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Though they started on an inconsistent note, the Dallas Stars turned in one of their most successful campaigns of the past decade in the 2018-19 season. That was due to a handful of things, including a handful of players that took big strides and soared past expectations.

To know the 2018-19 Dallas Stars is to know both what it’s like and what it takes to trust a process. After all, the rollercoaster that the team built through the 82-game regular season could only be successfully navigated using trust and confidence.

It all started a little over one year ago when the Stars took the first significant step towards rebirth. They had missed the playoffs in three of the previous four seasons, been through two head coaches in two years, and seemed to be wasting some of the best years of superstar players like Tyler Seguin, Jamie Benn, Alexander Radulov, and John Klingberg.

And so, upon Ken Hitchcock’s “retirement” from coaching NHL hockey, GM Jim Nill and the Stars began searching for a leader that might help the team return to its place of prominence as a regular contender. One decade had been long enough.

His answer was Denver University head coach Jim Montgomery. It seemed like a bit of a stretch considering Montgomery had no NHL coaching experience, but a stretch almost seemed necessary after documenting the franchise’s failures from the past 10 years. Still, it looked as though the hiring might come with a handful of growing pains.

When the season began, those growing pains became a bit more clear and prevalent. The Dallas Stars began the year on a 6-5-0 note and were 13-10-3 by the end of November. The team seemed to struggle with finding a consistent groove. They would follow three-game winning streaks with three-game losing streaks, turn offensive surges into offensive dry spells, and were constantly making lineup changes due to injury and inconsistency. Simply put, they were a team with a new look and mindset and it showed.

CEO Jim Lites started a fire in late December during a public tirade and threw Benn and Seguin into the middle of it, the Dallas offense struggled to put up scoring for most of the year, and both the team and its fans couldn’t seem to find a solution that could help the franchise break free from the clutches of mediocrity.

“I’m very frustrated that I have not been able to gain consistency in our performance and I haven’t been able to change the culture of mediocrity,” Montgomery told the media after the Stars dropped a loss on Jan. 12 to the St. Louis Blues (one of the worst teams in the NHL at the time).

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But then, a turnaround happened. Following the All-Star Break, the team started to hit a consistent stride, there seemed to be a sense of motivation flourishing within the organization, and the fans began to believe that something special might be budding.

The end result was the Dallas Stars qualifying for the Stanley Cup Playoffs as a wild card team, knocking off the Nashville Predators in round one, and coming one goal short of a trip to the Western Conference Final.

So, while they still came up short of the ultimate goal, they reset their foundation with a strong 2018-19 campaign and built potential for a bright future.

That was due to a handful of reasons. From defensive supremacy to Montgomery’s teaching and commitment to a new identity, the Stars used new ideas and a refreshed sense of pride and motivation to surge through the final half of the regular season and into the playoffs.

But throughout the entirety of their 2018-19 campaign, there were a handful of players that stepped up in big ways. For some, that meant taking significant strides forward after starting their NHL careers on average or decent notes. For others, that meant finding ways to build on the hype that had already been established for them going into the season. These players ended up giving the Stars an extra edge and boost while proving just how useful they can be to the team’s overall execution.

Here are a few of those Stars that took a sizable extra step with their play this past year. It didn’t go unnoticed and should follow them into next season and beyond.