Dallas Stars Injury Report: Forward Call Up May Be Needed

The Dallas Stars welcome the New York Islanders to Big D tomorrow night. There’s a chance that they may not have enough forwards to play the game. They have the injury bug to thank for that.

The 2016-17 season was an unkind one to the Dallas Stars.

Among various glaring negative factors in their play, there was one thing that contributed significantly to dragging the team down. That was the injury bug that plagued the team in the first month of the season.

Between training camp in mid-September and the thick of the regular season in mid-November, the Stars suffered a mass of painful injuries. Tyler Seguin, Radek Faksa, Ales Hemsky, Cody Eakin, Devin Shore, and Mattias Janmark all went down before the season even began. Once the season started, Jason Spezza, Patrick Sharp, and Johnny Oduya were all struck by the injury bug as well.

The lack of starting talent kept Dallas a step behind in the beginning of the season and contributed to their slow start. And after the slow start, the Stars were never able to recover.

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It’s starting to look like this season will have some similar effects as well. At the current moment, the Dallas Stars have three players on their injury list and two others on the “questionable” list. Radek Faksa (lower body) and Tyler Pitlick (upper body) are both day-to-day with injuries and Brett Ritchie is on the injured reserve with a upper body injury. In addition, Kari Lehtonen is questionable with an illness and Marc Methot is doubtful for tomorrow night.

Though the Stars are not dealing with any long-term injuries to their players at the moment, missing multiple pieces always hurts. And with the New York Islanders on tap tomorrow night, Dallas needs all the help they can get.

These injuries could lead to problems for the Stars on offense.

After Thursday’s practice, head coach Ken Hitchcock mentioned that all three injured forwards will participate in the morning skate on Friday. Both Ritchie and Pitlick participated in red no-contact jerseys and Faksa skated on his own before practice.

But Hitchcock also mentioned the possibility of a call-up. The Stars would need to be careful with which AHL forward they call up considering they are so close to the cap wall. It is a possibility, though, especially with all three players still currently on the injured list. Bringing a player back in while they still may not be 100 percent is never a good idea and could lead to negative consequences.

Next: Stars Should Split Up Top Line And See What Happens

Ritchie, Faksa, and Pitlick all have a possibility of playing tomorrow, but it depends on their status in the morning. If all three are out, the Stars will have to act quickly in finding a replacement to round out their forward group.

Who could it be?