Dallas Stars go green with new 20th anniversary logo

Former Dallas Stars Mike Modano, right, and current left wing Jamie Benn smile as they wear the team's new logo on hockey jerseys during an unveiling of the new design in Dallas Tuesday, Sunday, June 4, 2013. (AP Photo/LM Otero)

DALLAS--The Dallas Stars are going green -- something closer to the Minnesota green they wore before the NHL team moved to Texas 20 years ago.

The Stars unveiled a new logo on Tuesday with a redesigned jersey heavy on the green that retired franchise icon Mike Modano donned after the Minnesota North Stars made him the top overall draft pick in 1988.

Modano, who spent 20 of his 21 seasons with the franchise that drafted him, was wearing No. 9 again when the team celebrated the new look by announcing that his number will be retired when the Minnesota Wild visit Dallas on March 8.

"It's a good colour," said Modano, the highest-scoring U.S.-born player in NHL history, who is now a franchise consultant. "No one else has it. That's the way it was with the North Stars. It's kind of unique and different. It shows good on TV. When you see it, you know it's us."

The Stars had a darker shade of green when they moved to Dallas in 1993, but drifted toward a base of black and white through the years. Now they have combined the two greens from their history to come up with what they are calling "Victory Green" -- a choice made among more than 250 options considered.

The move back to the franchise's Minnesota roots is coming with a bunch of other changes. The Stars have a new general manager in Jim Nill, who said Tuesday he is "very close" to naming a new coach after he fired Glen Gulutzan.

The logo is a nod to the franchise's 20 years in Dallas because the star has a shape similar to the one that stood alone under "Dallas Stars" on the most popular jersey from the team's Stanley Cup championship season in 1998-99.

On the front of the new jersey, a big "D" sits on top of the star, while the sleeves have the logo with "Dallas Stars" in a circle around it.

Stars owner Tom Gaglardi said the team considered Texas colours--particularly blue since it's a prominent colour for the other pro sports teams in the Dallas area--but decided too many NHL teams had some combination of red, white and blue.

"I think green was important because it was in our history and in our DNA," Gaglardi said. "We were worried we would just blend in with so many other teams. We realized we had the ability to own our own colour across the league."

The new look coincides with the team trying to end an unprecedented five-year stretch without a trip to the playoffs. The Stars won a playoff series their first season in Dallas, but it took them about four years to become championship contenders.