The hockey fates can be squirrely at times.

Take Stephen Johns' career, for example.

The big defenseman with good skating skills was the Chicago Blackhawks' second-round draft pick in 2010 and probably their best minor league blueliner in 2015. Chicago needed some help in the playoffs because of an injury to Michal Rozsival, but just when the Blackhawks seemed ready to make a career-changing call-up, Johns suffered a broken arm while playing with the Rockford Ice Hogs that knocked him out for the remainder of the season.

The fact that the Blackhawks went on to win the Stanley Cup without him is one disappointing twist of fate for Johns, but the life threads were not done spinning just yet. In an earlier playoff series with Rockford that season, Johns dominated the Texas Stars and watching from above was Stars general manager Jim Nill. When Chicago had to trade Patrick Sharp to clear payroll space that summer, Nill was there with a plan.

He'd make the deal for Sharp, but only if the Blackhawks included Johns. Chicago relented, and the deal was done July 10.

Now, would Chicago have made the trade had Johns been a big part of their Cup win in 2015? Would Nill have been so gung-ho had he not seen the big right-hander look so dominant against Dallas' AHL team? Would Johns have had a faster path to the NHL in a Chicago organization desperate for defensemen instead of being stuck in the Stars' forest of blue-line blue chips?

"I learned pretty early in my career that this is a business," Johns said with a smile. "But I'm very happy to be here, I'll tell you that."

Johns is coming off maybe his best game as a Star in a 6-2 win Thursday over St. Louis will face the Blackhawks in back-to-back games Saturday in Dallas and Sunday in Chicago, so the timing seems appropriate to talk about the 6-4, 230-pound defenseman.

Nill was looking for size and a young right-handed defenseman back in 2015, but coach Lindy Ruff wanted to run an aggressive offensive system that stressed skating. Fittingly, Johns had it all, so he was the exact right player at the exact right time.

"It's gold, it is," Ruff said when asked what it's like finding a big defenseman who can skate in today's NHL. "He can skate, he can defend ... for me, he can handle any speed that's out there."

That said, the 24-year-old Johns isn't perfect quite yet. He spent four years at Notre Dame and two years in the minors before getting his call-up late last season for the Stars. He played in all 13 playoff games, but he still has logged just 22 regular-season games and was a healthy scratch for two games earlier this season.

"It gets to be a little bit of a roller coaster sometimes, and I think that's why it's really important a young guy gets his game in order before he gets here," Ruff said of the Stars' philosophy of making prospects overripe. "He's been out of the lineup in the first 10 games; I didn't like where his game had gotten to, and I think since he's been back in, his game has been elevated."

Johns made his NHL debut against the Blackhawks last season, so he understands how strange the twists and turns of an NHL career can be. That said, he's happy he's where he's at.

"It's tough to find the consistency in your game, but you have to work on it every single day," Johns said of being a part of an eight-man rotation in Dallas. "The whole, 'If you don't play well, you don't play,' mentality we have here, I like that. It think it makes all of us better, and it makes all of us work even harder."

Almost like fate put him right where he's supposed to be.