Author: Stephen Meserve | AHL Rhythm
Texas Stars Forward crosshanas After a missed call, answer the call on the first ring.
“Sorry, I was just cleaning something up,” he explained. “I didn't hear the phone ringing. I finally moved somewhere.”
at last.
After signing a 25-game AHL tryout, Hanas signed a standard player contract on Dec. 13, ensuring his spot with the Stars for the remainder of the season and ensuring he could move out of the Cedar Park hotel room he had occupied since October.
Long before Hanas was competing for a roster spot or tallying games on the PTO, he was learning the geography of hockey at Texas: the rink, the locker room and the rhythm of life built around the game. It was a map that was given to him long before he needed it.
Hanas is the third player born in Texas, joining the Texas Stars Austin Smith and Colton Hargrove. Born in 2002, just a few years after the Dallas Stars won their first and so far only Stanley Cup, Hanas said he was “born into hockey. Hockey was the only thing I knew growing up.”
his father, Trevor HanasHe played minor professional ball in Peoria, Topeka and Tulsa before settling in Dallas to start a family.
The Dallas Stars' original practice facility was Cross' home rink growing up.
“I'm there every day. That's the rink I really grew up on. There's not a square inch of that place that I haven't seen.”
Of course, there are good and bad sides to his father being a coach and former professional player. As a coach, he was always there. But he's also always there. They figured out early on that Cross and Trevor were best on separate teams.
“He wanted to have a different person coach me during the season so I could learn how to respect and learn from other seniors and coaches,” Cross said.
When asked to reflect on some advice he received from his father that annoyed him the most at the time but ultimately proved to be correct, you can hear the smile in Hanas' voice as he recalls his father's guidance.
Hanas repeated his father's wisdom: “'You've got to work hard. You've got to hit the ground running. You've got to get it done.'”
“But I was too stubborn to do that.”
After years of scoring goals and sweet results in Dallas, the advice hit him like a truck when he entered the youth ranks.
“When you get to the next level, all the skills in the world disappear. Wow, when I was seven, eight, nine years old, was he right?”
As Hanas considers the next step in his career this summer, his father's words are certainly echoing in his mind. After being drafted by Detroit in the second round in 2020, he signed an entry-level contract with the Red Wings and began his career with Grand Rapids of the American Hockey League.
After playing less than 150 games, he found himself without a qualifying offer last summer and unable to find a place to play in the upcoming season.
Then go home and ask him to come back. He was offered a training camp tryout by the team, which began their trip to the Lone Star State on the ice, where he learned to skate.
“Just to have the opportunity to go to Dallas. I felt comfortable in that situation, which helped me a lot,” Hanas said. “I know all the areas. I know all the rinks, I know all the roads. I don't need a map to know where I'm going.”
Maybe a sense of place and comfort is liberating in a way. It's one less thing to worry about as he works toward a full-year contract. Perhaps this reminded him more than ever of his father's advice.
“With the on-ice stuff, that's what I work the hardest on,” Hanas said of his attempts to rein in his transition from PTO to contract work. “Because I don't know what's going to happen tomorrow, I'm just doing little things every day. It comes up every day like it's your last day because that's essentially what PTO is.”
He received some positive comments from the Texas coaching staff, who made sure to play his game and not let the PTO evaluation stop him from being the player Texas signed.
“I never really felt like I was on the PTO,” he said. “Everyone made me feel so comfortable and I felt like I was meant to be here.”
It worked. Hanas is on track to have his best AHL season ever, with 15 points in 24 games, just two shy of his previous season-high. His first goal of the season was a “very special” goal, which he scored against his former Griffins on opening weekend.
As for things off the field, you get the feeling when talking to the 24-year-old forward that his parents have something to do with that, too.
“That's always the right thing to do – be a great guy. No matter who it is, coaches, teammates, training staff, everybody. Have people around the ice helping out. Always be the best guy you can be.”
In a way, these lessons come full circle. Hanas has the opportunity to coach youth players multiple times a week each summer.
“I like to help [my dad] Go out with training camp or his team in the summer. Especially last summer, I was at home longer and had to work with more kids. Whenever I talk to my kids, it's about things my parents told me when I was little. ” he said with a smile.
“I would say, 'We have to work, we have to move your feet, we have to pass the ball. When I was young, I didn't want to listen to my dad either. But if you want to play hockey at a high level, you have to
Learn how to do these things at a high level. “”
While Hanas has been preaching the gospel of moving on the ice, he's more than happy to stay firmly planted in Cedar Park for the rest of the year.
Stephen Meserve is the editor of 100 Degree Hockey, which has covered the Texas Stars since their first season.
