A 12-point season invites a quick verdict about Oskar Bäck: the Dallas Stars kept a center who did not score enough. That reaction has some merit. Bäck finished 2025-26 with five goals and seven assists in 72 games, a modest offensive contribution by any reasonable description.
Dallas included Bäck in Monday’s initial roster announcement, and his place deserves examination. At 12:22 per appearance, he had less time to supply offense than some other forwards. That matters. So does the possibility that a team needs more from those minutes, even after the workload difference is taken into account.
Bäck averaged 12:22 of ice time per game last season. That is the central piece of context. Sam Steel averaged 16:04 and produced 12 goals and 21 assists in 73 games.
Steel had 3:42 more per night to generate offense, a meaningful difference over a full season. Bäck’s 42 shots, compared with Steel’s 82, reinforce the scale of their opportunities without pretending that ice time explains every difference in finishing or playmaking.
Steel is therefore a useful comparator, but only for a limited purpose. He produced much more with a larger workload. That makes him the stronger offensive contributor, not automatic proof that Bäck should have received the same minutes or assignment.
A player averaging 12:22 is not carrying the same scoring expectation as someone averaging more than 16 minutes. Judging both by total points alone erases the job each was asked to perform.
Radek Faksa makes the comparison less comfortable for Bäck. Faksa averaged 11:44, only 38 seconds below Bäck, yet posted 17 points in 58 games. He also won 53.3% of his faceoffs, while Bäck won 42.9%. At roughly the same ice-time level, Faksa supplied more offense and a better result on draws. That is a legitimate challenge to Bäck’s roster case.
The faceoff comparison strengthens the challenge without settling it. A win at the dot offers an opportunity to control the puck; the rest of the shift determines what becomes of it. I would want to see Bäck improve there, while judging his overall work through the possessions that follow. Otherwise one narrow measure would merely replace another.
His plus-10 is an attractive answer to criticism of his offense, but it cannot carry that answer alone. It does not isolate his work from the players alongside and opposite him. If Dallas is accepting a small points total because it values other parts of Bäck’s game, those contributions need to be visible in how he plays.
A favorable number should prompt a closer look, rather than close the discussion.
