Jason Dickinson and Ty Dellandrea; Match Made in Dallas

With each season that goes by, I have better things to say about Jason Dickinson. It also becomes more feasible that Dickinson might be donning a Seattle Kraken sweater next season. Which I am not as keen on. You might be thinking, Dickinson? Really? His FF% this season just spiked at 43.0%. My answer, he is missing a partner in crime. Always has been.

In the Dallas Stars march to the Stanley Cup last season, Jason Dickinson was on the ice just shy of a thousand minutes. Despite this hefty chunk of time, he received greater than 70 of those minutes with just one offensive pairing. That duo was Corey Perry and Denis Gurianov. In 2018-2019, this metric shrinks further to reflect that Dickinson tallied greater than 50 minutes total with just one offensive duo.

For context, Tyler Seguin last season registered three total duos across the same data set.

In layman’s terms, the majority of ice time that Dickinson has served in the NHL has come amidst his line mates playing an endless game of musical chairs. Perhaps this is the season that cycle ends for Dickinson? Enter Ty Dellandrea.

While Dellandrea has a very limited NHL data set covering seven contests, the 20-year-old forward developed his lungs in an extensive Ontario Hockey League career and performs with an undeniable spark on the ice. So, how does Ty Dellandrea make Jason Dickinson a more productive player and vice versa? Let’s take a look.

Production

Jason Dickinson has earned himself a reputation as a board crasher. Creating opportunities more so than capitalizing on them. His pairing with Perry and Gurianov, as mentioned above, played a factor in the latter leading the Dallas Stars in goals last season. This offensive trio, of those with more than 100 minutes of ice time, posted the clubs highest GF/60 by an offensive line at 2.9.

GF/60 definition: Goals for per 60 minutes of ice time.

As mentioned, Dellandrea is among a handful of new Stars on the ice this season. However, he developed quite a reputation as a capitalizer in his own right in the Ontario Hockey League, netting 70 points in 47 contests this past season.

Dellandrea tallied his first career goal versus Detroit earlier this season on a flat out net crash. Putting his stick down and onto the puck in front of the goal on a skate-by, undoubtedly endorsed by Dickinsons’ style of play.  He is not afraid to mix it up behind the net, either.

Positioning

Relevant to their experiences, both Dickinson and Dellandrea possess above-average ice awareness. While Dellandrea will likely deal with an elevated number of giveaways this season as he adjusts to the pace of NHL games, he has produced two heads-up defensive memories that have stuck with me early this season.

1. Game three opposite the Detroit Red Wings, Dellandrea masterminded a truly dogged 50-foot takeaway on Red Wings forward Mathias Brome. While the winger briefly scanned for a penalty that never came, the Stars rookie played the whistle and skated towards the Detroit zone, able to work the puck across the blue line. Allowing a partial line change.
2. Game two opposite the Nashville Predators, Dellandrea took two blocked shots, one after another, before skating off the ice in what would be a one goal victory to Dallas.

Dickinson, in his own right, leads the Stars offensive characters in blocks, at thirteen. Finishing last season just second to team Captain Jamie Benn in the same category; Dickinson has out blocked defensive cornerstones Jon Klingberg and Miro Heiskanen this season, nearly tripling the output of the latter.

Both men boast the ability to skate 200 feet of ice, heads-up. This allows the Dallas Stars the ability to plug in a number of players on this line. Dallas could plug in an offensive weapon such as Jason Robertson or Nick Caamano for a faster pace or opt to slow it down, rest their top liners, by inserting Justin Dowling or Tanner Kero.

This is something that Blackout Dallas covered last week, as well, in visiting likely line combinations upon the return of Joel Kiviranta.

Although with the recent departure of Alexander Radulov (lower body), Dallas fans might see Kiviranta before this roster is made whole again.

Face-Offs

While Dickinson has been far from perfect in the face-off circle, Blackout Dallas believes that the 25-year-old has spent the entirety of his career in Dallas up against a face-off ‘barrier’.

Over the past two seasons his most frequent line mates record their own face-off success as follows; Denis Gurianov (50%), Corey Perry (29.3%), Blake Comeau (32.1%) and Matias Janmark (38.3%). Note that Gurianov has only taken two face-offs in his NHL career. Not a viable data set. How is this relevant, you ask?

With Dellandrea flanking, Rick Bowness and the coaching staff have a real, sustainable opportunity to tweak Dickinsons’ face-off structure. Get the most out of their forward. Altering his stick angle, activating early or a number of other tweaks. Holding the knowledge that Dellandrea can rotate in if booted.

Ty Dellandrea totaled 4,530 total draws in the OHL, nearly 20 face-offs per game. Managing a career line better than 54.0%. His success rate last season of 59.1% was good for fourth in the league among those with at least 1,000 tries.

If the above is not your cup of tea, Jason Dickinson is listed as a C/LW while Rick Bowness endorses Dellandrea as a C/RW, below.

"I have no problem putting him out in any situation: key face-offs, key penalty kills, power play, against really good lines. He can play center, he can play right wing. He’s a big part of the future of this team."

Draws could eventually fall to Dellandrea, as experience adds up.

Final Take

On a healthy Dallas Stars club, in which we can currently only cross so many fingers, this pairing would take place on the fourth line.

With clubs expected to make less lineup changes to best serve the already shortened season schedules, Jason Dickinson deserves a long-term partner. He deserves the opportunity to pair and create chemistry. There are certainly NHL players who remain in the league because floating, rotational time is their ticket. Dickinson is not that player.