Dallas Stars' Opening Night Roster Beginning To Come Together

With training camp and a few preseason games under their belt, the Dallas Stars are beginning to see their opening night roster come together.

On October 6th, the Dallas Stars will play hosts to the Vegas Golden Knights in the 31st National Hockey League franchise’s inaugural regular season game. It is the seventh consecutive year in which the Stars will open their campaign at American Airlines Center in Downtown Dallas’s West End, and during that span, they are 4-1-1 in season openers.

Against an expansion team like the Golden Knights, the Stars and their fanbase shouldn’t really have any major concerns in the game, the first of 82 in another promising season in Dallas. However, the opening night roster – at least some parts of it – prompted a few question marks as the offseason transitioned into the preseason.

General manager Jim Nill and the Dallas Stars made a series of blockbuster acquisitions over the summer, including the deals that sent Marc Methot and Ben Bishop to the Lone Star State, coupled with the signing of free agent forward Alexander Radulov. Those moves, though, are not the questionable ones.

Nill has signed – or handed tryout agreements to – some rugged and aged veterans for his bottom-six roles over the summer, such as Brian Flynn and R.J. Umberger. This has since hindered the perception of the prospect pool, despite impressive stints from Jason Dickinson, Remi Elie, Justin Dowling, and Gemel Smith in the NHL last season. For this reason, Dallas Stars training camp in Cedar Park, and the Stars’ preseason games, held more importance than camps of recent memory have.

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The Stars gained a ton of information from the players on the fringe and will now make a series of moves in accordance to the assessment of talent. Dallas shaved off 18 players from the training camp/preseason roster today, and all 18 players are listed below:

Sheldon Dries, Max French, Samuel Laberge, Colin Markison, Cole Ully, Austin Fyten, Matt Mangene, Niklas Hansson, Dillon Heatherington, Gavin Bayreuther, Shane Hanna, Landon Bow, Philippe Desrosiers, – Justin Dowling*, Mark McNeill*, Andrew Bodnarchuk*, Ludwig Bystrom*, Mike McKenna* (*on waivers for the purpose of the assignment to the Texas Stars).

The Dallas Stars still have 32 players on the current NHL preliminary club roster, with nine of those players needing to be shed for the Stars to fall in line with the NHL’s roster space limit of 23. 20 forwards, nine defensemen, and two goalies remain, totals that must go down to 14, seven, and two.

GOALTENDERS

Let’s get the big, easy one out of the way first: the two goaltenders on the Dallas Stars come opening night, barring any injuries in the remainder of the preseason, will be former Vezina Trophy finalist Ben Bishop, and longtime Stars goalie Kari Lehtonen. Bishop was traded for and subsequently signed to a six-year, $30-million contract in June, signaling a level of trust in goaltending the Stars have not seen since NHL All-Star Marty Turco held down the fort between the pipes.

Bishop has meshed well with the Stars early on in the preseason stage, and is a bonafide elite NHL goaltender when he’s healthy, which he appears to fully be. Given his size and athleticism (6’7″ and agile), the Stars are in good shape. Bishop should play close to 55 or 60 games this year, with Lehtonen taking the ice in the other segment.

Lehtonen, in his final year on contract with the Dallas Stars, could be a 20-game winner in the right situations. It’s likely that Lehtonen will start the second half of back-to-backs, of which the Dallas Stars have 10 this season. Lehtonen could earn himself additional starts and perhaps all of a sudden get hot, making a huge difference for the Stars over the course of the season in a backup role.

Dallas Stars /

Dallas Stars

DEFENSEMEN

This is where it kind of gets tricky. The front four is seemingly set, with a returning John Klingberg and an impressive Julius Honka looking to have earned a roster spot for his rookie season. The two young righties will be complimented by lefty veterans Marc Methot and Dan Hamhuis in the top-four, an alignment that will eat the majority of minutes in every Stars games.

After that, it’s a guessing game. The inconsistent and generally underwhelming Jamie Oleksiak has impressed Ken Hitchcock enough to have potentially scored a spot on the Stars defense’s right-side, next to, we can relatively safely assume, Esa Lindell. The Stars are used to rolling two left-handed blue liners on the same pair, but in this day and age of offense coming from defense and needing supreme puck movement to succeed, it’s a much better idea to pair Oleksiak or Lindell with right-handed American Stephen Johns.

This dilemma, however, has approximately 500 moving parts. To keep Oleksiak up on the big club, both Greg Pateryn and Patrik Nemeth – with whom the Big Rig was fighting for the 7th defensive spot – would have to be waived or traded. Waivers seem detrimental to development of the legitimate prospects in Texas like Gavin Bayreuther and Dillon Heatherington, as each would immediately be assigned to play in Cedar Park, creating a bigger logjam of spare d-men.

It’s also nearly impossible to find a potential trade partner for one of Pateryn and Nemeth without tossing in more than just that, one of those defenders. My guess is, weirdly enough, Hitchcock and his crew are speaking greatly of Oleksiak to heighten his perceived trade value; then the Stars will pull off an Oleksiak deal, waive one of Pateryn and Nemeth, and keep the other as the 7th Stars defenseman.

With that, we could see a full-time defensive alignment of Methot-Klingberg, Hamhuis-Honka, Lindell-Johns (Pateryn). Ken Hitchcock has stated previously that he prefers to keep rolling the same six defensemen night after night, and it might be better to have more consistent players like Johns and Lindell playing over Oleksiak. But, Ken Hitchcock is a man of his word, and a hockey coach for 33 years; he wouldn’t just say something like that for no reason, right?

If Oleksiak plays, it’ll be on the right side, as Hitchcock suggests. Therefore, the lineup might read: Methot-Klingberg, Hamhuis-Honka, Lindell-Oleksiak (Johns or Pateryn). Too many defensemen is a good problem to have, but a problem nonetheless. Let’s see how things shake out, but from an ideal analytical standpoint, Johns and Pateryn get the call over Oleksiak.

FORWARDS

As Hitchcock and crew become more accustomed to the staff they’re operating with, the forward lines begin to formulate more and more. The top line of high-scorers and playmakers looks as solid as any in the league, with Jamie Benn and Alexander Radulov between 70-point center Tyler Seguin. The second-line should be just as skilled and effective, with a touch of defensive excellence, featuring Jason Spezza centering Brett Ritchie and Mattias Janmark.

OVERALL

If everything plays out how I assume it would (assumptions are tricky with Hitchcock at the helm), this is the lineup for the Dallas Stars at AAC on Oct. 6:

Jamie Benn – Tyler Seguin – Alexander Radulov

Mattias Janmark – Jason Spezza – Brett Ritchie

Antoine Roussel – Martin Hanzal – Tyler Pitlick

Devin Shore – Radek Faksa – Adam Cracknell

(Curtis McKenzie, Brian Flynn)

Marc Methot – John Klingberg

Dan Hamhuis – Julius Honka

Esa Lindell – Stephen Johns

(Greg Pateryn)

Ben Bishop

(Kari Lehtonen).

Next: Stars Make Cuts To Training Camp and Preseason Roster

With another preseason game in Dallas tomorrow evening, this one against Central Division rival the Colorado Avalanche, we get to find out even more from the Dallas Stars staff and have additional combinations to sort through. Whew, this is fun.

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Dallas Stars’ Opening Night Roster Beginning To Come Together

By Tom Dorsa | Sep 25, 2017