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Dallas Stars Recall Logan Stankoven, Loan Alexander Petrovic

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The Dallas Stars have recalled top prospect Logan Stankoven to the NHL roster. The 20-year-old is expected to be a game-time decision for Dallas’ Tuesday night matchup, based on the availability of other Stats forwards. Stankoven is currently playing out his rookie season in the AHL where he leads the entire AHL in scoring with 24 goals and 57 points in 46 games. Dallas has also loaned defenseman Alexander Petrovic back to the AHL, after recalling him on Monday.

Stankoven’s scoring explosion in his first professional season has vindicated a lot of excitement fans have had for him. He leads all AHL rookies in scoring by an impressive 20 points. Stankoven has matched the scoring totals of last year’s rookie scoring leader, Tye Karte, who scored his 57 in 72 games, and has put up the highest point-per-game pace from an AHL rookie since Jack Quinn in the 2021-22 season.

Stankoven has been the confident lead of a very strong Texas Stars offense, which is also supporting the AHL’s second-leading scorer, Mavrik Bourque, who has 55 points in 46 games of his own. The Stars lead the league in scoring, with 165 goals in 46 games putting them at a comfy 3.59 goal-per-game average.

While they’ll lose their top centerman, Texas is getting back a focal piece of their defense in veteran pro Alex Petrovic. Petrovic has spent the last three seasons with the AHL’s Stars, appeared in 71 games in both 2021-22 and 2022-23. He’s on pace to match those games played again this year, after a brief call-up earned him his first NHL game since the 2018-19 season. Petrovic went without a point in the outing, though he did record a -1. The 31-year-old defenseman has 16 points in 44 AHL games this season.

Matt Duchene Out With Lower-Body Injury

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Already without defensemen Nils Lundkvist and Jani Hakanpaa due to injury, the Dallas Stars are also absent defenseman Miro Heiskanen today, as he will miss the action due to the birth of his child (X Link). Calling up defensemen Alex Petrovic and Derrick Pouliot this morning, Dallas’ depth on the blue line will be tested even further.

To add insult to injury, the team also announced that forward Matt Duchene would miss today’s game against the Boston Bruins due to a lower-body injury. In a hotly contested Central Division playoff race, the Stars have lost five regular players in a matter of days.

Playing well over their last 10 games with a 7-1-2 record, Dallas will look to keep that successful stretch going as they look to retain their throne at the top of the Central Division. With a three-point cushion, the Stars are currently on a four-game road trip against Eastern Conference opponents before finally returning to Central Division action on February 27th.

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Stars Recall Alex Petrovic, Derrick Pouliot

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The Stars have recalled defensemen Alex Petrovic and Derrick Pouliot from AHL Texas, the team announced Monday morning. In a corresponding transaction, the Stars returned forward Matěj Blümel to Texas to stay compliant with the 23-player roster limit.

Dallas summoned Blümel, 23, yesterday to optimize their accruable cap space limit before placing winger Evgenii Dadonov on LTIR. Blümel’s $925K cap hit was the highest of any player they had stored in the minors aside from defenseman Lian Bichsel, who is on loan to Rögle BK of the Swedish Hockey League. He allowed the Stars to capture their ACSL at $83.37MM, just $13K short of the salary cap.

However, defense is Dallas’ positional need with Jani Hakanpää and Nils Lundkvist sidelined with upper-body injuries. At least one recall on defense was necessary to avoid dressing 13 forwards and five defensemen against the Bruins for Monday’s Presidents’ Day matinee.

By swapping Blümel for an extra defenseman, the Stars have one backup in case of further injuries. If they want to carry an extra forward while Dadonov is on LTIR, they still can – they have $1.625MM remaining in their LTIR salary pool after executing today’s transactions. However, it would require moving Hakanpää to IR to free up a roster spot.

As such, one of today’s two recalls will make their season (and Stars) debut in Boston, likely Petrovic, who would replace Hakanpää as the only right-shot defenseman in the Dallas lineup with Lundkvist on IR. If so, it would be the 31-year-old’s first NHL game in over five years, last suiting up with the Oilers on Feb. 16, 2019.

Petrovic has bounced around the AHL since falling out of an NHL role, signing a pair of two-way deals with the Bruins and Flames before joining the Stars in 2021. He’s signed three straight one-year, two-way contracts to remain in the Dallas organization, clearing waivers at the beginning of the season in every occurrence and only seeing recalls to serve as a Black Ace during playoff runs in 2022 and 2023. Monday marks his first in-season recall as a member of the Stars.

The Panthers’ 2010 second-round pick played in 263 NHL games with Florida and Edmonton between 2012 and 2019, recording five goals, 45 assists and 50 points with a -10 rating and 360 PIMs. The Edmonton native struggled in his most recent NHL showing, recording only two assists in 35 games with the Panthers and Oilers in 2018-19 while averaging bottom-pairing minutes to complement a career-worst -15 rating and underwhelming possession metrics.

Petrovic has been a stabilizing force for the Stars’ up-and-comers in Texas, though, serving as an alternate captain since arriving in Cedar Park in 2021. Through 44 games this year, he has three goals, 13 assists, 16 points, and a +5 rating. He’s coming off arguably his best two-way season as a pro in 2022-23, when he notched a career-high 27 points in 71 games and a +34 rating.

The 30-year-old Pouliot will likely serve as Dallas’ seventh defenseman until one of Hakanpää or Lundkvist is ready to return. The eighth overall selection in the 2012 draft by the Penguins has, like Petrovic, settled into a consistent minor-league role at this stage in his career. However, he does have much more recent NHL experience, recording two assists and a -1 rating in eight games with the Sharks last year and posting four assists and a +6 rating in 11 games split between the Golden Knights and Kraken in 2021-22.

Pouliot signed a one-year, two-way deal ($775K/$325K) to join the Stars on Jul. 4, 2023, and passed through waivers unclaimed during training camp. He leads Texas blue-liners with eight goals, 23 assists and 31 points in 44 games.

Dallas Stars Recall Matěj Blümel, Place Evgenii Dadonov On LTIR

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In an announcement coming from the Dallas Stars organization, the team has recalled forward Matěj Blümel from their AHL affiliate, the Texas Stars. In a corresponding move, the team has placed forward Evgenii Dadonov on Long-Term Injured Reserve, retroactively to February 10th.

With Dadonov now expected to miss both the next 10 games and 24 days for the Stars, it is only natural that the team decided to fill in his lost minutes with a depth option from the AHL. However, it does come as a slight surprise that the Stars did not opt to call up either Logan Stankoven or Mavrik Bourque, who are first and second in league scoring, respectively.

Nevertheless, Blümel is no pushover offensively, as he’s scored 20 goals through 46 games for Texas this season, good for second on the team in that category. Furthermore, unlike Stankoven and Bourque, Blümel does have prior NHL experience, scoring one goal in six games for the Stars last season.

At the end of the day, this decision may ultimately benefit both Stankoven and Bourque in the long run, as they will both be able to continue to play high-leverage minutes for a competitive team. Well on their way to a playoff run this spring, Texas is sporting a 24-17-3-2 record up to this point sitting second in the AHL’s Central Division.

Jani Hakanpaa Leaves Game With Upper-Body Injury

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Nils Lundkvist In Concussion Protocol

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After leaving last night’s game against the Nashville Predators with a reported upper-body injury, it appears Dallas Stars defenseman Nils Lundkvist could miss Saturday’s game against the Edmonton Oilers as well. Speaking about the injury this morning, Bruce LeVine of 96.7 The Ticket reported that Lundkvist is experiencing concussion-like symptoms and the team would know more about his status tomorrow.

If Lundkvist is set to miss a significant amount of time with a concussion, it may motivate Stars General Manager Jim Nill to make a move for a defenseman well before the trade deadline, as the team has reportedly been sniffing around the defensive market. Including a few minutes in last night’s game, Lundkvist has registered two goals and 15 points in 43 games for Dallas this season while averaging just over 15 minutes of ice time per game.

With Joel Hanley being the likely candidate to fill in for Lundkvist, the Stars will likely find more pressure on themselves to round out their defensive core. Although the top unit of Thomas Harley and Miro Heiskanen has played well for the team up to this point in the season, a right-handed shot defenseman to put next to Esa Lindell should become the team’s top priority over the next three weeks.

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Evgenii Dadonov Out Indefinitely With Lower-Body Fracture

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Stars winger Evgenii Dadonov will miss “extended time” after undergoing imaging Monday that revealed a lower-body fracture, head coach Peter DeBoer said (via Stars radio host Owen Newkirk). Dadonov, 34, sustained the injury during the second period of Saturday’s 3-2 win over the Canadiens but later returned to the game, skating three shifts in the third period.

The 536-game NHL veteran has played in all but two games for the Stars this year, ranking ninth on the team in goals (12) and 11th in points (23) through 50 games. Once a top-six threat with the Panthers in the late 2010s, Dadonov has settled in nicely to a third-line role in Dallas and signed a two-year, $4.5MM extension to remain with the Stars after a pre-deadline acquisition from the Canadiens last season.

If the Stars expect him to miss over 10 games and 24 days, they can place him on long-term injured reserve and open up a significant chunk of cap space ahead of the March 8 trade deadline. Unless he’s projected to be out for the remainder of the regular season, though, they would need to keep some flexibility available to activate Dadonov when he’s ready to return.

While a decent complementary scoring piece, Dadonov’s two-way play at even strength has been middling. His expected -1.2 rating is the second-worst on the team, only ahead of shutdown specialist Jani Hakanpää.

Dadonov is only a few months removed from a strong postseason showing, recording four goals, 10 points, and a +5 rating in 16 contests with the Stars in their run to last year’s Western Conference Final. While spending most of his prime playing in his native Russia, he’s been a solid complementary piece with 301 points in 481 games since returning to the NHL with Florida in 2017.

Dallas has been one of the league’s healthiest teams, only utilizing 20 skaters this season. That’s meant 22-year-old Mavrik Bourque and 20-year-old Logan Stankoven, their pair of breakout prospects recording over a point per game with AHL Texas, have remained in the minor leagues all season long.

They aren’t going to immediately get a shot with Dadonov out – 2018 first-round pick Ty Dellandrea will get a chance to prove he can hold his own in a third-line role. If more injuries strike or if Dellandrea struggles, however, at least one of Bourque or Stankoven will make their NHL debuts in the coming weeks.

Trade Deadline Primer: Dallas Stars

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With the All-Star break in the rearview, the trade deadline looms large and is now just a month away. Where does each team stand, and what moves should they be looking to make? We continue our look around the league with the Dallas Stars.

Things have gone mostly according to plan for the Stars this season.  They’re among the top-scoring teams in the NHL and have been in a battle for the top spot in the Central Division for the majority of the season.  However, they’ve been a bit shakier on the defensive side of things so if GM Jim Nill is able to add to his roster, the back end could very well be the area he tries to shore up in the coming weeks.  However, with very limited cap space, they may be limited in what they’re able to accomplish on the trade front.

Record

31-14-6, 1st in the Central

Deadline Status

Buyer

Deadline Cap Space

$1.924MM on deadline day, 0/3 retention slots used, 44/50 contracts used, per CapFriendly.

Upcoming Draft Picks

2024: DAL 1st, DAL 2nd, DAL 5th, DAL 7th
2025: DAL 1st, DAL 3rd*, DAL 5th, NJ 5th DAL 6th, DAL 7th

*-If Nils Lundkvist gets 55 total points between 2022-23 and 2023-24, the Rangers would get this pick instead of Dallas’ 2025 fourth-rounder.  Lundkvist has 30 points in a Dallas uniform heading into tonight’s action so this condition is unlikely to be met but the pick will be encumbered for trade purposes.

Trade Chips

As a team that won’t be intent on moving impactful pieces off its roster, Dallas will undoubtedly be fielding inquiries about Logan Stankoven and Mavrik Bourque.  They are the top two scorers in the AHL but have yet to see NHL action so far given the depth that the Stars have up front.  If it’s only a depth move that they’re able to make, these two won’t be in play but if Nill wants to make a significant upgrade, one of these two could help yield Dallas a strong roster player.

If Dallas does look to make a move to add a piece on the back end, Lundkvist could also be someone who generates some interest.  The 23-year-old has basically been limited to full-time third-pairing duty at even strength while seeing some secondary power play time.  Accordingly, the points weren’t exactly piling up as the Stars hoped when they traded for him in 2022.  That said, Lundkvist is still on his entry-level deal and he’d likely be of interest to quite a few rebuilding teams although his $925K cap hit doesn’t help much when it comes to matching money.  It’s unlikely Nill would move him for a rental player but if they could get an impact blueliner with some salary retention signed beyond this season, Lundkvist could conceivably be part of the package heading the other way.

In terms of other depth players who could go to help match money in a trade, Craig Smith and Sam Steel come to mind.  Both forwards (who are pending free agents) have fared relatively well on the fourth line but could slip out of the lineup should an upgrade be acquired.  Smith makes a bit more at $1MM while Steel is a little cheaper ($850K) but has one more year of team control though it comes with arbitration eligibility.  Neither player has much trade value directly but as pieces to help make the finances work, they’re candidates to be moved.

If they look to bring in someone with a bigger contract, the money-matcher going the other way could very well be Radek Faksa.  The 30-year-old is a strong defensive player but his offense simply hasn’t come around.  At $3.25MM through next season, he might be a luxury they can no longer afford if they add a bigger-ticket player.

One prospect who isn’t quite at Bourque and Stankoven’s level offensively in the minors but should draw some interest is Matej Blumel.  The 23-year-old is coming to the end of his entry-level deal and has 77 points in 99 career AHL games with Texas.  He also has six games of NHL experience under his belt.  Blumel will still have another year of waiver exemption after this one, giving him some extra value in a move.

Other Potential Trade Chips: F Oskar Back, F Nicholas Caamano, F Riley Damiani

Team Needs

1) Defensive Upgrade: There’s a definite gap between Dallas’ top three defensemen and the rest.  Getting a proven second-pairing option would certainly give that unit a boost while also hedging against injuries.  If the player happens to be a right-handed shot, that would be even more beneficial although, as always, impact right-defenders are in short supply and high demand.  If they can’t land a top-four player, adding some extra depth to hedge against injuries would be beneficial and affordable in their cap structure.

2) Experienced Third Goaltender: When Jake Oettinger missed time earlier this season, they leaned heavily on Scott Wedgewood with third-string option Matt Murray having very limited NHL experience.  If Dallas isn’t comfortable using Murray at this point, it would be worth trying to find a veteran third option, one who could be stashed in the minors and come up if one of Oettinger or Wedgewood go down.  This is the type of move where one of their AHL skaters could be on the move as the return for that insurance policy between the pipes.

Photo courtesy of USA Today Sports Images.

Mason Marchment Fined For Interference

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Dallas Stars forward Mason Marchment has been fined $5,000 by the NHL’s Department of Player Safety for interference on Toronto Maple Leafs defenseman Jake McCabe. The incident happened in the second period of Toronto’s 5-4 win over Dallas last night. On the play, McCabe picked up the puck in the defensive zone and reversed it up the boards to a teammate and then turned and was hit late by Marchment. No penalty was assessed on the play and a bloodied McCabe skated to the bench under his own power in obvious displeasure with the officials.

The $5,000 fine is the maximum allowable under the Collective Bargaining Agreement and is not the first time Marchment has faced discipline from the league. The 28-year-old was fined $2,000 by the league back in December 2022 under NHL Rule 64 (Diving/Embellishment) after an incident against the Ottawa Senators resulted in a hooking penalty to Derick Brassard. Marchment was hit by the league for embellishing Brassard’s hook to draw a penalty which was the second time he had been disciplined by the league for such an offense. The first embellishment incident occurred the month before and resulted in a warning being given to Marchment.

Despite the discipline, Marchment is having a fantastic year for the Stars as he has registered 16 goals and 23 assists in 50 games. He has been red hot as of late with two goals and four assists in his past five games.

The money from today’s fine will go to the Players’ Emergency Assistance Fund.

Miro Heiskanen Set To Return Tonight

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Dallas Stars defenseman Miro Heiskanen is set to return to the lineup tonight after missing the last three weeks with a lower-body injury. Lia Assimakopoulos of The Dallas News reported that Stars head coach Pete DeBoer confirmed to the media this morning that Heiskanen would be returning as he took reps in his normal spot on the powerplay and in the line rushes.

Heiskanen was sidelined earlier in January after he was hurt in a game against the Colorado Avalanche. He collided with his own goalie and had to leave the game. Heiskanen ended up missing 10 games while he was out of the lineup and despite missing him and star goaltender Jake Oettinger for a stretch, the Stars went 6-3-1 in those 10 games.

Dallas replaced Heiskanen’s minutes by committee rather than having one player try and fill his role. It worked well as Esa Lindell, Ryan Suter, Jani Hakanpää, and Nils Lundkvist all averaged 17 minutes of ice time per game while the team was playing at even strength. Thomas Harley also took a lot of extra time as well, his average ice time at even strength increased by over two minutes per game.

With Heiskanen back in the lineup the Stars will be looking to close the gap in the Central Division as they currently occupy the third spot sitting three points back of the Winnipeg Jets and Colorado Avalanche. Heiskanen should give Dallas a boost, even if he hasn’t matched his offensive pace from last season. The 24-year-old was having a terrific season prior to his injury with four goals and 23 assists in 37 games.

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