Miro Heiskanen’s development was supposed to be backwards.

Unlike most highly-drafted, highly-touted, hyped, vaunted defensemen entering the NHL, Heiskanen’s defensive game was sound. It was the offensive production that was missing. It’s an unusual growth curve for a special talent, and one the Stars waited on after a still impressive 33-point rookie campaign last season.

The offense has arrived.

Leaving Tuesday night’s 6-1 win over Vancouver, Heiskanen has six goals and 10 assists in 22 games, and is on pace for a 60-point season that should garner him votes for the Norris Trophy, awarded annually to the league’s best defenseman. He carried a three-game point streak into Tuesday, and extended it with a goal and an assist against the Canucks.

The win was the Stars’ fourth in a row and extended their point streak to nine games. Dallas is now 11-1-1 in its last 13 games after a 1-7-1 start.

Captain Jamie Benn scored twice while Taylor Fedun, Justin Dowling and Corey Perry also scored for the Stars in an outburst that tied their season-high for goals. In the last three games, the Stars have scored 15 goals, discovering a potent offense to pair with its stalwart defense and goaltending.

Heiskanen assisted on Benn’s first goal of the night on the power play on a shot from the point that rebounded to Benn in the right circle. Heiskanen scored his own in the third period on a nice passing play between him and Dowling.

“I see a player that’s just taking over games,” Stars coach Jim Montgomery said. “I don’t think Miro gets enough credit for how good he is. He’s an elite, elite player in this league.”

Offensive production is part of the reason why Heiskanen wasn’t a Calder Trophy finalist last season and was left entirely off 38 five-player ballots. The defensive details of Heiskanen’s game were there -- the gap control defending the rush, the positioning in the defensive zone and dispossessing stick checks. But his 33 points were far behind fellow young standout Rasmus Dahlin’s 44, and voters noticed.

Entering Tuesday, Heiskanen’s 14 points is tied for 16th in the league among defensemen. But narrow the focus to points at even-strength, and Heiskanen’s 13 points is tied for third in the league. Heiskanen is one of the few defensemen that doesn’t rely on the power play to rack up points, and his 13 even-strength points are as many as rookie Cale Makar, seven more than Dahlin and eight more than Canucks defenseman Quinn Hughes.

So why is Heiskanen producing more this season?

“I think I trust myself more now that earlier this season or last year,” Heiskanen said.

“I guess that’s just the natural growth thinking about his age and playing in his second year,” Stars defenseman Esa Lindell said. “He’s smarter this year, knows the things [to expect]. I just feel like it’s natural for him.”

“I think it’s coming from him saying ‘I’ve got to assert myself more for our team to have success,’” Montgomery said. “I think he just took that upon himself and he’s doing that. He’s the engine that makes it go. He just does.”

As far as goals, he’s been the fortunate recipient of two empty-netters and one on a 6-on-5 delayed penalty situation. Heiskanen also had a sharp-angle tally against the Blues and a quick snipe against the Oilers over the weekend.

But shot maps from Charting Hockey reveal that Heiskanen is shooting from approximately the same areas -- mostly from the left circle and in between the top of the circles and the blue line. When he’s on the ice at 5-on-5, the Stars have generally had similar underlying numbers to last year (1.85 more shots, 1.59 more scoring chances and 0.01 more expected goals per 60 minutes).

This is Stars defenseman Miro Heiskanen's shot map from his rookie season in 2018-19. (Charting Hockey)

This is Stars defenseman Miro Heiskanen's shot map from his second season in 2019-20. (Charting Hockey)

But a closer look at his assists reveals what’s different. The Stars are producing off the rush, and Heiskanen is a big part of that.

Last year, of Heiskanen’s 21 assists, only five came on goals off the rush and the other 16 came on in-zone plays. This season, of his 10 assists, seven are off the rush and only three are on in-zone plays.

Here’s a map of last year, where only one pass from his own zone led to a Stars goal, and only three in the neutral zone led to a Stars goal (excluding a dump-in that rimmed to Tyler Seguin).

This is Stars defenseman Miro Heiskanen's assist map from his rookie season in 2018-19. Green dots represent Heiskanen, black dots the goal scorer and blue dots the player who got the primary assist. Yellow lines indicate even-strength, green lines power play and red lines shorthanded. (Matthew DeFranks)

A lot of Heiskanen’s assists came on plays at the net, either rebounds or tips or magnificent passes through traffic from Heiskanen. A handful also came on lateral passes in the zone that changed the point of attack. But the Stars’ transition game was largely void in Heiskanen’s assists last season.

This season, it’s different, and here’s a map of this season’s assists.

This is Stars defenseman Miro Heiskanen's assist map from his second season in 2019-20. Green dots represent Heiskanen, black dots the goal scorer and blue dots the player who got the primary assist. Yellow lines indicate even-strength, green lines power play and red lines shorthanded. (Matthew DeFranks)

Already four passes from either the defensive or neutral zones have turned into Stars goals and three passes inside the offensive zone were in transition. In the last three games, Heiskanen has four assists on Stars rush goals.

Some of the assists have been a result of luck, sure. Twice against Minnesota did Heiskanen get credited with an assist after a shot bounced off a Wild player. In Pittsburgh, Heiskanen’s assist to John Klingberg came on a prayer of a shot from the boards. But Heiskanen putting the Stars in positions to cash in on luck is noteworthy.

It’s not hard to think that Heiskanen — one of the Stars best skaters, puck-handlers and one of their quickest learners — can produce off the rush. It’s what makes him dangerous all over the ice, but it’s now just starting to show on the stat sheet.

“I think it’s first his mind, yes, but then you factor in the hands and the subtleties, his overskate move is incredible and then you also factor in his feet,” Montgomery said. “He does it all. He’s blessed.”

During the Stars’ most recent four-game road trip, Montgomery said the team showed four clips of great transition play and Heiskanen was involved in all of them. Montgomery also talked about how good Heiskanen was in Edmonton, when he was perhaps overshadowed by another three-assist night from Connor McDavid.

Montgomery said (per the Stars’ in-house figures) Heiskanen was on the ice for 10 scoring chances for and just one against in Edmonton. He said there was four in the first period, four in the second period and four in the third period when adding in power plays.

“That’s an elite game, and after the game, not a lot of people [were] talking about him,” Montgomery said. “He’s an incredible hockey player in this league. I don’t think he gets the due respect. I’m not saying that to promote him, that’s just what I believe.”

Saturday in Edmonton looked to be one of Heiskanen’s shakier outings early, when Jujar Khaira went around him after a failed clearance to tie the game in the first period. But Montgomery said the Stars don’t worry about physical mistakes, and instead focus on the mental ones. For Heiskanen, the mental ones are infrequent.

“It’s noticeable because he makes plays that you’re like ‘Wait a minute, I’m supposed to be correcting somebody else on that play, not him because he doesn’t make that mistake,’” Montgomery said. “It’s very rare.”