Jamie Olesksiak is another powerful defenceman Dallas is keeping their eye on. The kid is huge. Coming in at 6’7″, Oleksiak is towering over the other players. Dallas drafted him 14th overall in the first round of the 2011 entry draft. The 20 year old is in his first professional season with Texas playing 38 games with 17 points. Back in the OHL he split his time between the Saginaw Spirit and Niagara Ice Dogs. I’ve witnessed his remarkable presence on the ice first hand in a game against the Kingston Frontenacs and knew he was something special. That same year he also won bronze with Team Canada at the World Juniors.

Brenden Dillon is another defenceman looking to make the leap to Dallas. Dillon spent 4 years with the Seattle Thunderbirds of the WHL before turning professional. In his first full season with Texas, Dillon was one of three players who played all 76 games and racked a total of 29 points. He’s another one who has a bit of NHL experience already. He made his Dallas debut in the 2011-2012 season against the St. Louis Blues.
These three have their worked cut out for them at this week’s ongoing training camp. The Dallas Stars open their 2012-2013 season this Saturday at home against the Phoenix Coyotes. It will be interesting to see who makes the cut.

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The general consensus from today was, “Pace”.  The practice had a high pace to it and from what Coach Gully has said, every practice should be that way from here on out.

Yeah, and we’ll practice that way – “pacey” – all the time.  If you’re going to play pacey you have to practice pacey; the two have to be together.

At the bottom of this article there is a video of the post-camp interview with Glen Gulutzan in which he is asked about the pace and more.  So, check that video out.  But first, I’d like to discuss some other things we learned not only from the interview but also from camp itself…

Vernon Fiddler

I think we forget one thing about Mr. Fiddler.  His contract length.  3-years to pick up the grinding center off of the free agent market this year.  This shows a clear dedication to a certain style of play.  This was touched on briefly by Glen in the video as well and it reminded me that this off-season’s plethora of new talent wasn’t just about filling up holes, reaching the new cap floor or even about making the team deeper in light of the loss of Brad Richards.  It was all of those things, but it was also about the future of the Stars – in my opinion.  Otherwise, why bother signing a grinder for 3-years?  Joe is clearly thinking ahead, even though we as fans tend to think about this year and whether we will be making the playoffs or not.

Thanks to Mark over at Andrew’s DSP we get to look at the line combinations used today and its clear by looking at them that there is a lot of emphasis on systems and learning them more so than finding the duos and trios that are going to run your forward lines.  Here’s a look:

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