Dallas Stars News: Stars Make Roster Moves, Shift In Playoff Picture

The Dallas Stars are off from hockey action until next Wednesday night. But, that doesn’t mean that the news feed stops. Prior to starting the break, they made a handful of roster moves. In addition, their playoff standing changed on Monday afternoon.

The news desk has become a bit less cluttered for the Dallas Stars over the past few days, and for good reason.

After putting on one of their most complete performances of the year on Saturday night and claiming a 4-2 win over the Winnipeg Jets, the Stars entered a 10-day break period. That includes a five-day break mandated by the league CBA and a four-day break for the 2019 NHL All-Star Weekend.

They entered this break on a high note, keeping themselves alive in the playoff picture with an important two points and building some motivation to look back on while resting.

And now, they wait. As Stars players depart on mid-season vacations and the amount of NHL action begins to dwindle with the All-Star Break coming down the pipeline, it’s a time to look back and contemplate on what’s happened and what is to come.

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But regardless of whether they are in action or not, the Dallas Stars always have some sort of news trail to follow. And in the past two days, there has been plenty of action to keep up with. Let’s take a quick look at what all has gone down.

Dallas Stars reassign, loan players to Texas Stars

The Dallas Stars announced a handful of roster moves shortly after the game against Winnipeg on Saturday night. The moves included three different players being sent down to the Texas Stars in the AHL.

The Stars reassigned center Roope Hintz and winger Denis Gurianov. Both players have been involved in multiple transactions between the NHL and AHL this season and are still fighting to gain a full-time spot in the Dallas lineup. They have proven to be valuable assets at different points in the season and played helpful roles in the win over the Jets.

Both players are being reassigned simply for the purpose of keeping them involved. With ten days off, the Stars that have played 49 games for Dallas are enduring a well-deserved break. But for Hintz and Gurianov, going back to the AHL gives them a chance to continue building their case for a starting spot in the NHL and staying in top gear. In addition, it’s also a chance for Denis Gurianov to play in the AHL All-Star Game.

In addition, defenseman Connor Carrick was assigned to the AHL on a conditioning loan. Carrick is still trying to get back to full speed after returning from an ankle injury. He’s only played in three games since 2019 began and has been given a minimal role in each one. A 10-day break wouldn’t help him much in getting back to top speed, so he’ll get a chance to play with Texas and get his consistency back.

Texas has four games scheduled between now and Jan. 30, when the Dallas Stars get back to action against the Buffalo Sabres.

Stars hop back into top three in Central

Monday might have been an off day for the Dallas Stars, but they still found themselves shifting in the Western Conference playoff standings.

After defeating the Jets on Saturday, Dallas hopped back into the first wild card spot in the west. It also put them in a tie for third place in the Central division alongside the Colorado Avalanche, who also had 52 points. The Avs had played one less game, though, which gave them the upper hand.

But on Monday afternoon, the Avalanche were handed a 4-1 loss from the Nashville Predators. The loss dropped them to 22-19-8 on the year through 49 games with 22 ROWs. Meanwhile, the Stars are 24-21-4 through 49 games with 24 ROWs.

It’s not a massive or necessarily noteworthy shift, but it’s a promising look for Dallas at the moment. The Avalanche have one more game scheduled for Wednesday night against the Minnesota Wild before taking on their own break; as a result, the potential is still there for Colorado to either reclaim the spot or give the Stars a small cushion.

Meanwhile, the Wild are only one point back of third place and could find themselves shifting ahead of the Stars. There are still a lot of moving parts, but it’s a good spot for the Dallas Stars to be in right now, especially when it was on another team’s account.

That’s all for this long weekend. We’ll see what the long break ahead brings.