Miro Heiskanen Set To Return Tonight
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.
Dallas Stars Assign Matt Murray To AHL
Jan. 17: The Stars returned Murray to AHL Texas this morning, per a team release.
Jan. 16: The Dallas Stars have recalled goaltender Matt Murray from the Texas Stars of the AHL as they navigate the uncertainty of the injury suffered by backup Scott Wedgewood. Dallas Stars radio analyst Bruce LeVine believes that Murray will see more action during this NHL recall as Dallas is proceeding with caution when it comes to Jake Oettinger and still doesn’t know what the issue is with Wedgewood, who left Saturday’s game with an injury.
Murray’s recall likely means that Wedgewood will be unavailable for Dallas when they take on the Los Angeles Kings tomorrow tonight, although no official announcement has been made as of yet.
Murray has played a single NHL game this season, and it came in the form of his first career shutout against the Minnesota Wild back on January 8th. The 25-year-old made 23 saves in a 4-0 win for the Stars. He didn’t fare so well last season in the NHL, dressing in three games and going 1-2 with a .844 save percentage to go along with a 3.39 goals-against average.
In the AHL, the St. Albert, Alberta native has had a bit of a down season as he is 8-5-1 with a .908 save percentage and a 2.80 goals-against average. Murray was terrific last year for Texas as he appeared in 34 games and posted a record of 18-10-5 with a .911 save percentage and a 2.37 goals-against average.
Murray has been on a yoyo the last few weeks with Oettinger’s injury and now the potential injury to Wedgewood. Just last week, Murray was reassigned twice and recalled once, with his most recent AHL assignment happening five days ago.
West Notes: Oettinger, Jones, Emberson, Saville
The Stars welcomed back a key player tonight with the team announcing (Twitter link) that Jake Oettinger was getting the start against Nashville. The 25-year-old missed the last four weeks with a lower-body injury, forcing Scott Wedgewood to take on the interim starting role in his absence, a role Wedgewood had some success in. Oettinger had a career year last season with a 2.37 GAA and a .919 SV%, earning him a top-five spot in Vezina Trophy voting but hasn’t had quite the same success this season with those numbers checking in at 2.93 and .901 respectively heading into Friday’s action. If he can get back to being a top netminder in the second half, that could give Dallas a big lift as they jockey for seeding in the Central Division.
More from the Western Conference:
- Blackhawks blueliner Seth Jones was a full participant in practice today for the first time since suffering a shoulder injury just over a month ago, notes Charlie Roumeliotis of NBC Sports Chicago. The original diagnosis was that he’d miss two weeks but further testing doubled that timeline. Jones, who has 11 points – all assists – in 27 games this season, is hoping to be cleared to return to Chicago’s lineup tomorrow against Dallas.
- Sharks defenseman Ty Emberson has returned to San Jose for further evaluation, relays Sheng Peng of San Jose Hockey Now (Twitter link). The 23-year-old is dealing with an upper-body injury that has caused him to miss last night’s victory over Montreal, joining Matt Benning and Jacob MacDonald as blueliners currently out of the lineup. Emberson is currently considered as out week-to-week so he’ll likely land on injured reserve shortly, opening up a spot for Logan Couture whose return is getting closer.
- The Golden Knights announced (Twitter link) that they returned goaltender Isaiah Saville to AHL Henderson. The 23-year-old was recalled recently after Adin Hill was unable to dress for Thursday’s game due to an undisclosed injury. Saville has battled injuries himself this season and has been limited to seven games with the Silver Knights where he has a 2.52 GAA and a .914 SV%.
NHL Names Western Conference All-Stars
Sportsnet is reporting that the NHL has named the first 16 selections from the Western Conference who will appear in the NHL All-Star Game that will take place February 3rd in Toronto.
The game will be held in Canada for the first time since 2012, when it was held in Ottawa. Toronto hasn’t hosted the game since 2000 and this year will be the first time that the NHL uses a four-team, three-on-three format in combination with the fantasy draft format that was used from 2011-2015. The league will name four captains, one for each team, who will take part in a draft to select their teams on February 1st.
The initial players named from the Western Conference are as follows:
Central Division
Arizona: LW Clayton Keller (4th appearance)
Chicago: C Connor Bedard (1st appearance)
Colorado: C Nathan MacKinnon (3rd appearance)
Dallas: G Jake Oettinger (1st appearance)
Minnesota: LW Kirill Kaprizov (3rd appearance)
Nashville: C Filip Forsberg (1st appearance)
St. Louis: C Robert Thomas (1st appearance)
Winnipeg: G Connor Hellebuyck (3rd appearance)
Pacific Division
Anaheim: LW Frank Vatrano (1st appearance)
Calgary: C Elias Lindholm (1st appearance)
Edmonton: C Connor McDavid (7th appearance)
Los Angeles: G Cam Talbot (1st appearance)
San Jose: C Tomas Hertl (1st appearance)
Seattle: RW Oliver Bjorkstrand (1st appearance)
Vancouver: D Quinn Hughes (1st appearance)
Vegas: C Jack Eichel (1st appearance)
The initial announcements of 32 players (one player to represent each team) tonight will be followed by the naming of the final 12 all-stars in the coming weeks. Those 12 players will be decided by a fan vote on NHL.com as well as several of the NHL’s social media platforms.
Injury Notes: Mayfield, Dvorak, Oettinger
It appears as if the Islanders will be welcoming back a key part of their back end tonight against Pittsburgh. The team announced (Twitter link) that Scott Mayfield has been activated from injured reserve. The 31-year-old has missed close to three weeks with an upper-body injury. Before that, he was off to a bit of a quieter start to his season with just four assists in 20 games while his playing time was down to 19:13 per game, his lowest since the 2018-19 campaign. Mayfield was, however, blocking nearly three shots a night, the best rate of his career. With both Adam Pelech and Ryan Pulock still injured, getting Mayfield back will be a nice boost to their back end.
Other injury news from around the NHL:
- Canadiens center Christian Dvorak is out indefinitely with an upper-body injury, relays Sportsnet’s Eric Engels (Twitter link). The 27-year-old is having a tough year offensively with just three goals and four assists through his first 25 games. With Montreal only carrying 12 forwards on its roster – partially a byproduct of carrying three goalies – and being on the road, they will have to dress seven blueliners for their matchup against Tampa Bay tonight.
- Dallas goaltender Jake Oettinger has been skating for four or five days now but a return to the lineup does not appear to be imminent. Head coach Peter DeBoer told Stars radio analyst Bruce LeVine (Twitter link) that the netminder is “probably further away than he is closer” as it relates to a possible return. The 25-year-old has missed the last couple of weeks with a lower-body injury after getting off to a rough start to his year with a save percentage of just .901 in his first 23 starts.
Jake Oettinger Out Week-To-Week With Lower-Body Injury
Stars starting netminder Jake Oettinger will be out of the lineup on a week-to-week basis with a lower-body injury sustained Friday against the Senators, head coach Peter DeBoer informed reporters Monday (via Lia Assimakopoulos of the Dallas Morning News).
Oettinger left the contest in the middle of the first period after making a non-malicious looking save on Senators winger Claude Giroux. He skated off the ice under his own power but did not travel with the team to St. Louis for their game against the Blues Saturday, forcing the Stars to sign former Niagara University backup Joe O’Brien to an amateur tryout to sit on the bench due to salary cap constraints. After playing a goalie short, Dallas released O’Brien yesterday and recalled Matt Murray from AHL Texas under emergency conditions.
Notably, the Stars have not said they intend to place Oettinger on long-term injured reserve. DeBoer said Oettinger’s tests were encouraging, and he’ll likely miss less than the ten-game and 28-day absence required for LTIR.
Oettinger, who turns 25 today, has largely avoided injury throughout his four-year, 160-game NHL career. The 2017 first-round selection missed four games with a lower-body injury early last season, but it didn’t impede him from setting career highs with 61 starts, 37 wins, a .919 SV%, and five shutouts en route to finishing fifth in Vezina Trophy voting. The Lakeville, Minnesota-born netminder failed to replicate his breakout regular season in Dallas’ run to the Western Conference Final, though, posting a subpar .895 SV% and 3.06 GAA in 19 starts as the Stars reached the final four for the second time in the last five seasons.
After putting up consistent above-average numbers in his first three campaigns, Oettinger is off to a significantly more tepid start in 2023-24. Through 21 starts, he has a mediocre .901 SV% and 2.93 GAA. His -1.5 goals saved above average is the first time he’s put up negatives in that stat in his career, and it’s a significant downgrade from the 26.1 goals saved above average he posted last season. With backup Scott Wedgewood posting similarly average numbers, their middle-of-the-pack goaltending is a big reason why the Stars sit 15th out of 32 teams in goals against.
Wedgewood will take the lion’s share of the starts until Oettinger is ready to return. The 31-year-old has a 6-1-2 record, .904 SV% and 3.24 GAA in nine appearances this season.
Evening Notes: Balinskis, Oettinger, Sherwood, Studenic
Earlier this evening, the Florida Panthers announced they had sent down defenseman Uvis Balinskis to their AHL affiliate, the Charlotte Checkers. Balinskis was brought to the Panthers organization this past offseason, signing a one-year, $870K contract as an international free agent.
Spending last season with Bílí Tygři Liberec in Czechia, Balinskis impressed greatly on the blue line, as the Latvian-born defenseman scored 11 goals and 35 points in 50 games. Unfortunately, his transition to hockey in North America has not gone smoothly, as he has only scored one goal and one assist in 18 games, averaging under 14 minutes of ice time per night.
Now that defenseman Josh Mahura has recovered from a lower-body injury that kept him out of the lineup for a few weeks, Florida didn’t have the need nor the space to keep eight defensemen on the roster. Balinskis will now join a Checkers team with solid defensive depth but is currently seventh in a strong Atlantic Division with a 12-10-1-0 record.
Other notes:
- In tonight’s game against the Ottawa Senators, goaltender for the Dallas Stars, Jake Oettinger, abruptly left the ice in the first period, and will not return to action with a lower-body injury, per a team announcement. In a down year compared to his first three seasons in the NHL, Oettinger sports an 11-7-2 record in 20 games played, carrying a .904 SV% and a 2.85 GAA. Nevertheless, if Oettinger is expected to miss any sort of time with this injury, the Stars’ internal goaltending options are not close to replicating the output of Oettinger, even with his numbers being down.
- The Nashville Predators announced that Kiefer Sherwood is out day-to-day with an upper-body injury, and will not play tonight in the team’s game against the Carolina Hurricanes. After spending much of last season with the Predator’s AHL affiliate, the Milwaukee Admirals, Sherwood has earned himself a full-time spot on Nashville’s roster, scoring five goals and 11 points in 29 games.
- Capping off a flurry of roster moves from the organization today, the Seattle Kraken have sent down forward Marian Studenic to their AHL affiliate, the Coachella Valley Firebirds. Although providing little to no production at the NHL level, Studenic has been one of the better AHL scorers over the last few seasons. Last season, rostered on the Texas Stars, Studenic scored 21 goals and 48 points in 67 games. Now on the Firebirds, Studenic has once again gotten off to a solid start, scoring seven goals and 12 points in his first 16 games.
What Your Team Is Thankful For: Dallas Stars
As the holiday season approaches, PHR will be taking a look at what teams are thankful for in 2023-24. There also might be a few things your team would like down the road. We’ll examine what’s gone well in the early going and what could improve as the season rolls on for the Dallas Stars.
Who are the Stars thankful for?
There were a number of different ways that we could have gone here, but it is hard to dismiss the agelessness of 39-year-old Joe Pavelski.
Many pundits thought the Dallas Stars had made a big miscalculation back in July 2019 when the club signed a then 34-year-old Pavelski to a three-year $21MM contract just ten days before his 35th birthday. And one season into the deal, it sure looked like the pundits were right. Pavelski looked lost and tired as he suffered through one of the worst seasons of his NHL career. But since that first year, he has registered 91 goals and 142 assists in 242 games.
Now part of those numbers are because Pavelski is playing fewer minutes than his career average, and he is also playing with very skilled teammates, but it is hard to discount all the intangibles Pavelski has brought to the Stars dressing room on top of being a bonafide top-6 forward. Pavelski hasn’t had to sacrifice any of his attention to detail when it comes to his defensive responsibilities and continues to remain in the conversation when it comes to Selke Trophy considerations year after year. All of this in his 18th NHL season, while he continues to play under a very team-friendly cap hit making just $3.5MM this season (plus $2MM in bonuses).
Pavelski might not be the biggest star in Dallas, but his reliability at both ends of the ice, and his ability to make everyone around him better continue to impress as he pushes towards his 40th birthday.
What are the Stars thankful for?
Their scouting staff.
Very few teams have hit on late first-round picks and second-round picks the way the Dallas Stars have over the last decade. The Stars were fortunate to pick the likes of Miro Heiskanen third overall. But most of their depth was built off smart picks later in the draft. All-star goaltender Jake Oettinger was a late first-round pick 26th overall in the 2017 NHL entry draft, Jason Robertson was selected 13 spots later at 39th overall and has emerged as a top-flight offensive talent. Roope Hintz was a late second-round pick in the 2015 draft while Wyatt Johnston was selected 23rd overall in 2021. The list goes on and it goes to show just how Dallas has built a team that can contend year in and year out.
The stars currently boast some of the best depth in the NHL evidenced by Johnston centering a third line that features Jamie Benn. They haven’t just hit on draft picks as they’ve also been able to make smart free-agent signings (see Pavelski above) and craft trades along the way. The scouts in Dallas at both the amateur and pro level have done a commendable job identifying available talent that other NHL clubs are undervaluing.
What would the Stars be even more thankful for?
Ryan Suter dialing it back.
At 39 years old it is unlikely that Ryan Suter is going to find another gear suddenly. The 11-time all-star defenseman has seen his offensive game fall into a decline since 2020, while his defensive game has been slipping away since 2015. Suter was once considered one of the top two-way defensemen in the NHL, but time has caught up to the Madison, Wisconsin native.
In Dallas, Suter has been thrust into a role that is probably outside of his current skillset as he has played significant minutes with Miro Heiskanen. Suter is averaging over 20 minutes a night, and while that is a steep decline from last season, it is still a rather large number for one of the oldest defensemen in the NHL.
The drop-in ice time has mostly come from Suter being removed from the Stars’ power play. With his speed and footwork in decline, the Stars have made the call to primarily use Suter at even strength on their top pairing. The good news for Suter is that he is partnered up with Heiskanen and can benefit from the youngster’s strong skillset. Suter hasn’t been terrible this year and has mostly been fine, but given the Stars’ Stanley Cup aspirations, it will be important that Suter finds another gear, or the Stars look for someone who can better log Suter’s minutes and perhaps bump him down the depth chart.
What should be on the Stars holiday wish list?
A defenseman.
As mentioned above, Suter could probably benefit from a more sheltered role in the Stars’ defense core. Esa Lindell could also use some help as well as he too has had his struggles. All this points to the Stars needing to shop for another defender.
Dallas is in the fortunate position to have a decent farm system from which they could trade, and also have some young roster players that could entice teams to part with a defenseman. Although I would avoid trading Johnston if possible.
The Stars could benefit from a right-side defenseman, and while it wouldn’t improve Suter’s position on the depth chart, it would allow Jani Hakanpää to slide down into the bottom pairing. Hakanpää has had a rough start to the season and would likely welcome some sheltered minutes on a 5-6 pairing.
If Dallas opts to trade for right-shot defensemen there will certainly be options available to them. Tyson Barrie of the Nashville Predators is out there, as is Chris Tanev of the Calgary Flames. If the Stars wanted to be bolder, they could take a run at Noah Hanifin as he would slot in beautifully on their top pair next to Heiskanen.
Cap space will be an issue for the Stars, but as we inch closer and closer to the trade deadline it will become less of an issue. Dallas is on the cusp of breaking through in the playoffs and one more defenseman could be just the thing that gets them over the hump and back to the Stanley Cup finals.
Evening Notes: Gudbranson, Bahl, Oettinger
Brian Hedger of The Columbus Dispatch is reporting that Columbus Blue Jackets defenseman Erik Gudbranson is expected to play tonight after being limited to 16:49 in Saturday night’s game against the New York Islanders. A lower-body issue forced the 31-year-old defender to play his lowest minutes of the season, but it appears as though the Ottawa, Ontario native won’t miss any games and should be good to go against the Dallas Stars this evening.
Gudbranson has been held scoreless in eight games this season while averaging 19:32 of ice time per game. The Blue Jackets have struggled to possess the puck with the former third-overall pick on the ice, despite Gudbranson getting most of his starts in the offensive zone. Gudbranson has also been much less physical to start the year, averaging less than one hit per game, which is well below his career average of over two hits per game.
In other evening notes:
- New Jersey Devils reporter Amanda Stein tweeted that Devils defenseman Kevin Bahl missed practice today due to an apparent illness. This information comes from New Jersey head coach Lindy Ruff. Bahl has two assists in eight games this season and has seen a dramatic increase in ice time this year as he is playing over 19 minutes a night after averaging just 14:01 a game last season. The 23-year-old rearguard doesn’t offer much offensively but has started to develop into a reliable stay-at-home defenseman on what is a very deep Devils defensive group.
- Saad Yousuf of The Athletic reported today that Dallas Stars netminder Jake Oettinger have offseason surgery on his foot this past July from an ankle injury that occurred in October 2022. The 24-year-old had sought out multiple opinions and was surprised when he got the call early in the summer that he would need the procedure. The star netminder was only able to get back onto the ice in mid-September after rehab, just a week before the start of Stars training camp. Oettinger looks to be feeling no ill effects from a late start to his skating as he has gone 3-0-1 in his first four starts with a .952 save percentage.
Dallas Stars Sign Christopher Gibson To A PTO
The Dallas Morning News announced this morning that the Dallas Stars had released their training camp roster and on it is former New York Islanders netminder Christopher Gibson. The 30-year-old Gibson has reportedly signed (Elite Prospects) a PTO to attend Stars training camp and figures to be a long shot to make the big club as Dallas has Jake Oettinger and Scott Wedgewood firmly entrenched between the pipes.
Gibson last saw NHL action with the Tampa Bay Lightning in the 2020-21 pandemic-shorted season going 1-1 with an .875 save percentage and a 2.66 goals-against average. The native of Karkkila, Finland has seen limited action over his four-year NHL career dressing in just 16 games with a record of 4-5-3 while sporting a 3.33 goals-against average and a .901 save percentage.
As one might expect, Gibson’s numbers in the AHL are superior to his NHL numbers. Over the course of his ten-year AHL career, Gibson has played 244 games going 124-77-28 while posting 14 shutouts and a .910 save percentage. Although his AHL numbers are better, they haven’t been particularly good the past two seasons and are well off his career average. Last year with the Coachella Valley Firebirds Gibson went 10-5-4 with a 2.99 goals against average and a .894 save percentage.
He might be unlikely to land with the Stars in Dallas, but Gibson will have a good opportunity to audition for AHL work and could land himself a minor-league deal with a good showing. Gibson was a second-round pick 49th overall in the 2011 NHL entry draft and at one point looked like he would be a big part of the Islanders’ future. He has good size, and terrific athleticism, but has never been able to put it all together at the NHL level.