Stars’ Matt Duchene to miss approximately three months following surgery

Some tough news for the team in the Lone Star State.

On Monday, Dallas Stars general manager Jim Nill revealed that forward Matt Duchene underwent successful surgery to repair a core injury. However, due to the operation, the veteran center is expected to miss close to three months.

Duchene has yet to play a game this season. In fact, he’s been dealing with an upper-body injury dating back to training camp. The 35-year-old missed the first couple of days and was a very limited participant in the lead-up to the 2026-27 regular season.

Duchene is in his fourth year with the Stars, and while he’s had his ups and downs throughout his career, he’s been a solid secondary asset for a team that consistently made deep runs in the Stanley Cup Playoffs. The 2025-26 season was relatively rough for the Halliburton, Ont. native. Due to injury, he was limited to just 57 games, scoring 16 goals and 45 points. It was his lowest amount of production in a full regular season since the 2011-12 season, back when he was just a young and rising player with the Colorado Avalanche.

Duchene was healthy and a key offensive figure for the Stars in their opening-round series against the Minnesota Wild, scoring two goals and nine points in six games, though Dallas was eliminated by its Central Division rival.

Duchene is in the second season of his four-year contract extension, which he signed with the Stars in June 2025. The deal has a $4.5 million cap hit through the 2028-29 season, with this being the final of the two years where he has a full no-move clause. Starting next year, he will have a modified no-trade clause where the player will submit a five-team trade list for the remainder of the contract.

With Duchene out of the lineup, the Stars have had a bumpy start to the new campaign. The team has lost three of its first five contests, including a shootout loss to the Pittsburgh Penguins this past Saturday night. The Stars (2-2-1) are back in action on Tuesday night when they host the rival Avalanche.