Dallas Stars: Healthy Roster Will Give Them Edge In 2017-18 Season

The Dallas Stars start training camp in a few days and will enter with a healthy and active roster. That’s extremely different from the pains they experienced last year and could lead to a large payoff.

The Nashville Predators and the Dallas Stars have extremely different viewpoints on how the 2016-17 season went. If you were to ask both teams, you would likely get two completely opposite answers.

While the Stars turned in the second-worst season in franchise history, the Predators made it to their first Stanley Cup Final. Two different answers due to two different results.

If you’re a Stars fan, chances are you could not wait for the offseason to arrive. As a Predators fan, you still wonder what would have happened if the Preds had scored just one more goal.

But the past is now the past, much to the benefit of Stars’ fans, and the future is front and center. And for Dallas Stars fans, that is exciting. For Nashville fans, there may be cause for worry.

Dallas Stars

While the Predators kept the majority of their championship-run team intact over the summer, one massive piece fell off recently: defenseman Ryan Ellis. The 26-year-old defender led Predators defensemen in goals last year with 16, played a vital role in the Stanley Cup Playoffs, and became one of the most efficient defenders on the team.

But last week, he had knee surgery and is expected to miss the next 4-6 months. That’s a big hit to a team hunting a championship this year. That’s not the ideal way to enter the preseason, especially when you are considered a Cup contender.

The Dallas Stars can attest to this fact. Last season, the Stars entered the 2016 training camp schedule with a good number of injuries.

Jamie Benn was recovering from offseason surgery while Tyler Seguin and Radek Faksa were injured in the World Cup of Hockey. Cody Eakin also endured an injury during camp. Training camp was missing a few of the Stars’ shining faces, and it only got worse from there.

As the preseason got underway, Mattias Janmark was lost for the year to a rare knee injury.

By the end of the first month in the 2016-17 season, Janmark, Eakin, Ales Hemsky, Jiri Hudler, Patrick Sharp, Patrick Eaves, and Jason Spezza had all missed portions of the year. That means that three-quarters of the Stars’ forward group was injured either before or during the season.

As a result, the Dallas Stars tanked. They struggled to stay afloat in the first half of the season and could never establish themselves in the standings. They were on the playoff bubble for a majority of the season before falling out altogether in the final two months. They went from Stanley Cup contenders to an early offseason flop.

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A quick start is essential in today’s NHL, and floundering early is almost always fatal (just ask the 2014-15 Stars). The Stars learned that firsthand last year due to excessive injuries.

But will that happen this season? As of now, it looks like the Dallas Stars will have a completely healthy roster going at least into training camp and the preseason. Go ahead and knock on wood just to be safe, though.

Besides Tyler Seguin’s torn labrum surgery that occurred back in April, there have been no offseason health scares. Seguin has healed on pace and will be present at training camp as well.

The Stars’ projected starting lineup is healthy going into training camp this year, and that could provide a major payoff. But they must be careful with this gift.

If Dallas can keep their lineup in check and get through the preseason healthy, it could have a giant payoff. The Stars need healthy bodies in the lineup, and having it fully stocked could help the Stars jump out of the gate. A quick start could be exactly what Dallas needs to reverse last year’s misfortunes.

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The injury plague hurt the Dallas Stars last year, but they are in good position to avoid it this season. If they can avoid any costly collisions or extra efforts between now and Oct. 6, this season could turn out to be an extra special one.