Jamie Oleksiak Back To AHL; Signaling Trevor Daley Return?

The Dallas Stars dropped an important game in regards to their playoff hopes Sunday night to the St. Louis Blues. They are not scheduled to play until Thursday night at home against the Pittsburgh Penguins, who are currently in the top three in the Metropolitan Division.

They took the day off Monday after playing four games in six days and will practice Tuesday morning in Frisco.

But Monday was not entirely quiet in the Stars organization. The team announced that they reassigned defenseman Jamie Oleksiak to the Texas Stars of the AHL. This move received a fair share of backlash as many Stars fans believe that Jamie Oleksiak, since being recalled a week ago, had played to his potential and outperformed fellow defenseman Jyrki Jokipakka.

Jokipakka has not played a game outside of the NHL since January 17th when he was recalled by Dallas. Jamie Oleksiak will go back down and help the Texas Stars in their pursuit to defend their Calder Cup Championship from last year. Either way, it looks like he may be seeing a postseason game before Jokipakka and the Dallas Stars do.

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But with Jamie Oleksiak gone, that leaves a bit of uncertainty in the Dallas Stars lineup. Oleksiak filled in the sixth defenseman spot for the Stars, but with young and talented rookie defenseman John Klingberg expected to return Thursday night against the Penguins, he was filtered back down to the AHL in order to gain some more playing time and experience.

But the Dallas Stars have played it safe this season, always trying to have a spare forward and defenseman called up in case something odd or unfortunate might happen. So with Oleksiak being sent packing, the Stars only have six assumedly healthy defensemen on their roster. Daley could make be planning on taking the seventh spot and reassuming his spot in the lineup before we know it.

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This could very well be nothing more than a hunch considering the Stars only played with six defensemen on their active roster for the past three games, but it could also signal the return of a much-needed defensive threat in the Stars arsenal, Trevor Daley.

Daley has been out since March 3rd when he was kneed by New York Islanders forward Matt Martin, resulting in a 2-4 week injury for Daley and an ejection and suspension for Martin.

Daley will have missed two weeks as of Tuesday evening. With the Stars still somewhat in the playoff hunt, it would not be surprising if Daley is back on the ice with the Stars before the home stand ends (thank heavens) Saturday night. This is not reported, but merely an educated guess. Tyler Seguin had an MCL sprain, a rather serious and tender injury, and returned one day after the minimum estimated time that he was supposed to be sidelined. So why can’t Daley do it with a sprained knee? After all, the Dallas Stars could definitely use it. At this point, they could use a lot of things in order to keep their hopes alive in the playoff race.

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