Dallas Stars: Way Too Early Opening Night Healthy Scratch Predictions

There’s still two months until the start of the 2018-19 season, but the Dallas Stars have already made some offseason moves to change up the roster for the fall, so discussions of potential line combinations are already happening, including who’ll start the season in the press box.

The Dallas Stars didn’t make any major changes yet this off-season, though there’s plenty of time left to shake things up in the coming weeks.

New head coach Jim Montgomery makes predicting lines and scratches a bit of a question mark, because it’s hard to say how he’ll line up the players. Some NHL coaches make a point to break up their stars (like Joel Quenneville does with Patrick Kane and Jonathan Toews) while others keep them together in one top line (the Washington Capitals with Alex Ovechkin and Niklas Backstrom until recently, or the “supernova” line of Jamie Benn, Tyler Seguin, and Jason Spezza).

Montgomery hasn’t coached at the NHL level, so there’s no coaching history to look at and determine how he’ll handle things. Coaching at the college level like he has been, there’s still the star players, but it’s a whole different beast compared to how things are in the NHL.

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Assuming Montgomery doesn’t come in and stray too far from normalcy, there’s a few different options for who could start the year wearing a suit during the game instead of Victory Green.

Martin Hanzal

Theoretically, Hanzal might be ready to start the season, but it’s probably more likely that he starts the season either on injured reserve or scratched for a few games while he finishes recovery. He’s recovering from an early March surgery with a recovery time of 6-7 months. That puts him right around training camp and pre-season to come back if all goes well.

If he ends up not quite ready to start the season, he won’t exactly be a healthy scratch, but the Stars could elect to not put him on IR if he’s close and instead give him a game or two to be ready. Going on IR requires the player to sit for a minimum of seven days, so depending on the situation, a healthy scratch may be the better choice for Hanzal.

Roman Polak

Polak is a free agent signing from this summer, but he should start the season as the seventh defenseman, assuming Heiskanen makes the jump. If Heiskanen waits another year, Polak can go in and someone like Dillon Heatherington can fill that spot instead.

Polak’s alright and he’s cheap, but he’s not the future of this franchise like the young defensemen, so he’s unlikely to get heavy ice time if everyone else is playing well. The Stars shouldn’t sacrifice ice time that could be helping to develop guys like Miro Heiskanen or Julius Honka for a short deal with Polak.

Remi Elie

Elie was a regular in the line-up last season, but with Nichushkin returning, he’s probably the first one to get bumped into the healthy scratch spot. However, if anyone is struggling, he can easily hop into their spot after spending last year bouncing all over the line-up. He even spent time on the top line as the left wing to temporary center Jamie Benn.

Elie’s spot on the healthy scratch list could easily be swapped with guys like Brett Ritchie or Devin Shore, both of whom struggled last season.

Next: Will Blake Comeau Be an Improvement on Antoine Roussel?

Tomorrow, we’ll take a look at what the forward lines might look like, but until then, what are your thoughts on who’ll be in and who’ll be out?

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