The Souray of old

"It's on me to make something out of this. To stay healthy and make a team say, 'We need this guy.'" - Souray, in January of 2011, in Hershey, PA.

DALLAS - After the past few seasons with Edmonton, there was nothing left to be said either by Sheldon Souray or about Sheldon Souray. And as the above quote would reflect, Souray also knew the only person who could control what the future would say about him was the guy standing right there in the mirror.

After demanding a trade on Sportsnet.ca at the end of the 2009-10 season, Souray was banished to the minors by the Edmonton Oilers last year. But not to their own AHL affiliate. He was deemed so toxic by Oilers brass he was loaned to Washington's farm club in Hershey, and he was there for half a season when he sat down with Sportsnet.ca again at a local Hershey steakhouse.

"It doesn't take a genius to figure out how we got here," he said that day. "What's more important to me than how we got here is, where do we go from here?

"The only thing I can control is play well, and let another team worry about what they have to do to accommodate the cap hit. That's all I can control."

On Monday he stood outside the Dallas Stars dressing room, answering questions about whether he ever began to wonder if he'd ever get back to the National Hockey League at all.

"The question answers itself," he said. "Here I am."

Where, exactly, is "here?"

How about at the front of the line for the Bill Masterton Award, for starters. And if he keeps it rolling, perhaps even a spot on the Norris Trophy ballot. For sure, a trip to January's All-Star game in Ottawa, at this rate.

That is how good a story Sheldon Souray has become this NHL season. He pooh poohs the 'back from the brink' angle - "I was still playing hockey (in Hershey), I didn't die and come back to life." - but it's hard to deny.

A year ago he was buried in Chocolate City, available to anyone who wanted him. And nobody did.

The problems, of course, were the final year of a deal that paid him $4.5 million (with an impossible cap hit of $5.4 million), and the fact injuries had limited him to 40 AHL games. (He's played 40 or less games in three of the past four seasons).

Today, heading into game number 20, Monday night against Edmonton, he has four goals and 13 points, ranking him 16th among NHL blue-liners. His plus-9 rating ties him for sixth among all NHL D-men.

"The big thing is just being healthy. With a healthy body comes a healthy mind," he said. "Just happy to be here, with an organization that has surrounded itself with great people. We have a real positive feeling here. It's shaved a few years off my life."

At age 35, he's on a one-year deal worth $1.65 million. He's had one scrap, an area that has led to several of his most recent injuries, and there is some alarm in the fact he leads all NHL defencemen with 14 minors. That can be a sign of poor foot speed.

To hear Stars head coach Glen Gulutzan tell it however, many of those minors come in physical altercations that don't escalate to fighting majors. His defence partner, Stephane Robidas, backs up that theory.

"Sometimes they think twice," he says of players who find themselves engaged with Souray. "When you think about Sheldon, you think about his big shot. Every time he lets it go, it's a scoring chance, and I'm still amazed at the way he shoots the puck.

"But it's all the other little things he does. He'll stick up for teammates; he's very physical in the corners. In front of the net, you'll see guys, they don't like to stand there when he's there. He can fight ... his presence on the ice brings a lot. You see guys, they're not going as hard when they're going against him."

The old Sheldon Souray had a cannon, a bad attitude on the ice, and was considered by his teammates to be a guy you wanted to have beside you in the dressing room, and in a line brawl.

He is 35 now, and doing all those things again. More than ever before, the old Sheldon Souray.

Mark Spector is the senior columnist on sportsnet.ca