Mavrik Bourque takes his time

About three-quarters of the way through last season, Stars general manager Jim Nill gave me an update on what he had seen from Stars prospect Mavrik Bourque at the time. I would best describe his behavior as “giddy.”

“He does things at a young age, leads a team, dominates at a certain level, and you have to realize how hard that is,” enthused Nill. “He would probably be more likely to be with us [NHL] If the numbers weren’t what they were, he would be in the team now, but he will have his time and it’s coming soon.”

And for Nill that time has come. Finally, what else could Bourque prove in the minors? Last season he led the American Hockey League with 77 points. He was an overwhelming winner of the league’s MVP award. And don’t blame Bourque for the Texas Stars’ early exit from the playoffs; He scored 11 points in seven dominant AHL playoff games.

The 22-year-old made the NHL roster this season and missed only Dallas’ first three games due to an undisclosed injury. Nill and Co. wait patiently for the outbreak.

Bourque has played a limited role in his three appearances this season. Since returning to the lineup against the San Jose Sharks on October 15, he has averaged nearly 11 minutes per game and only had one shot on goal. He was pedestrian, a harsh reality Soon after, he was the most dynamic force in the AHL. One of the biggest differences between the NHL and AHL is the structure. There are fewer mishaps in the NHL — even among so-called bad teams — and Bourque has struggled to find gaps he discovered a year ago in the AHL.

“I think that was somewhat expected considering the injury is over and the Stars have some other set lines that they don’t want to mess up too much,” an NHL scout said D Magazine. “I saw the spots on him, watched him closely the other night, I think the vision is there. He’s building more on that now.”

Considering how Wyatt Johnston and then Logan Stankoven came onto the scene, Bourque’s early NHL days seem disappointing in comparison. But the context makes it understandable, and that’s one of the reasons the stars are willing to let Bourque figure things out at this level.

Another reason is his makeup. Bourque has built his young career on making big leaps in a short period of time. In fact, that’s one of the reasons the Stars selected him with the 30th overall pick in the 2020 NHL Draft. Five years ago, Bourque emerged as an instant goalscorer in the Quebec Maritimes Junior Hockey League, scoring 25 goals in 64 games in his first QMJHL season. He was also pathetic defensively, raising questions about whether he was truly a prolific scorer or a product of a poor defensive league. The following season, Bourque developed into a more complete player. Seemingly overnight, he began gaining shifts against other teams’ top lines and rebounding better defensively. His offense grew with the rest of his game, scoring 71 points in 49 games in his second QMJHL season.

It was a similar story in the AHL, where Bourque was by all accounts a mediocre player for Texas in the 2022-23 season. Then came the 2023-24 season, where the same player who seemed so unprepared for the rigors of professional hockey emerged as the best player in the entire league. No wonder Nill was so dizzy.

“He’s learning. I love this,” an amateur NHL scout told me. “I remember watching him during his draft year and he came and brought new elements to his game. That made him interesting for us as a first-round talent. He always felt like he was one of those players who could learn with a few years and just get better.”

From conversations with those who know Bourque well to conversations with the player himself last season, there is a common theme. Bourque views failure as a reason to grow rather than something that distracts him from the ultimate goal. In fact, he came to the NHL for the first time last season after begging the Stars for an NHL game – he earned it – because he wanted to see him compete at a higher level so he could play with Texas could work on further improvement.

That’s one of the reasons why Bourque is so fascinating to me. We hear hockey clichés all the time about guys “getting it” at a young age, so much so that the value of that praise is diluted. Bourque is a reminder of what it should look like. He admitted to me that he didn’t take the game off the ice seriously enough during the 2022-23 AHL season, so he invested in himself and hired his own nutritionist and skills coach through his agent.

“I was young and didn’t know what I was missing,” Bourque told me at the time. “Basically I said, ‘Yeah, I’m good enough.’ And then last year in the first month of my time in the AHL I still didn’t make it and was just struggling. That’s when I realized that maybe I should use something that could actually help my game.”

That’s the kind of realization that many players half a decade older than him don’t make. So perhaps it’s no surprise that he also earned an “A” as Texas’ assistant captain last season, an honor that Texas coach Neil Graham is stingy with and rarely bestows on non-veterans. Texas Stars captain Curtis McKenzie describes an “it factor” with Bourque where he understands all the roles and isn’t afraid to do something for a teammate on or off the ice.

While Bourque’s game will mature more slowly at the NHL level, it will provide long-term value as he adjusts to his new surroundings. He plays the game much more with his brain than his body, with a style based on the manipulation of time and space. This should help him age very well into his 30s, as the wear and tear will save his body in his 20s.

In some ways, it makes him the opposite of Stankoven, who is the better NHLer now and could remain the better point producer in the long run. But the 1.70 meter tall Stankoven plays a physically intense style of ice hockey that demands one shot after the other from his small stature. At some point he will have to reduce the intensity from game to game to have a chance at longevity. Bourque, on the other hand, is designed to last.

That’s all well and good for tomorrow, but Pete DeBoer’s job is to win games today. At some point, Bourque will have to prove that he is a viable part of this winning strategy in order to keep his place in the lineup.

This is where the value of a strong working relationship between DeBoer and Nill comes into play. Nill lets DeBoer pick the lineup, but is also adamant that Bourque will be a part of the Stars’ core long-term. So, at the start of the season, the first-round pick gets extra time to establish his NHL identity. DeBoer understands that. In fact, one of the reasons Nils Lundkvist scored as many runs as he did last season was because Nill insisted the Stars figure out what to do with the young defenseman before push came to shove. Once that was the case, and Lundkvist still hadn’t gained full trust, DeBoer was free to pet him.

So use that as a template for Bourque. He will likely have half a season to impress his coach and it’s up to him to make the most of it. But don’t worry if he can’t speed up his typical adjustment period. History tells us that Bourque will figure it out on the second try.