Dallas Stars: Last Year’s Grade, Next Year’s Guess: Dillon Heatherington

Welcome to the first day of a new series on the Dallas Stars, where we’ll take a look at how each returning player did last season, give them a letter grade, and make a few guesses about how they might fare next year. First up, Dillon Heatherington.

It’s the beginning August and with arbitration almost wrapped up, most of the big stories in the NHL for the summer are finished until the new season starts. The same goes for the Dallas Stars, who may not have any flashy announcements over the next few weeks, but their players are hard at work on off-season conditioning and injury recovery.

Last Season

Dillon Heatherington’s 2017-18 Grade: B

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Heatherington came up to the Stars to help out while Marc Methot was injured and played five times in January and February while Julius Honka was healthy scratched. He also got in a sixth game at the end of the season. During those six games, he didn’t make a massive positive impact, but he played well enough for fans to take notice.

A glance at his stats isn’t particularly impressive, with a -4.6 relative Corsi percentage and only one point, but he played just six games, so it’s a small sample size to judge from. However, he looked good during his time on ice and showed that he absolutely has some potential.

Heatherington’s grade is improved by his AHL work. He spent most of the season with the Texas Stars, including their deep playoff run that saw them lose in the finals. He played well for them while he was there, despite not putting up a bunch of points because that’s not his role. He’s more of a defensive defenseman and has had success so far in that capacity.

Next Season

Realistically, Heatherington is going to start next year back in Austin. The defense in Dallas is jammed up with so many players despite the departure of Dan Hamhuis and Greg Pateryn. With the signing of Roman Polak and the possible addition of Miro Heiskanen, Heatherington is without a spot, but he’s an easy choice for a call-up during the season. He’s got potential to make the roster on a full-time basis in a year or two, but he’ll like see predominantly AHL minutes for now.

If he does get called up, he’s not going to go out and be a flashy offensive defenseman, but he won’t be a major defensive liability and he can take a lot of defensive zone starts.

He’s on a small, two-way contract for next year, which allows the team to reassess his play and his value after another season in the organization. With both Polak and Methot coming off the books next year, this season is a big test if he wants to grab a spot for 2018-19.

Check back in throughout August for the rest of the series and feel free to share your personal grades for each player in the comments. I’ll be doing them in order of games played and then cover the Stars’ new off-season acquisitions as well.