Dallas Stars Prospects That Stood Out In Development Camp

Forwards:

Roope Hintz

The 20-year-old forward from Finland was probably one of the most impressive players in the entire development camp, and for good reason.

Hintz was drafted 49th overall in the second round of the 2015 Entry Draft by the Dallas Stars and has constantly been in Stars news, particularly over the past season. He has spent the past two seasons with HIFK in the Finnish Liiga, along with a few Finnish national teams.

In two seasons with HIFK, Hintz put up 27 goals and 50 points in 77 games. The center really came alive in the 2017 playoffs, scoring three goals and tallying 14 points in 14 games. After this past season, the speculation is that Hintz will be playing professional hockey next season, joining the Texas Stars in Austin.

He always finds the best offensive chance and knows how to incorporate his teammates. Hintz has great speed, an excellent shot, and has strong hands and puck-handling abilities. He’s an intelligent player and put all of this on for show at development camp.

Here is a video I got on Tuesday morning at development camp of a beautiful deke by Hintz. He’ll fit in well in Austin next year, that’s for sure.

Jason Robertson

Another strong prospect who put on a show at development camp was 2017 second-round pick Jason Robertson.

He’s considered by some to be the most underrated player in the draft. In other words, he’s a top-ten talent that fell to the second round. Robertson is an incredible talent with natural scoring abilities, a wicked release, excellent playmaking skills, and an infectious personality.

He knows how to set up in the offensive zone and find the high-quality opportunity. Even when skating on the worst team offensively in the OHL last season, he found a way to put up 42 goals and 81 points in 68 games.

Dallas Stars

His skating was the one flaw that knocked him down a few spots in the draft projection, but he showed very few signs of that being a handicap at development camp. Robertson showed off all of his talents to their fullest extent at training camp and always had a ton of energy when on the ice. This is a guy that the Dallas Stars could see in the near future if he continues developing at his current rate.

Riley Tufte

The 2016 first-round pick had a good development camp following his freshman season at the University of Minnesota-Duluth in which he scored nine goals and tallied 16 points in 37 games.

The biggest pro about Tufte isn’t necessarily his ability to score goals, skate, or create plays; it’s his size.

Tufte is 6’5, 205 lb. at age 19. His size gives him a sufficient edge, and he knows how to use it. Throughout camp, there were plenty of opportunities for the forward to assert his dominance and use his size when controlling the puck in the zone.

He’s still a work in progress, but the 2017 development camp helped him show off all that he’s got through a freshman year in college.

Denis Gurianov

He didn’t skate the last two days of camp and only participated in on-ice activities on Saturday and Sunday, but his presence was still obviously felt in his time in action.

Gurianov is a powerful forward that can skate well and create chances on the rush. After being drafted in the first round of the 2015 draft by Dallas, he spent 2015-16 in Russia before moving to Texas full-time in 2016. He played the 2016-17 season with the Texas Stars in the AHL, scoring 12 goals and tallying 27 points in 57 games. His season ended by making his NHL debut with the Stars in their season finale.

Gurianov has a high ceiling and proves that whenever he is on the ice. He could be an “emergency call up” for Dallas next season and be a regular with the Dallas Stars in the next 2-3 years depending on how his skills and performance compares to other Stars’ prospects.