Dallas Stars Must Make Best Choice In First Round Of 2018 NHL Draft

The Dallas Stars are slated to pick thirteenth in the first round of the 2018 NHL Draft on Friday. And after a rough go in the first round in recent years, they must make sure they maximize the pick’s value this time around.

It’s finally here. The 2018 NHL Draft begins tonight in Dallas, Texas with round one. Rounds 2-7 will take place on Saturday morning and afternoon. And for the Dallas Stars and the 30 other teams in the league, it’s time to see if their hard work pays off.

For the past few months, scouting and debating have consumed each NHL organization as they prepared for this weekend. Finding the right prospects can be challenging enough in and of itself. But trying to project which ones will be available when a team’s pick rolls around involves something completely different. And with that being said, there’s a lot of educated uncertainty.

The Dallas Stars may as well be sitting on a lottery ticket right now. While they have done their homework and have their list of top prospects, they sit at pick 13. That’s almost halfway down the list in the first round. So which 12 players will be selected beforehand and who will be left on the board? It’s anyone’s guess.

But the Stars will likely own a different frame of mind going into this round one than in years past. That’s because this draft will ask a lot out of Dallas, especially considering they are on their home turf.

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With the thousands of Dallas Stars fans watching in the arena, at a restaurant or bar, or at home on Friday night, GM Jim Nill and the Stars simply have to do one thing: not screw up. Seems simple enough, right?

Well, the past few years would say otherwise. Since Nill took over as general manager in 2013, the Stars’ first round picks haven’t been top of the line, per say. In fact, it may be fair to say that Dallas has had one of the poorest first round classes of the last five seasons, especially when considering their average spot in the order.

The Stars have made seven first-round picks in Nill’s five drafts at the helm. When you average their first pick in each opening round over that span, it equals out to 12.8. And considering they pick 13th tonight, they are staying on par with their average.

Of those seven picks, only one has played in more than 60 NHL games. That’s Valeri Nichushkin (2013, 10th pick), and he’s spent the past two seasons in Russia playing in the KHL. Jason Dickinson (2013, 29th pick) and Julius Honka (2014, 14th pick) are the only other ones that have played in more than one NHL game, and neither has earned a full-time starting role yet.

Riley Tufte (2016, 25th pick) and Jake Oettinger (2017, 26th pick) are still in college, which is fine. Denis Gurianov (2015, 12th pick) is looking less and less like an NHL-caliber player, which is worrisome. And Miro Heiskanen (2017, 3rd pick) is expected to play in the NHL next season, as any no. 3 overall pick should.