Dallas Stars' Mattias Janmark Is Lone Question Mark This Season

The Dallas Stars are set at every position, but with the dubious situation surrounding Mattias Janmark, the club still does have a question to answer.

Hockey is a game of the unexpected. Nothing, and nobody, exemplifies that more than Dallas Stars forward Mattias Janmark. Janmark sat out the entirety of the 2016-17 season (although, hey, he didn’t miss anything) due to a genetic knee disorder called osteochondritis dissecans.

Osteochondritis dissecans is caused by a small section of the underlying bone in the human knee losing blood flow and bone cells, then beginning to gradually die out. Once it does die, the bone (the subchondral bone, to be exact) cannot support the articular cartilage and the cartilage begins to detach from the bone itself.

That’s cringe-worthy to write. We as Stars fans have been through injury after injury before, some of them in the worst possible times, like Tyler Seguin’s ankle injury in the 2016 Stanley Cup Playoffs or Joe Nieuwendyk’s right knee ailment in 1998. However, this issue isn’t a normal bump or bruise that’s bound to heal and bring us ease of mind: it’s a genetic disorder that brings a series of question marks for Dallas.

Janmark underwent knee surgery in September of 2016 and has been rehabbing ever since. While it was rumored that Janmark could rebound and play for the Dallas Stars in the final few games of last season, team doctors and executives kept the universal forward off the ice for a full season.

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Janmark had put up excellent numbers in his rookie campaign of 2015-16 before being put on the shelf. His 15 goals and 14 assists in his first NHL season, one that saw the Swede play 73 games, while putting up a 53.9% Corsi For Percentage in his middle-six center and winger role. Janmark was sixth in goals and ninth in points on the 2015-16 Central Division champions.

For this reason, despite all of the uncertainty surrounding the former Detroit Red Wings product, the Dallas Stars inked Mattias Janmark to a one-year “show me” contract worth $700,000 for the 2017-18. It’s not an insult to Janmark, but there’s no room for a long-term extension with as unpredictable as this situation as.

To place an expectation on Mattias Janmark this season is to assume the 24-year-old will be entirely healthy, which is a hard presumption to make. But let’s say Janmark looks up to speed in training camp, makes the Dallas Stars squad, and fills back in as a second-line winger with Martin Hanzal and Jason Spezza. It’s possible that Janmark could score 35-40 points if he plays 70+ games.

Then, you can look at what happens to the club if Janmark’s knee falters once again. Janmark, of course, fails to solidify his position on the club, and the Stars look for help in that spot. My guess would be Antoine Roussel moves from the third line to second line left wing, and the Stars make Remi Elie, Jason Dickinson, or Gemel Smith a full-time NHLer to round up the forward group.

Perhaps the off-season signing of Brian Flynn could make a difference if one winger has to move a line up, or even Adam Cracknell or Curtis McKenzie simply start to play more. Nonetheless, it would be awful for the Stars to lose a player of Janmark’s skill level, but they would have the position filled in no time.

We won’t be able to project the 2017-18 season for Mattias Janmark until training camp, which elapses from September 15th to September 18th in Cedar Park. Janmark hasn’t really tested out the ailed knee in question, and there’s a one in five chance that Janmark will never be 100% anymore.

However, Janmark has skated in some capacities and doctors state that it’s easier for someone as athletically advanced as Janmark is to rebound from this illness. What happens to Mattias Janmark and the Dallas Stars as a whole remains to be seen, but the Swedish forward is one of the toughest cookies in the game, and we’ll all be rooting for him.

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If Janmark is one of the unlucky ones, he might have to retire from hockey. But the 80% chance of him making a recovery is promising and his hunger to play could drive him to new levels. Mattias Janmark: 2018 Bill Masterton Award Winner is becoming a possibility. Nonetheless, the Dallas Stars are thankfully set at left wing if Janmark can’t compete.

Everyone around Janmark is wishing the talented, youthful forward the very best. Thankfully, the Stars have the depth in their organization to make up for any loss of Janmark’s skill.

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