Dallas Stars’ Young Roster Is One Of Their Biggest Strengths
By Josh Clark
The Dallas Stars suddenly find themselves with a relatively young roster. Though that can sometimes be detrimental to success, it eventually becomes a noteworthy asset to have. The Stars are simply waiting for the payoff.
Veterans are indispensable in today’s NHL. With constant new waves of young talent entering the league with each passing year, veterans are the best choices to set examples and provide learning experiences on the ice.
The coaches and front office can only do so much, but the veterans are the ones who can teach rookies up-close and in action. Without veterans, a young group could be a recipe for disaster.
Take the 2016-17 Dallas Stars for example. The team was a misconstrued train wreck, as we all know, and that led to a horrid 34-37-11 record with 79 points and a finish at 11th overall in the Western Conference. This performance translated into the second worst season in franchise history.
A large reason for their lack of success rested on their defense. After letting go of three veteran defensemen (Alex Goligoski, Jason Demers, and Kris Russell) in the 2016 offseason, Dallas was set up for a big gamble on the defensive side in 2016-17. That gamble did not pay off.
Dallas Stars
The Stars finished 29th in the league in terms of goals against per game, offering up a humbling 3.17 per outing. To put things in perspective, Dallas owned the highest goals for average in 2015-16 at 3.23.
Losing all of the veteran defenders proved to be costly simply because Dallas had to rely on a group of young and primarily inexperienced defensemen (besides Dan Hamhuis) for the majority of the season. By early March, the Dallas Stars defense consisted of one player over the age of 26, being Hamhuis.
That seemed like a horrible situation during the season. But now that it’s over, it looks like the Stars have quite an asset on their hands. That asset is youth, and it’s not just on defense.
Going into the season, the Dallas Stars owned a relatively older lineup. They had plenty of veteran players who had already passed their primes but still put up a decent effort.
But by the end of the year, all of that changed. The average age of the Stars’ roster is currently 27.5. While that may seem a tad on the high side, a study from 2014 says that NHL players typically hit their peak around age 28-29.
So that’s good news for the Stars. But it doesn’t just stop there. When opening night rolls around this coming October, Dallas could be even younger.
That’s because of a few key subtractions made in the upcoming offseason.
The most obvious one is goaltender Antti Niemi. After signing Ben Bishop (who is only 30) in mid-May, it was made clear that Dallas needs to rid themselves of either Kari Lehtonen or Antti Niemi this summer. Considering Niemi would be the easier buyout and had the worse performance last year, it seems as though he is the designated target.
The thing is that both Lehtonen and Niemi are 33 at the moment and are approaching 34. Losing one of them will help cut the mean age down.
Once you get into skaters, the projection could go even further. Patrick Sharp (35), Ales Hemsky (33), and Jiri Hudler (33) are all unrestricted free agents, and it looks as though Dallas will bring back one of them at the most.
That leaves Jason Spezza, Adam Cracknell, Dan Hamhuis, and Kari Lehtonen as the only players over the age of 30 on the team.
After doing all of the math and factoring in D Julius Honka (21) and Remi Elie (22) who both have a good shot at making the roster next season, the Stars average age drops to 26, which is the current age of Cody Eakin, Greg Pateryn, and Curtis McKenzie if you were trying to associate the age with a player. That’s impressive.
It’s always nice to have a young group when preparing for the future, but it’s even better when that group already has experience. This year may have been a down year in terms of performance, but the lessons learned and experience gained by the rookies and young players will be extremely beneficial down the road. Next season will give them a new chance to show off all that they learned.
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Jamie Benn is 27, Tyler Seguin is 25, and John Klingberg is 24. Those are the three central pieces to the Dallas Stars’ future, and to know that they along with the majority of the team still have yet to reach their primes is pretty encouraging.
So here’s to the future.