Dallas Stars Roster Moves: Elie, Dowling to AHL While Hintz, Smith Stay

It’s finally October and the Dallas Stars are almost out of time to finalize their opening night roster.

This morning, the Dallas Stars put Remi Elie, Justin Dowling, and Joel Hanley on waivers, making a few more moves needed to cut down the roster.

Assuming they clear, all three will head to the Texas Stars to start the season in the AHL.

Elie spent the bulk of last season in the NHL, playing 72 games and even spending some time on the top line. His reassignment is a bit of a surprise, but the forward depth is overloaded right now. Of the three, he’s also most likely to be claimed off of waivers.

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Dowling didn’t spend any time with the Stars last year, but he did get in 9 NHL games in 2016-17. His cut was much more expected than Elie’s.

Hanley is new to the organization after signing a one-year, two-way deal this summer. He’s got 22 NHL games in the past 3 years and was meant to be an AHL depth defenseman.

While the three of them wait to see if they clear waivers before tomorrow’s deadline, a few interesting names remain on the roster ahead of opening night.

Gemel Smith went through contract arbitration with the Stars this summer over a disagreement mostly about a one-way vs two-way contract, but the Stars are keeping him up either way, at least to start the season off. His play last year was good and he has the potential to be a helpful depth player when he’s not healthy scratched.

However, the most notable player to make the roster is Roope Hintz. After a stellar 2017-18 season and an impressive showing in camp and preseason, Hintz more than earned his shot at the NHL. He’s still waiver exempt, so he’s easy to reassign to the AHL, but Nill and Montgomery elected to give him the chance he deserves.

Hintz is the type of player who could absolutely be a long-term second-line center for the Stars, so it’s good to see the Stars recognize his potential and his performance. With Martin Hanzal starting the season injured and Jason Spezza working to put his difficulties from last year behind him, Hintz could even get a golden opportunity to show exactly what he can do on the second line.

There’s just three days until opening night, but the final roster is due to the league tomorrow. With Connor Carrick in the mix now and a few lingering injury questions, it’s not finalized quite yet, but until then, fans will have to wait and see if anyone gets claimed from waivers.