After a successful free agency period from GM Jim Nill the long wait until opening night is met with a lot of excitement and optimism from the Stars faithful. The team will look to build on a heartbreaking 2nd round loss to the eventual cup champions, the Saint Louis Blues, in 7 games.
If you followed the team much at all last year the area where the Stars struggled the most was quite obviously in the goals department. Dallas finished a very pathetic 29th in the league averaging only 2.55 goals per game. Luckily for us fans an elite young D core led by John Klingberg, Esa Lindell, and rookie Miro Heiskanen helped to carry the load by only allowing 2.44 goals per game (2nd best in the NHL).
With the addition of Mats Zuccarello at the trade deadline the Stars improved to 2.69 goals per game in the playoffs. Zuccarello ,an emerging Roope Hintz ,and Jason Dickinson helped round off a second line that Dallas had needed throughout this entire regular season. It eased the pressure off of our top line and in turn made us a more dangerous team to play.
While we lost Mats in free agency Jim Nill hit one of the big fish by signing American captain Joe Pavelski to a 3 year 21 deal which will earn him 21 million and cost the Stars 7 million against the cap for the length of the deal. Although Joe is now 35 years of age he just came off of a 38 goal, 64 point campaign with San Jose and doesn’t seem like slowing down yet. Pavelski can play center or wing and is a natural goalscorer that the Stars desperately need. Joe also brings lots of leadership to the locker room so expect a big impact from him this season.
The other two pickups the Stars made this offseason was offensive defenseman Andrej Sekera and Corey Perry both of whom will look to prove that they still have some left in the tank after being bought out by their former clubs. Perry should add some grit and quality to the bottom 6 and Sekera will likely get a shot to partner with Miro on the second pairing. Both players being low risk, high reward moves by Jim Nill which personally I am very pleased with.
Now onto my projected starting lineup for Opening Night…
Benn-Seguin-Radulov
Dickinson-Hintz-Pavelski
Cogliano-Faksa-Perry
Janmark-Dowling-Comeau
Lindell-Klingberg
Heiskanen-Sekera
Oleksiak-Johns
Bishop
While this is still a couple of months out and preseason could change everything, I believe that at the current time this is the lineup Monty would roll out. Youngster Rooper Hintz will look to build on an impressive playoffs and will get the call to center the second line. I believe that Roope will get to 40 and push for 50 points this season and a Stars offense that pushes for the top half. A key aspect to that happening is a bounce back season from the Captain. Jamie Benn only had 53 points last season and while he is perhaps slowing down I can see him getting back to 70 points with 30 goals.
On the more defensive side of things the Stars just came off of a great season and will look to just keep doing what they were doing from a season prior. Polak being moved to a 6th or 7th defenseman should definetly help him rest more and allow Sekera to be a more dynamic partner for Heiskanen. A return of Stephen Johns is likely and would help our 3rd pairing massively. If Johns returns to the lineup and Sekera doesn’t play up to scratch I would see Stephen getting a good chance in that Top 4 and allow Miro to take more risks going forward.
Goaltending for the first time in a while was excellent for the Stars this season. Bishop placed second in Vezina voting and Khudobin proved that he is an elite NHL backup. While the two are a year older and numbers may drop a little, I have lots of confidence that they will backstop the Stars to many wins.
Overall I believe that our Stars will have a very successful second season under Jim Montgomery. Where will we place? You’ll have to wait as my next article will be more of a Central division preview where I will talk about point totals and playoffs more in depth. Thank you for reading my first ever article. I hope you enjoyed but if not then I would appreciate the feedback.
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OurDailyStars is an independent blog who’s opinions do not represent the Dallas Stars.
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