Dallas Stars: Last Year’s Grade, Next Year’s Guess: Miro Heiskanen

In today’s edition of the bonus Dallas Stars player grades, Miro Heiskanen gets his grade for the year he spent in Finland.

While the first two picks in the 2017 draft started in the NHL last season, Miro Heiskanen elected to stay in Finland for another year before joining the Dallas Stars.

Last Season

Miro Heiskanen’s 2017-18 Grade: A

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Heiskanen is still very young, so another year of development was probably a wise decision. He put that year to good use, spending time representing Finland internationally while still playing in the Liiga.

He was 23rd in defenseman scoring last year in the Liiga, but he only played 30 games. He actually led all defensemen with 0.77 points per game, and he was 25th in points per game out of all skaters last season.

Possession numbers may not be quite as well kept as the NHL’s, but he was at a +17 plus/minus last season. His offensive game is clearly there, but his defensive game is great as well.

His play in the Liiga was so good last year that he won the Pekka Rautakallio trophy for the best defenseman in the league.

When he wasn’t busy with the Liiga, he was playing internationally for Finland. He got the call for the Olympic team with NHL players barred from going, but he also played for the Finnish Worlds and World Juniors teams this year.

Next Season

It looks like Heiskanen will be making the leap to the NHL this year. The Stars hardly need more defensive prospects to join the mess, but they moved a few pieces out of the jumble last year with Jamie Oleksiak and Patrik Nemeth leaving Dallas. However, Heiskanen is clearly a stand-out over the rest of the defensive prospects.

With an extra year of experience under his belt and some solid international experience, he should do well coming in this fall. He had time to get to know Julius Honka while playing for Finland, and if they’re paired together, they can hopefully become a solid pair.

With Marc Methot and Roman Polak coming off the books at the end of this upcoming season, the hope is that Honka, Heiskanen, and the other younger defensemen will be able to take over, led by John Klingberg. Esa Lindell and Stephen Johns will help round out the younger core, with one other spot leftover for whichever player earns it this year.

Heiskanen shows the most promise of the newcomers, but stop by the rest of this week to see what grades the incoming NHL veterans deserve for last season.