DALLAS, Tx – The Dallas Stars finished the regular season with 93 points and made the playoffs as the first wild card team in the Western Conference. Offensively the Stars finished 29th in Goals for, second in Goals Against, 11th on the Power Play, fifth on the Penalty Kill, and fourth in Face-offs.
Dallas have most of their forwards locked up into next season except for Mats Zuccarello and Jason Spezza. The offense was led by Tyler Seguin with 33 goals and 80 points. Only two other players had over 20 goals: Alexander Radulov (29) and Jamie Benn (27). Four other players had 10 or more goals.
On defense, John Klingberg led the D in assists (7), points (9), and plus/minus (+6). The Stars have five players who are going to be unrestricted free agents this summer.
Heading into the NHL Entry Draft, over the next two years, the Stars do not have second, third, or seventh round picks. The Stars will have to start rectifying that situation beginning at this month’s draft. In 2017, they selected defenseman (Miro Heiskanen) in the first round. The last time they drafted a defenseman was in 2014. Defense will be a high priority, especially offensive-minded defensemen given the Stars lack of scoring from the blueline.
That shouldn’t be too hard to do in this year’s draft considering it is going to be very forward driven draft especially in the top 15 picks. Very few defensemen are expected to go in the top 10 so finding a d-man where Dallas is picking at #18 might not be too hard to find.
Some of the top defenseman going into the draft are: Bowen Byram is expected to go in the top five, Philip Broberg, Victor Soderstrom, Thomas Harley, and Lassi Thomson are expected to go anywhere from picks six to 20. In PHN’s mock draft, Byram, Broberg, and Soderstrom are off the board. The Stars could go on offense with their scoring issues a major issue. In our mock Phillip Tomasino, Raphael Lavioe, and Samuel Poulin are still there for the taking.
If Dallas decides to go for offense, Phillip Tomasino, Samuel Poulin, Raphael Lavioe, Ryan Suzuki, and Brett Leason are still on the board. Given that Dallas has very few picks this year, going for need might outweigh what Dallas does at the draft more so than the best-player-available approach.
PHN believes the Stars will take an offensive minded defenseman and that should come down too either Thomas Harley or Lassi Thomson. Both players fit the bill but Harley is considered a more polished prospect that could be a top 10 pick so we expect Dallas to make the following announcement come draft day.
“With the 18th pick in the 2019 NHL Draft, the Dallas Stars select, from the Mississauga Steelheads of the Ontario Hockey League, Thomas Harley.”
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