Dallas Stars: Heiskanen, Lindell Providing Offense with Klingberg Out

John Klingberg has been a stellar offensive defenseman for the Dallas Stars this season, but with him gone, two other defensemen are stepping up.

While John Klingberg still leads the Dallas Stars in defensemen scoring with 5 goals and 13 points, Miro Heiskanen and Esa Lindell are hot on his tail after they each put up outstanding performances last week.

It started last Sunday against the Islanders, when Esa Lindell scored twice in five minutes during the Stars’ impressive 4-goal second period. It was his first ever multi-goal game.

Lindell only had 7 goals last season and 6 in 2016-17, but he’s could definitely top that as he’s already at 3 goals and 10 points this year.

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The defense provided a lot of the offense on Friday night’s game, where Heiskanen had 2 goals to put him at 4 goals and 10 points on the season. Gavin Bayreuther and Taylor Fedun each notched their first goals of the year as well that night, as the defense combined for 4 of the 6 Stars goals in the game. Lindell also had an impressive assist on a goal that went to Blake Comeau.

Heiskanen’s offensive skill isn’t a surprise, but Lindell has been more of a defensive defenseman, which pairs well with Klingberg’s style.

The Stars need every bit of depth scoring they can get, and if that has to come in the form of some defensemen, so be it. Both of them are on pace to break 10 goals this season, and Klingberg likely will as well when he comes back. If the Stars could have three defensemen in double digit goals, that would be huge for them.

At this point, the Stars have 11 players on pace for 10 goals or more this year. Last season, only 7 players on the roster broke 10 goals, and none of them were defensemen. Klingberg’s 8 was the high-water mark for the blue line, and that’s okay for a team’s defense if they’re doing a great job at defending, but that wasn’t really the case either.

Heiskanen and Lindell aren’t the only Finnish players on the team experiencing a nice offensive boost lately, as Roope Hintz has also been outstanding over the past week. Since being called back up, Hintz has 2 goals and 3 points in the five games last week. He’s looked so much better this time around and the month in the AHL clearly did wonders for him.

Now, if only they could get the fourth member of the Finnish contingency, Julius Honka, to seize his opportunity with all of the injuries going around and play at the level both fans and management are hoping for.