

He’s been that way from Day 1.

“I loved him as a young kid when he came in, he had the great shot, he was a giggly, carefree guy,” Morrow said. “He got hurt, they got him in the gym and got him in shape and he’s been a bull in a china shop and took the NHL by storm since then.’’

Former NHL star center Brad Richards remembers Benn as a rookie teammate. He saw the skill right away, but the future leadership skills were harder to see that early on.

“He was pretty young and raw, tons of talent, you could tell if he got the right leadership and the right people around him he was going to be a good player,” Richards said Thursday. “To be honest, early on, I definitely didn’t see him being a captain this long and that steady. And how he’s changed his game probably three or four different times to keep going. It’s a hard league to creep into your mid-30s, especially how hard he’s played, and still be effective.

“He’s figured a way to do that. It’s not like it was when he won the scoring race, he’s adapted in different ways,’’ added Richards. “So all the credit to him. The team has been really good for a while so his leadership must be contagious and people must love being around him in the room, or he still would not be doing it. So good job by him.’’

Richards remembers Benn as a carefree rookie.

“He would laugh everything off,” said Richards. “I used to watch him and think, ‘Wow, must be cool to be able to forget and move on that easy.’ Some of that was him being young but some of that is his attitude, too. He’s got a good frame of mind for that where I think sure, he thinks about it, but he doesn’t dwell on it. He can move on and get on to the next game and not let it affect him.’’

Benn says that has served him well over the years.

“I think it’s important to move on quickly in this league,’’ Benn said. “With so many games and battles and ups and downs that you have throughout a year, it’s important to learn from mistakes, learn from losses, and build off good things that you did when you win games.

Jamie Benn, 35, remains a very impactful player in his 16th NHL season. (Isaiah J. Downing / Imagn Images)

“Every day is a new day in this league and that’s the best part about it,’’ added Benn.

Back in 2009-10, Richards could see the package was there, it just needed some seasoning.

“You could tell how much talent was there,’’ said Richards. “I remember him fighting Jarome Iginla his rookie year. He was fearless with a ton of talent. You just knew once it all came together he would be a hell of a player. And he has been.’’

In his 16th NHL season, all with the Stars, the 35-year-old native of Victoria, B.C., remains a very impactful player.

Which is saying something given his style of play as one of the NHL’s most feared power forwards.

“It’s impressive to me, his style of game and how long he’s done it for,’’ said Jordie Benn. “The minutes that he plays are not easy minutes. It’s remarkable to watch him the way he takes care of his body, what he does in the summer to get ready, what he does during the season to keep that high level, it’s pretty impressive.’’

Benn played on a forward line at the 2014 Olympics in Sochi with Ryan Getzlaf and Corey Perry, which was dubbed the Big Boy line. They were a terrifying force in that tournament as a unit, with Benn scoring the only goal in Team Canada’s 1-0 semifinal win over Team USA.

“Great player, very quiet leader who goes about his business but understands the effect he has on both his teammates as well as the game,’’ Getzlaf, the former Anaheim Ducks captain, said via text message Thursday. “He knows where to be at the right times to score. At that time (2014 Olympics), he was as tough a forward that could play the game as there was.’’

That was 11 years ago. Benn is still a force today. He absolutely changed the course of this series in Game 2 Monday night. His team had been outplayed for five periods to start the series. Down 3-2 in the game, he had monster shifts to open the third period. His teammates took their cue from him.

“I’m not the best scout in the world, but I think his first shift of the third period of Game 2 really got that team going, he pulled that team into the fight,” said Morrow. “He got them playing with some desperation and intensity.

“It was five periods of a team that looks like they were going through the motions or just kind of forgot what it took to win. I was sitting with (Stars president) Brad Alberts during the game and I said, ‘That shift he just had to start the third period is a different level,’’’ added Morrow. “You saw each line getting momentum after that. I’m biased because I love him, but I felt like Jamie was the catapult that got that team going.’’

Benn scored a beauty of a power-play goal on a nifty re-direct to tie things up Wednesday night in Game 3.

“He’ll keep pushing that team,” said Bowness. “Not yelling or anything like that, just puts the team on his back and plays the right way and plays hard. Go win that shift at all costs. That’s Jamie Benn.’’

The Stars struggled late in the regular season. They lost Game 1 of this series. It was Benn who willed his team back into a better place. “They’ve gotten better each game and I would say Jamie has gotten better each game, too,” former Stars teammate Joe Pavelski said Friday. “The intensity, you can feel it has gone up. He’s leading the way in an extremely important time of the year against a great team over there in Colorado.’’

Pavelski’s arrival in Dallas in 2019 added more quality leadership in the Stars room. As a former captain himself in San Jose, Pavelski understood how to support a captain like Benn. Because he remembers fondly how former captains Joe Thornton and Patrick Marleau supported him as captain in San Jose.

“I think coming in at the time I did was probably good for both him and me,’’ Pavelski said. “When I had the ‘C’ in San Jose, the biggest thing I learned from it is don’t change. You still have to do everything that got you there, that’s why you’re in that position. But you need help. Jumbo was unbelievable that first year for me, Patty was great.’’

So Pavelski wanted to support Benn the same way during his five years in Dallas.

“You can’t do it by yourself, you need the group to lead from within,’’ Pavelski said. “One guy is going to set the tone in terms of how it needs to be done, and then you need guys to take care of each other. So coming into Dallas, I had just been through that, I had so many guys help me along the way, I didn’t need a letter on my jersey, I was there for Jamie to help because I knew different things he would be feeling. And he had already been doing it for a while. But when you’re in that position, you’re willing to get help any which way you can get it when it’s the right intentions that are behind it. It was just show up, try to support him in any way.’’

Benn very much appreciated Pavelski’s impact and presence in Dallas.

“It was awesome,’’ Benn said. “I’ve been really fortunate since I got named captain to have great leaders around me. When I first came in, I got to learn from great leaders in Brenden Morrow, Jere Lehtinen, Mike Modano, the list can go on forever. I had Ray Whitney, Shawn Horcoff, Jason Spezza, I’m sure I’m missing some.

“But then with Pav, it was nice having him here. A great player, person and leader and someone that everybody respected in the room,’’ added Benn. “You could almost have said it was a 1a and 1b captaincy. I can’t say enough good things about Pav and how much he helped me.’’

In his 12th season as Stars captain, Benn’s leadership is beyond question in a Stars dressing room where he is beloved.

“He genuinely cares for the guys,’’ Pavelski said.

Pete DeBoer coached against Benn for years in his previous NHL coaching stops, so he had one clear impression of the Stars captain as an adversary. Once he got behind the Stars bench, DeBoer also got to appreciate Benn from the other side of things.

“When you’re on an opposing team, he was always the X-factor on the other side,” DeBoer said Thursday. “He was that guy that could take over a game physically or with his skill. He had a presence to him, just because of his size but also because of the respect he carried around the ice. No one wanted to poke the bear, so to speak, too much. And then when you get around him, the big thing I realized is just how beloved he is by his teammates. You don’t get that by accident. You don’t get that by buying team dinners. You get that by how you treat people on a daily basis.’’

Wyatt Johnston, 21, sits next to Benn in the Stars dressing room. Which no doubt is by design. And he has soaked in every morsel of knowledge from Benn.

“He’s awesome, just a great person, a great, fun guy to be around,’’ Johnston said Friday. “He seems to say the right things at the right time. When there’s a moment we can use that, he’s the guy who speaks up. The thing with him is that he understands the team really well, which allows him to be a really good leader and say the right things.

“And then at the same time, he leads by example by doing things the right way on and off the ice. He’s the perfect captain, really,’’ added Johnston.

There’s an enduring image of Benn sitting alone in the dressing room in the bubble after the Stars lost in the Stanley Cup Final to Tampa Bay. He looked soul-crushed.

“I went into the room about an hour after the game and he’s still sitting there. That put a tear in my eye,’’ said Bowness, who was coaching the Stars then.

The mission remains the same. It’s what fuels him.

“It’s obviously what keeps me going,’’ Benn said. “I want to bring a Stanley Cup to the city of Dallas and to this organization. It’s not hard to train hard and work your butt off 365 days a year because the ultimate goal is to win that Stanley Cup.’’

He’s got a lot of people hoping to see him win it.

“There’s one or two people that I’ve met in my life that I really root for and they’ve changed my perspective or how I live my life, and Jamie is one of them,’’ Morrow said.

“I feel like anything that happens in his life is a part of me, I celebrate with him because he’s that special of a guy in my life,’’ added Morrow. “Of course I want him to win and be celebrated and have a legacy forever in Dallas like the best have, like Mike Modano has. I think he deserves that. I’m definitely rooting for him.’’

Win or lose, though, Benn’s life has changed in the most amazing way earlier this month. Benn and his wife, Jessica, welcomed their first child into the world.

Fatherhood rocks.

“It’s been a blast,’’ Jamie Benn said. “Obviously some big changes at home. Me and my wife are loving every minute of it.’’

Papa Benn is a fun thing to see.

“It’s been amazing,” his brother, Jordie, said. “The whole build-up, the nine months, the whole deal before the baby came, he was super excited.

“Just watching him around the house now that the baby is here, watching him carry it and changing diapers, it’s just so fun to see the other side of Jamie Benn, you know?’’

Jordie has three kids of his own; his youngest is seven months old.

“We always talked about having kids together so they could grow up together,’’ Jordie said.

“It’s fun,’’ said Jamie. “We live not too far from each other, five minutes away. It’s pretty cool that our kids will be able to grow up together and hang out. It’s always fun having family around.’’

The next chapter in Jamie Benn’s life is an exciting one. The closing chapters in his hockey life are still playing out.

He’s a pending UFA July 1. Benn told GM Jim Nill before the season not to worry about extension talks because he wanted the team to worry about other contracts on the team. He was fine waiting until after this season to figure things out.

“He’s all about the team,” Nill told The Athletic in an interview before the season. “I asked him if he wanted to talk (extension) and he said, ‘I just want to win this year.’ That’s Jamie, he’s all about the team and focused on that.

“But we’ll figure something out. He’s going to be a Dallas Star for life.’’

(Photo: Matthew Stockman / Getty Images)

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