Dallas Stars Player Power Rankings For Month of March

Dillon Heatherington is lining up a job as the Stars’ seventh defenseman come 2018-19, and that’s all that can be asked of him. He didn’t compete in a single March game, but spent some time with them as a recalled, reserve defender always ready to go.

Heatherington is physical and moves pretty well for a 6’4″ blueliner. The lefty has scored three goals and 14 assists in 52 games with the AHL’s Texas Stars this season.

Martin Hanzal seems like such a great dude that placing him at 26th kinda hurts. Unfortunately for Hanzal and the Dallas Stars, the Czech’s season is over after back surgery and zero April games. Hanzal posted five goals, five assists, and a 47.6 Corsi For percentage in his first of three seasons as a Star.

Hanzal is a microcosm of what has ailed the Stars this season. A big-bodied, highly unnecessary forward to sign in free agency, he was highly ineffective even when healthy, then completely fell apart and underwent a back procedure late into the season. But, head coach Ken Hitchcock likes him.

Mike McKenna is a hockey goaltender who has not played in a hockey game in two weeks. Normally that sounds awful, but McKenna is an AHL journeyman making NHL cash traveling with the club and backing Kari Lehtonen up. He gets to sit on an NHL bench and watch the Dallas Stars play, so even if he doesn’t play, he’s living our dreams.

What Roope Hintz did off the ice is more important than what he did on, as the rookie forward was recalled on emergency conditions twice in March, but didn’t suit up to play a game. Haha, you know this already because the Dallas Stars will never, ever use NHL-ready prospects.

Hintz is tearing it up as the second-line center for the AHL’s Texas Stars this season, however. With 19 goals and 14 assists, Hintz is showing why his short NHL cup of coffee won’t be the last you see of him.

On Friday, the Stars sent Curtis McKenzie back to his role as the AHL team’s captain, but not after the gritty forward continued to make his case for a full-time NHL spot. He assisted on a Stars goal and posted a 56.3 CF% in three March games with Dallas after a banged-up group of forwards forced the Stars to recall the vet.

McKenzie is having a strong season in the AHL, but no player necessarily wants to be a career minor-leaguer. I’m pulling for the All-Star to make the big club again come 2018-19.

The whole Gemel Smith situation with the Dallas Stars infuriates me. Smith is an effective fourth-line center when he gets to play, but only seven March games and an average of 9:16 per match did Smith suit up in. For example, Brett Ritchie has just two more goals than Smith in 25 more games and 331 more minutes on the ice.

Smith is an undersized forward whose overall physicality isn’t the best, but scratching him in favor of Ritchie, Remi Elie, or even McKenzie is absurd. The great part about this is that the season is nearly over and nothing matters.

If free agent defensemen Greg Pateryn and Dan Hamhuis have to leave in the 2018 offseason for Julius Honka to get consistent playing time, then I will purchase their plane tickets, pack their bags, and act as an agent to get them a new deal. Honka went scoreless in eight March games, playing just over 100 minutes total.

Before the season began, I was pumped for Honka’s potential as a Calder Trophy candidate with a top-four defensive presence. Now, I’m just looking forward to 2018-19, where he can actually play and impose his immense skill. I didn’t account for Ken Hitchcock sitting him for not being willing to block shots with his eyeballs.

I can’t say anything bad about off-ice Marc Methot. Methot the guy seems like someone I’d love to be around at all times. Methot the hockey player is less than desirable, though, and his March was indicative of his nonexistent value. The vet scored just one point this month despite nearly even zone start percentages and over 17 minutes per game on average.

If you see Methot in the offensive zone, it’s because someone else on the ice pushed it up. Methot is rarely the one doing that, and the opposing team exposes his inefficiencies on the ice often. Any and all puck movment and transition offense from Dallas seems to stop when Methot is on the ice.

Stephen Johns is the guy that has to play with the aforementioned Methot, who is a vacuum for offensive creativity. It’s no coincidence that Johns is far more confident and effective alongside Honka.

Johns had just one assist in March, and missed the final game of the month with a concussion. From 6th to 19th is a steep drop, but in a way, it isn’t Johns who’s at fault.

I’m going to revise my official stance on Remi Elie (a goal and an assist in March) from an earlier edition of Dallas Stars Power Rankings – the young Canadian only has two modes:

1. speedy penalty-killing winger with untapped offensive potential
2. raccoon with a glass jar over his head

Jason Dickinson needed to play, so Jason Dickinson played, and played well. That’s how players are normally treated and that’s the arch their supposed to always be on, but with Dickinson, you never know.

With two assists in March, it looks he’ll never play again for the Dallas Stars. All fourth-line players should stick to hitting and blockin’ shots in the Hitchcock system, never scoring, NO EXCEPTIONS.

Kari Lehtonen should be higher. When you play a ridiculous 15 games in one month as the denoted backup goaltender, maybe you deserve to be a little higher than a measly 16th on a rundown full of underwhelming players. However, Lehtonen is a veteran goaltender that shouldn’t crumble under the pressure of an increased workload like he did.

Lehtonen went 3-8-2 with a .901 save percentage and a 2.99 goals against average in March. Right when the season fell into his laps, and he could have been somewhat of a goaltending savior in Dallas, he faltered and the 2017-18 campaign is all but over. I love Kari, but if this is it for the backup in Big D, he could be remembered for this explosion.

Seeing Jason Spezza, whose salary is still $7.5 million this season, at 15th two months straight shouldn’t be met with an “Oh, Spezza, I almost forgot.” The former NHL All-Star and 90-point scorer was paid to be the second-line center that makes plays and scores goals in all situations, instead he has eight goals in 2017-18 and one in March (just two points all month).

Spezza is old and gassed, and might be done being the world class player he has produced as for 15 seasons. I’m just gonna write this and leave because I’m tired.

Sason Jpezza

Antoine Roussel did Antoine Roussel things in March, tallying two assists and a team-leading 25 penalty minutes during the month. He actually totaled more minutes in the sin bin than shots on goal (19) and very few sentences are more Antoine Roussel than that one.

However, with just three games left on the season, they might be the final appearances for the physical winger in a Dallas uniform as Roussel is an unrestricted free agent on July 1.

Greg Pateryn did not score a goal, added just two assists to a depleted Stars offense, and finished -4 in the month of March. Despite maybe the worst month of his career as a Star (which has not been a lengthy tenure, but still) he remained one of head coach Hitch’s favorite players.

The right-handed defenseman played 300:14 in March, with just Dan Hamhuis, the top defense pair, and the big three forwards ahead of him. There’s no part of this that’s cool besides… we still won the Jordie Benn trade, and it isn’t close anymore.

Brett Ritchie had three goals in March, which for a guy used as a pure shooter is awful, but decent for Ritchie. The three markers is a season-best for a single month, and he’s doing it alongside lesser players like Elie and Dickinson.

I’m still upset. I bet a friend of mine that Ritchie would score 25 goals this year, and he has seven. Seven.

In the weirdest way, Ben Bishop showed why he’s so valuable to the Dallas Stars in the month of March, despite only four games played. When he went down with a lower-body injury that all but ended his 2017-18 season, the Stars fell into an abyss with Lehtonen and McKenna trying to backstop an already poor coverage team.

He’s 11th because he played so few games, but Bishop’s true value and importance showed in March. Without him, the Stars lost all ability to win.

The other day, Dan Hamhuis coughed up a puck that led to a prime scoring chance for the opposing team. I said “Ham Danhuis, ” and I wasn’t upset anymore.

Devin Shore looks like a productive player with great offensive vision, and he’s one of the main reasons as to why I don’t like plus/minus. Because he’s often forced to play alongside players who sacrifice defensive responsibility, Shore is -31 this season, including -10 in March, two goals, three assists, and five total points (all stats are good for top-ten positions on the team).

I like Shore, and at just 23, he’s got a lot of hockey in front of him that is hopefully being played on the Dallas Stars. He can soon… uh, Shore up his two-way game.

I’m not going to use this paragraph to talk about Tyler Pitlick so much as how silly the Edmonton Oilers are. Pitlick, of course, was an Oilers draft pick and a prospect for many years until health issues led the Edmonton brass to part ways with the speedy winger.

Tyler Pitlick: 14 goals
Ryan Strome: 13 goals
Jesse Puljujarvi: 12 goals
Milan Lucic: 10 goals

gord job, mr. peter chiarelli. you’re a smart dude

To be nominated for the Masterton Trophy is an honor itself, but Mattias Janmark has himself a pretty solid case to win. Imagine essentially losing a knee and sitting out for a year to come back the next and chipping in a career high 19 goals and 15 assists.

Janmark tallied three goals and an assist in March, leaving his mark on every shift he took. In a large sense, he’s the heart and soul of this club. Mastertias Janmark, y’all.

Esa Lindell has become the player we dreamed about when he played in the AHL All-Star Game and the World Cup of Hockey at such a young age: the guy who minimizes mistakes and fits the role of an auxiliary option to a stacked lineup. In other words, he’s the actual version of what Hitchcock thinks Marc Methot is.

Lindell had a goal and two assists in March as one of the few Stars with an even or better plus-minus for the month. He’s a building block on the bridge to success or whatever, metaphors are stupid, I don’t know.

Radek Faksa is love, Radek Faksa is life. The middle-six center posted four goals (including a shorthanded sizzler on March 31),  two assists, and 15 shots in the month – which also led to a team-high 21.4% shooting percentage in March. The ideal second-line center is making a case to be a regular as the middle-man on line two come next season.

Consider the gravy licked.

John Klingberg is my favorite hockey player. He might have fallen off the lead in points by an NHL defenseman, but with a two-point night on March 31 to total a goal and nine assists during the month, he finds himself just a point behind the leader with three games left on the year. What a wonderful wasted season.

Klingberg will almost certainly lose in the Norris Trophy race, as no defenseman in hockey’s modern era has won the award after missing the playoffs (if Erik Karlsson can’t do it, no one can). Nevertheless, it’s a major accomplishment in its own right to pace all blueliners in point scoring, and he could land on the ballot of finalists with a good final week.

Alexander Radulov has had better months than what March brought him, but nobody — absolutely no one — will be upset with Rads’ four-goal, eight-assist effort in a month from hell. Of course, the player that will reach down to the very bottom of himself and find a little extra juice to play with is always going to be an Alex Radulov type.

I’d mark his first season as a Star up as a success, but Radulov probably wouldn’t. That’s exactly the kind of player you should want on your squad.

“JAMIE BENN IS A BAD LEADER. JAMIE BENN SHOULD HAVE THE ‘C’ TAKEN OFF HIS CHEST. JAMIE BENN CARES MORE ABOUT HIMSELF THAN THE TEAM.”

Jamie’s March stats (his eight goals, his eight assists, his playing of center and wing, his deplopyment in all situations including tough penalty kill time, his standing at only a -2 for a team that lost 11 games this month, his 54.3 CF%), and his fourth season with 70 or more points say otherwise.

He isn’t the one responsible for the team’s implosion. but okay

I don’t have to do anything to explain why Tyler Seguin is tops on the March power rankings, but his March stats are hilarious to me and I’m doing it anyway. Eight goals, 13 assists, 83 shots, over 363 minutes of ice time (most amongst forwards), and something only three players have done for the Dallas Stars since their move to the Metroplex: he scored his 40th goal on the season.

but uh… uhh, does he fit the culture? And I know, I’ve already bagged on Chiarelli in this very article, but holy crap.

Next: Dallas Stars Can Leave These Things Behind Come Next Season

Thanks for reading the March edition of Dallas Stars power rankings. After the conclusion of the season, we’ll post a big ‘ol 2017-18 season-wide power rankings, cool? Cool.