Dallas Stars Top Storylines To Watch Out For At Training Camp

With Dallas Stars training camp just a short couple of days away, fans can keep track of these burgeoning stories and questions as they assess the players on the ice.

In life, there is a scarcity of uncertainty and variability. Every single one of us gets up in the morning, perform and often times complete our daily tasks, then relax and repeat the ordeal for the next artificial 24-hour time period.

We have become such hopeless servants of tradition, routine, and time, that there’s almost no turning back. We confront nearly no real conundrums in life anymore, almost as though the human race has reached its final form.

We live and breathe with this notion that with large amounts of time comes improvement and natural progression. But what if we, as a whole, have stopped evolving, so to speak? We are what we are, and there are zero ways to ameliorate and spark interest in something in which there is no interest and fandom to be had. There’s no more simple mystery and wonder, like we know everything or can in seconds.

To encounter a true, brain-busting mystery, we must first be fascinated by such a thing. Fascination is a tricky nature because it’s difficult to find undying interest in something at which you are knowledgeable and well-versed. With the modern accessibility of Google or social media, we can all know and analyze bits of information in milliseconds of time.

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To contrast, even the simplest of things can be enthralling when you know close to nothing about it. It’s a feeling that has, for awhile, been escaping us, but one that can return with an admiration for uncertainty itself. It’s like watching a baseball umpire make garbage calls in the strike zone: there’s a certain appreciation we should hold for the unpredictability of the umpire and what it brings to the sport.

That’s what a mystery, at its core, is. When you know nothing, you have got to learn everything, right? And when you know everything, you want things to be more questionable and undetermined. It’s natural. Dallas Stars training camp provides that feeling, one that has been dwindling, again.

Dallas Stars training camp, this year held in Cedar Park for the third consecutive season, can bring surprises to the forefront. Mattias Janmark and Esa Lindell have won starting jobs directly out of training camp in recent years with impressive showings in the practices and drills. It can also bring to the forefront an answer to some questions of importance.

The Stars, like all of the 31 National Hockey League teams, have a lot of unanswered questions, but some are unique to Dallas. To watch the club train from September 15th to the 18th, with a full-team, officiated intrasquad scrimmage on the 17th, is to seek an solution to these uncertainties.

The mystery of Janmark’s genetically ailed knee, the bottom six forward roles for which it seems up to 12 people are contending, and many more stories to follow at camp. The off-season is finished (thank you so much), the ice is down, the players have suited up, and it’s time for hockey. Let’s look at the best storylines to follow at the annual warm-up for the 2017-18 season.

MATTIAS JANMARK’S OSTEOCHONDRITIS DISSECANS

The cringe-worthy knee disorder that affected Mattias Janmark is an intriguing one, because the genetic nature of the illness makes it impossible to track what will happen to the 24-year-old Swede over the season (that is if the forward can play at all). Janmark missed the entirety of the 2016-17 season with the injury, and will hopefully be able to bounce back after a successful rookie campaign (15 goals, 13 assists) gave us a peek at Janmark’s potential.

We don’t know the extent of Janmark’s ability, or how his knee has rehabilitated from the knee he underwent surgery 12 months ago. If you’ll be at HEB Center at Cedar Park, watch out for #13 skating up and down the ice and keep posted about his physical condition. He’s a marvelously talented player who could contribute in a multitude of ways this season, but his health raises the elusive question marks.

THE BOTTOM-SIX FORWARD GROUP

We have prospects, NHL veterans, returning bottom-six players and more competing over, what seems like, just three or four positions. With the top nine seemingly set, barring any setbacks for the aforementioned Janmark (Jamie Benn – Tyler Seguin – Alexander Radulov, Mattias Janmark – Martin Hanzal – Jason Spezza, Antoine Roussel – Radek Faksa – Brett Ritchie), we have Curtis McKenzie, Devin Shore, Jason Dickinson, Remi Elie, Gemel Smith, Brian Flynn, Adam Cracknell, R.J. Umberger, Tyler Pitlck, Justin Dowling, and Denis Gurianov fighting over the remaining space.

11 guys battling for three, four, maybe five spaces. Who wins a job in the NHL and why will be an interesting thing to keep track of at training camp as the Stars have so much organizational depth at forward that a non-playoff team really shouldn’t even have. It’s a good problem to have, but there are going to be NHL players that will have to play the season with the Texas Stars or, if they have to pass through waivers, potentially elsewhere.

THE NEW-LOOK BLUELINE IN ACTION, MOVES ON DEFENSE

As a defensive-minded head coach, Ken Hitchcock will no doubt have his defense in tip-top shape. Lockdown blueliner Marc Methot and Julius Honka, who is expected to make the team, are new faces in different places and will provide a punch. Miro Heiskanen, who has an outside chance to make the Dallas Stars out of camp, but will likely play in Finland once more, will also be present.

Dallas Stars /

Dallas Stars

Returning possession monsters John Klingberg and Dan Hamhuis will be experienced, mature, and great presences on the club’s blueline that will experience a lot of transition… which leads me to: we have 3,642 defensemen, a number that will need to be cut to seven or eight. As the Stars still look at Esa Lindell as a developing star on defense, and having used an expansion draft protection spot on Stephen Johns, we can assume they’re in the mix for 2017-18.

Jamie Oleksiak, Greg Pateryn, and Patrik Nemeth, however, have their work cut out for them. One, or two of them will have to pack their bags as one solidifies themself as the Dallas Stars’ seventh D-man. The Stars have learned their lesson about carrying eight blueliners are will not repeat it again. Expect for two of those three to be waived, traded, or cut by preseason’s end.

TEXAS STARS GOALTENDER TANDEM

After the off-season signing of veteran netminder Mike McKenna, the Texas Stars look to line the recent Syracuse Crunch goalie up with one of their two pro goalie prospects, Landon Bow and Philippe Desrosiers. McKenna is expected to split time with one of the two, but with whom is still to be determined.

That’s until training camp. Desrosiers and Bow will each be present and showing their skills for a chance to earn that role, one that will be decided in camp and in the Dallas Stars’ preseason games. For the winner, it’s a fast-track for success in the pro game, as playing with Texas puts more eyeballs on a goalie than playing with the ECHL’s Idaho Steelheads, and a chance (minimal, but still there), at earning an NHL promotion.

OVERALL HEALTH OF JAMIE BENN AND TYLER SEGUIN

It was clear to see last season: Dallas Stars captain Jamie Benn was not at 100%. His hits were down compared to 2015-16, he wasn’t putting a lot of high-danger shots to the net, and he was with possession black hole Cody Eakin for most of 2016-17. Couple that with Tyler Seguin, his partner in crime having shoulder surgery in April, and there are concerns about their overall health.

To me, they’ll be fine. They’ve had plenty of time to rehab with no postseason or World Cup of Hockey this year, and both players play such a dynamic game that they’d contribute nonetheless. However, it’s important to watch out for their overall wellbeing with each player being relatively injury-prone. Benn and Seguin are obviously the heart of the franchise, and their health is significantly important.

HOW WILL KEN HITCHCOCK’S OLD-SCHOOL STYLE MESH WITH THE STARS

Ken Hitchcock is 65 years old – there’re no getting around that: he’s the prototypical old-school hockey mind. With a team that, under Lindy Ruff, relied heavily on speed and endurance, Hitchcock’s traditional bump-and-grind style might fail to mesh early on in the 2017-18 season unless the players fully buy in and keep a level head when it comes to Hitchcock’s disciplinary style of NHL hockey.

Watch out for the simple emotion – the way the Stars turn their heads and look at Hitchcock, and the way Hitch goes about mentoring the players – to get a grasp on how the new head coach will blend with a hard-to-coach team. Things could go south fast if the players react poorly to Hitchcock’s tough demeanor, but Hitch has never had a team this skilled and will hopefully coach them accordingly. Let the Stars do their thing and you do you is the plan, and Hitch is the man.

NEW FACES AND NEW NAMES IN VICTORY GREEN

It’s way too obvious to just say the Dallas Stars had a busy and eventful offseason. The Dallas Stars downright destroyed the offseason, y’all. Ben Bishop, Alexander Radulov, Martin Hanzal, re-signing all of the integral restricted free agents, and more headline a group of transactions made by general manager Jim Nill, the undoubted king of the summer months in hockey.

Look out for the newest crop of fresh faces in the American Airlines Center at training camp and how they take their place on the team, the way they come together with their new teammates, and of course, how skilled they are. Some of these players are guys that for the majority of fans around Dallas and Austin have never seen, and have to appreciate and fully absorb up close.

Next: Stars' Health Coming into Season Is The Biggest Key

Boom, son, there you go. If you’re coming down from Dallas-Fort Worth to catch training camp, take this helpful guide of recommendations and keep these stories in mind. Go Stars.

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Dallas Stars Training Camp: Top Storylines To Watch For

By Tom Dorsa | Sep 11, 2017