Hintz, Reinhart show off golden domes for Stars, Panthers in Finland

TAMPERE, Finland -- The gold-plated helmet worn by Roope Hintz when practice started for the Dallas Stars was not a statement being made by one of the team’s most fashion-forward players.

It was an honor.

In many European leagues, the top scorer on each team wears a golden dome to signify his place on the team. In Finland, it is known as the kultakypärä. The Stars players had watched a European game on TV while they ate dinner Wednesday and inspiration struck.

Nobody was owning up to whose idea it was, although a few fingers were pointed in the direction of the team’s training staff. Whoever did it, the helmet was waiting for Hintz when he got to his locker even though the forward is not the leading scorer for Dallas.

That honor belongs to forward Matt Duchene, who has 11 points (six goals, five assists) in nine games. Hintz is one of three players in third place with eight points (four goals, four assists), but he grew up in the suburbs of this city, so he got the honor as the hometown boy.

“I didn’t have it that often when I played [here],” said Hintz, who played for Ilves and HIFK in Liiga before joining Dallas for the 2018-19 season. “It was kind of a cool joke from the boys and I told them I could do one drill with it.”

He ditched it as soon as possible, replacing it with his black helmet to finish the final practice before the Stars (7-2-0) play the Florida Panthers (7-3-1) in the 2024 NHL Global Series Finland presented by Fastenal.

The games are Friday (2 p.m. ET; Victory+, SCRIPPS, NHLN, SN) and Saturday (Noon ET; Victory+, SCRIPPS, NHLN, SN1) at Nokia Arena.

“It’s a nice touch for Hintz for him coming back to one of his home teams,” Stars defenseman Mathew Dumba said. “That will be a pretty good memory.”

It’s a memory that Sam Reinhart of the Panthers will also have. The United States-born forward found a golden helmet in his locker upon reporting for practice.

“It was laying around and we thought we’d give it a go for a couple of drills,” said Reinhart, who leads the Panthers with 16 points (seven goals, nine assists) in 11 games.

According to Florida coach Paul Maurice, the helmet started out in the locker of captain Aleksander Barkov, who is from Tampere. The forward passed on wearing it, so forward Matthew Tkachuk stuffed it into Reinhart’s stall.

“Somebody had to wear it,” Maurice said, laughing.

Should the golden helmet become tradition in the NHL?

Maurice doesn’t think so, but said he appreciated what the special lid did for his team Thursday. He said it was one of those magic moments on a trip like this that bring a team together.

During the season, he says he walks by the dressing room and he might hear one or two players laughing. Thursday it was everyone, as war stories were told from the past 48 hours of exploring Helsinki.

“Those are the things that happen on these kinds of trips,” Maurice said. “It’s the guy getting up and singing at karaoke, it’s the guy trying reindeer for the first time. Those are the little things that happen.”