Dallas Stars Defense To Feature Essentially Two Separate #1 Defensemen
By Tom Dorsa
The Dallas Stars are preparing for the 2017-18 season with a revamped defense that includes, in a sense, two different number-one defensemen.
The concept of a number-one defenseman is to possess a single player that can excel in all situations, rack up points, and play an excessive amount of minutes in a National Hockey League game.
An Erik Karlsson or Duncan Keith type that leads by example on the power-play, penalty-kill, and in all other aspects of the game. Karlsson and Keith, defensemen for the Ottawa Senators and Chicago Blackhawks respectively, have many times played over 30 minutes in a single game.
This is something the Dallas Stars haven’t truly had since the retirement of Russian three-zone master Sergei Zubov. Although the excellence of Alex Goligoski and John Klingberg is noted, none of the Stars’ defensive core has been able to emerge and succeed in their own light.
One thing that will be different for this upcoming season in Dallas will be not only the deployment of a number-one, preeminent defenseman, but two of the said players.
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Yeah, that kind of contradicts the phrase “number-one defenseman,” but to think of these two players as 1a and 1b is the best description. John Klingberg and Julius Honka, easily the best Stars defenders since Zubov, will fit in these roles.
The Dallas Stars will implement a defensive system similar to that of the Nashville Predators, their Central Division rivals. The Predators, currently deadlocked in a 2-2 Western Conference Final series with the Anaheim Ducks, deploy their two superstar defensemen with this system.
Roman Josi, twice netting 60 or more points in a single season, mans the blueline on the first Nashville defensive pair, most often paired with Ryan Ellis. However, P.K. Subban, a former Norris Trophy winner and all-around transitional virtuoso, defends on the second-pair with Mattias Ekholm.
Dallas Stars
The Predators handle their surplus of offensive firepower well on their blueline, and using the same blueprint, the Dallas Stars can see the same success from Klingberg and Honka.
Klingberg, who scored over 50 points for the third straight year, will ideally be on the first pair with a left-shooting defenseman like Esa Lindell, a pair that had a considerable amount of prosperity last season. Honka, at just 5’11” will be best with a physical presence like Stephen Johns or Dan Hamhuis who can counteract any mistakes and growing pains from a rookie defender.
Not only will it give the Dallas Stars an immense amount of defensive balance to have two offensively lethal defensive pairs, it will provide the ability to possess the puck more often and slip it out to the deep forward core.
Jamie Benn, Tyler Seguin, and Jason Spezza will be better off with an offensive defense reminiscent of 2015-16’s system with Goligoski and Jason Demers that was highly successful. The three top-six forwards tallied 30 or more goals with such a blueline core throwing the puck out to them.
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It’s possible that Ken Hitchcock, a head coach that is historically defense-first, will assemble his core another way. With that being said, however, he’d be wrong.