Dallas Stars Mid-season Report

As the teams break for the annual All-Star festivities, the Dallas Stars find themselves tied atop the league standings with the Ottawa Senators. They find themselves 5 points up on the 2nd place Colorado Avalanche in the Conference.

The club has ridden the stellar goaltending of Carey Price, with Carter Hutton spelling him valiantly when required. Carey Price, as expected, is amongst the league leaders in most goaltending categories and should be in great shape for a big stretch drive with backup Carter Hutton already appearing in 10 games this season for the Stars. This has allowed Price to get plenty of rest when needed, and allows head coach Mike Babcock to run Price as needed down the final half stretch without concern about getting backup goaltending minutes in.

The Stars defence has, much like the other positions, played up to pre-season expectations. Roman Josi and Kevin Shattenkirk continue to develop into dominant d-men in the league, being supplemented by solid play from Mike Green and Jason Garrison. A long term injury to veteran Barret Jackman was quickly addressed by GM McGugan as he acquired stay at home veteran Eric Brewer, then he further solidified the top four by pulling the trigger on a deal that brought in another top defensive stalwart in Alexander Edler.     

Dallas made it to the top of the standings running a mostly similar top 9 forwards to what they had to start the year. The top six forwards have generally done what has been expected of them, although the focus on defence this season has resulted in some lower individual point totals than expected for some, and the “bottom” six forwards (for lack of a better term) have performed as needed focusing on stopping the oppositions top forwards.  This was a solid group, but if there was one weakness, it was the lack of a legitimate offensive threat at the #2 center spot. Enter Miko Koivu. Koivu comes to the Stars from Anaheim sporting a near point a game average this season. The cost to acquire Koivu - Artem Anisimov, prospect Brendan Guhle and Dallas’ 2016 1st round pick was high, but with an already solid defence and top prospect Jakub Zboril in the system, and with the 1st round pick expected to be a fairly late pick, McGugan thought the price was reasonable for a top tier or second tier center. This allows Jori Lehtera to move to the third line to center Kulemin and Versteeg making that line a very formidable third line.

General Manager Bob McGugan was chosen to manage one of the two All-Star teams during the break. Joining him from Dallas for the weekend will be Zach Parise, Roman Josi, Carey Price and newly acquired Miko Koivu (selected as an Anaheim representative).

Entering the second half of the season with two legitimate scoring lines and a solid bottom 6 group of forwards, a formidable top 6 defence core and one of the top goaltenders in the game, Dallas’ chances of not only making the playoffs but making a deep run look good this season.