Dallas Stars: Roope Hintz Making Case For Opening Night Roster Spot

The Dallas Stars have a tough decision to make regarding how they will construct their fourth line in preparation for opening night. That decision has only become more difficult with the recent surge from young forward Roope Hintz. In order for him to crack the NHL roster, what must happen?

An overstocking of NHL-ready talent can be a good problem for any NHL team to have. The Dallas Stars are no stranger to this problem.

Whether the overstocking is on offense, defense, or in net, it gives the players a chance to compete and put on their best performances while also giving the team confidence in the fact that they are getting the best lineup possible out of the competition.

But with the best possible roster and this competition comes some tough decisions. The Stars are no stranger to those decisions, either.

As they entered their 2017 training camp session, the Dallas Stars had an overstocking of NHL-ready players on defense. With five guaranteed starters already in the mix, it was up to Julius Honka, Greg Pateryn, Jamie Oleksiak, and Patrik Nemeth to scrap for the final two blue line spots. All four players had NHL experience and promising aspects to their game, making the decision even more difficult.

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Honka and Pateryn ended up winning the long-term battle for the two remaining spots. As a result, Nemeth was waived and claimed by the Colorado Avalanche just before the regular season began and Oleksiak was traded to the Pittsburgh Penguins in December.

To reiterate, it’s a good problem to have (the Stars finished the season with the seventh-lowest goals against average in the league), but comes with some tough decisions.

Fast forward a year and the Dallas Stars are in the same tough spot. But this time, it has to do with an overstocking on offense.

As the Stars entered training camp, it looked as though there were 16 players that seemed capable and hungry to make the opening night roster. But the debate wasn’t centered around all four lines. Instead, it merely had to do with the bottom line.

The top nine was and still is projected to look something like this going into game one:

Jamie Benn – Tyler Seguin – Alexander Radulov

Mattias Janmark – Jason Spezza – Valeri Nichushkin

Blake Comeau – Radek Faksa – Tyler Pitlick

Beyond that, it was anyone’s guess. Devin Shore, Jason Dickinson, Remi Elie, Gemel Smith, and Brett Ritchie all seemed to be vying for the final spots on the team. And while these are all players with significant NHL experience, they aren’t the only ones currently in the race.

Throughout training camp and the first four preseason games, one name that has constantly come up in fourth line talks is Roope Hintz. There’s good reason for that.

Hintz has worked his way into the conversation after a solid showing in training camp and an impressive performance through three preseason games. He’s been a factor in each of their three wins, scoring two goals and tallying three points along with a +2 rating. His lowest face-off win percentage in a game is 53 percent (which is already impressive enough) and he’s showing off a balance of physicality, speed, skill, and hockey IQ in his play.

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And though it may not have seemed like he would be an actual candidate going into training camp, things have changed dramatically.

“I thought he was really good, I thought he showed that he has the speed and the skill to play in a top-six role,” Dallas head coach Jim Montgomery told Sean Shapiro of The Athletic following Monday night’s win over Minnesota. “And I thought it was nice to see him play aggressively … he was very assertive out there. Which a lot of times when you get to play with two known stars, sometimes they’re a little passive — and it was nice to see him relish the role.”

So, now that Hintz is a legitimate candidate to earn a job on the NHL roster, what does that mean for the rest of the team?

Well, simply put, it means that someone else would have to move down the totem pole. Considering all of the other names in the running have significant NHL experience, that might end up becoming a tough call to make.

The Dallas Stars arguably have nine forwards that are locks to make the opening night roster. Add in Martin Hanzal, who is currently on the IR for the next two months, and you have 10 NHL forwards by Thanksgiving. That leaves four or five open spots.

Those spots will be filled by a combination of Shore, Dickinson, Ritchie, Elie, Smith, and Hintz.

When you consider that Hanzal won’t count against the roster number until he returns from injury, five spots seem open for the taking. But with six names in the running, who takes the hit?

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The thing about the first five names is that all are currently on one-way contracts. That means that they are paid the same salary, regardless of which league they play in. So, putting Elie in the AHL wouldn’t be a huge cap hassle considering his AAV is $735,000 at the moment. On the other hand, it wouldn’t be wise to pay Shore his AAV of $2.3 million for playing with the Texas Stars.

On top of that, they would need to clear waivers if Dallas decided to send any of them down (excluding Hintz). That can be a relatively easy process at the beginning of the season considering every other team is trying to do the same thing and likely won’t be looking to pick off other waiver players to add to their already-packed NHL roster.

But that could end up being a tough decision, depending on which player is chosen to go to Cedar Park.

All in all, Hintz is proving himself with each opportunity that he is given and looks like an option for the NHL roster. His contract has him pinned as the easiest option to move, though, considering it’s a two-way deal and he doesn’t have to clear waivers. That means he will likely have to do something really spectacular that forces the coaching staff to keep him in Dallas.

But as of right now, the race is still on. Could he be a healthy scratch or even a starter for the Dallas Stars on Oct. 4? Or will he be the odd man out and head back to the AHL as a top-line option yet again? He’s got a lot of competition around him with a stronger resume, but his production is speaking for itself at the moment.

The 21-year-old will be in the lineup for Dallas tonight as they face off against the Colorado Avalanche. We’ll see if he can keep producing and working his way up the ladder.