Dallas Stars Roster Decisions: Where Jason Dickinson Stands Today

The Dallas Stars have quite a few centermen to choose from when Opening Night comes for the 2017-18 season. One of those players is Jason Dickinson.

It’s April 7th, 2016, and American Hockey League rookie Jason Dickinson has just been promoted on an emergency recall basis by the Dallas Stars, in order to fill a lineup spot in the wake of Jason Spezza’s mysterious illness.

Not only was Spezza out with some sort of sickness, 33-goal-scorer Tyler Seguin had already seen his season conclude due to an achilles tendon ailment weeks before. Dickinson was needed desperately.

“I just thought of coming here, playing my game, keeping it simple and trying to contribute as best as I can,” Dickinson told The Dallas Morning News, and oh boy, did he ever contribute as best as he could.

Dickinson scored a net-front, even-strength tally against Colorado Avalanche goaltender Calvin Pickard, a rival with the Texas Stars, on his first career National Hockey League shot. The goal from the Georgetown, Ontario native came at 15:13 in the first period and helped the Dallas Stars move one step closer to eventually clinching the Central Division.

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Dickinson was then sent back down to Cedar Park, never again suiting up for the Dallas Stars during the final stages of the 2015-16 season and postseason. It wasn’t the last we’ve seen of the former Guelph Storm (Ontario Hockey League) captain, but his later stints have been either brief or insignificant.

Dickinson netted two goals in ten games with the Dallas Stars last season, each of such coming in the meaningless final eight games of the horrendous season. In those games, Dickinson failed to really look like himself; the speedy, reliable center with stellar two-way instincts.

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The 21-year-old missed a measurable amount of time as the season began in the AHL, due to a hip surgery in the midst of the long off-season. For the first time in his hockey career, Dickinson had to endure a fair amount of tough rehabbing and recovery.

In taking in Texas Stars games, it was evident that Dickinson wasn’t 100% ready to go. His point totals from his rookie season, where he put up 22 goals and 31 assists, deteriorated down to nine goals and 21 assists. Given that Dickinson played just 58 games as a opposed to 73 the prior year, that differential is obvious, but still: 2015-16 featured a 0.67 points per game average, while 2016-17 saw the Canadian put up 0.53 points per game.

With all that being said, this is a rebound year for the young, left-handed centerman. His ability to shoe maturity throughout the toughest times was on display in Austin from day one, and now, Dallas will see the same.

Dickinson is no lock to be on the Opening Night roster for Dallas, whose roster will likely be shaken up big time over the off-season, but I’d give Dickinson as good of a shot as anyone in training camp at impresses Ken Hitchcock and crew.

Jason Dickinson is most likely the fourth-line center on the Dallas Stars next season, as Devin Shore will perhaps see time on the wing. Dickinson can provide a scoring touch comparable to other bottom-six centers while also having very quick feet and good instincts.

The 2013 first-round selection is worth the struggles of injury and development, as his ceiling is probably a 50-60 point second-line center that could score 30 goals if he’s asked to be a volume shooter.

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Let’s see how things pan out with training camp comes back around to the state of Texas, just keep an eye on Jason Dickinson. He could surprise you.