Dallas Stars in the context of "Braden Holtby"

The Minnesota Wild are a professional ice hockey team based in Saint Paul, Minnesota. The Wild compete in the National Hockey League (NHL) as a member of the Central Division in the Western Conference. The team plays its home games at the Grand Casino Arena, and is owned by Craig Leipold. The Wild are affiliated with the Iowa Wild of the American Hockey League (AHL) and the Iowa Heartlanders of the ECHL.

The Wild were founded on June 25, 1997, and began play in the 2000–01 season. The team was founded following the departure of the Minnesota North Stars, who were based in Minnesota from 1967 to 1993, when they relocated to Dallas, Texas, and became the Dallas Stars. The Wild made their first Stanley Cup playoffs appearance in 2003, making a surprise run to the Western Conference finals, but ultimately losing to the Mighty Ducks of Anaheim. The team have appeared in the playoffs a total of 14 times, and have won one division championship, in 2008.

Matthew Norman Niskanen (born December 6, 1986) is an American former professional ice hockey defenseman. He played 13 seasons in the National Hockey League (NHL) with the Dallas Stars, Pittsburgh Penguins, Washington Capitals, and Philadelphia Flyers from 2007 to 2020.

After his NHL player career, Niskanen began role as head coach of the Rock Ridge Wolverines Boys Hockey team in Virginia in 2024.

The Reunion district of downtown Dallas, Texas (USA) is an area in western downtown anchored by the Hyatt Regency Dallas and Reunion Tower. The name "Reunion" originates from the mid-nineteenth century commune La Reunion.

The district included Reunion Arena from 1980 to its demolition in 2009. The arena was originally intended to be an economic engine to drive redevelopment of the surrounding district. However, the real estate bust of the 1980s discouraged owner Ray Hunt and his Woodbine Development Corp. from investing beyond the Hyatt and the Tower, and no further building took place. With the Mavericks and Stars having relocated to American Airlines Center, plans indicated that the land would be put to other uses after demolition of the arena in November 2009, no further use for the former arena site has been found..

The National Hockey League's Central Division was formed in 1993 as part of the Western Conference in a league realignment. Its predecessor was the Norris Division, and it's also one of two successors to the Northwest Division. The Chicago Blackhawks have been a member of the Central Division in all of its seasons since the original 1993 realignment. The Arizona Coyotes (as the original Winnipeg Jets), Dallas Stars and St. Louis Blues were also original members of the division, but were realigned to a different division for a while before returning; both the Coyotes and Stars were moved to the Pacific Division in 1998 (the Stars moved back to the Central in 2013, and the Coyotes followed in 2021), while the Blues were moved to the West Division during the temporary 2020–21 realignment. Three of its teams—the Minnesota Wild, Nashville Predators, and Winnipeg Jets (as the Atlanta Thrashers)—joined the NHL during a league expansion phase between 1998 and 2000. The fourth team in that three-year expansion period, the Columbus Blue Jackets, was once a member of the Central Division, but moved to the Metropolitan Division after the 2013 realignment.

After the addition of the Vegas Golden Knights to the Pacific Division in 2017, the Central Division was the only division in the NHL without eight teams. This situation remained in effect until the 2020–21 NHL season, when the COVID-19 pandemic compelled a radical re-alignment of the divisions, including the temporary abolition of the Eastern and Western conferences. The Central Division was the only existing division retained for the 2020–21 NHL season. Only three of the eight Central Division teams for 2020–21 were members of the division in the previous season.

The Iowa Wild are a professional ice hockey team based in Des Moines, Iowa. They are the American Hockey League (AHL) affiliate of the Minnesota Wild of the National Hockey League (NHL). The Wild play their home games at Casey's Center.

The team was formerly the Houston Aeros, in Houston, Texas, before being relocated to Des Moines, beginning with the 2013–14 AHL season as the Iowa Wild. The Wild is the second AHL team based in Des Moines following the Iowa Stars, which had been the Dallas Stars' AHL affiliate from 2005 until 2008 (in the team's final season (2008–09), they were known as the Iowa Chops and were affiliated with the Anaheim Ducks).

The Minnesota North Stars were a professional ice hockey team in the National Hockey League (NHL) for 26 seasons, from 1967 to 1993. The North Stars played their home games at the Met Center in Bloomington, Minnesota, and the team's colors for most of its history were green, yellow, gold and white. The North Stars played 2,062 regular season games and made the NHL playoffs 17 times, including two Stanley Cup Final appearances, but were unable to win the Stanley Cup, losing to the New York Islanders and Pittsburgh Penguins in 1981 and 1991, respectively. After the 1992–93 season, the franchise moved to Dallas, and the team was renamed the Dallas Stars.