Dallas Stars: Brett Ritchie, Mattias Janmark Need to Step Up Their Game

Depth scoring has been a buzzword following the Dallas Stars around since last season. Quite a few players have gotten back on track this season, but two still stand out as struggling to produce.

Both Brett Ritchie and Mattias Janmark have put up disappointing numbers for the Dallas Stars this season, and they need to get that under control soon.

Ritchie was injured and missed six games, but he still only has 1 assist in 12 games played.

You know who else has 1 assist in 12 games? Ben Bishop.

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Ritchie’s never been a particularly big gun on offense, but he’s still produced better than this in past years. His numbers last year were concerning, but now he’s producing at less than half of that pace.

Instead of being known for offensive skill, Ritchie is more known for his size and ability to throw a hit. Even if that’s what fans want to measure him by, he’s still averaging about 1.5 hits per game instead of about 2.5 per game like he was last year, or about 2 per game the year before.

However, that is an improvement over last year in a way. If a guy isn’t producing any offense, but he is throwing a lot of hits, he’s not great at possession. It doesn’t even take fancy stats to explain that if you’re hitting the other team a lot and not putting up any offense, that means the other team has the puck a lot when you’re on the ice. You’ll never win a hockey game if the other team always has the puck instead of you.

As for Janmark, he at least has a goal this season, but he’s sitting at just 2 points. Unlike Ritchie, he’s actually known for his offensive skills. He was fourth on the team in goals last year, but he’s currently sitting tied for 12th on the team with just one goal.

Janmark’s numbers are more concerning, because he’s expected to be much higher. No one was sure how he’d recover from missing an entire season because of his knee, but he didn’t look like he’d missed a step when he returned last year. This year, it looks like maybe that’s catching up with him now, or maybe he’s just been unlucky.

They’ll play on a line together tonight, centered by Jason Spezza. Spezza and Janmark have had good chemistry in the past, and maybe they can find a spark of that again. If Spezza can help them to get some offense going together, the Stars may just be able to survive the latest injury, this time to Devin Shore.

Either way, both players need to improve going forward, or they may find themselves healthy scratched as the season wears on.