It’s a bit of a tough sports scene in Texas right now. The NFL’s Dallas Cowboys are 30 years removed from their glory days and, every season, seem a little less worthy of all the attention they get. Meanwhile, the Dallas Mavericks’ decision to trade Luka Doncic — which was immediately in the running for the worst swap in NBA history — somehow looks worse now than it did six weeks ago.
I’ll tell you what, partner; thank goodness for the Dallas Stars.
It was, to say the least, quite a weekend for Texas’s hockey team. On Friday, Dallas emerged from the trade deadline with one of the best two-way wingers in hockey not only on its roster, but inked to stay there for eight more years. While they were at it, the Stars signed 21-year-old Wyatt Johnston to a new five-year extension of his own.
From mega-moves (Rantanen) to value plays (Matt Duchene) to draft-and-develop success stories (Johnston 23rd overall, Jason Robertson 39th, Roope Hintz 49th and we could go on) to strong early-deadline season moves (Mikael Granlund and Codi Ceci from San Jose), this Stars roster truly has it all.
And if you’re talking top contenders, the Stars check a couple more boxes, too.
Usually, the term ‘good injury luck’ refers to a team’s ability to ice a healthy lineup. In the salary cap age, though, you could argue the meaning of the phrase has expanded to the ability to toss a couple hefty salaries on long-term injured reserve — hi there, Nikita Kucherov and Mark Stone! — thus enabling you more roster flexibility at the deadline.
With both Tyler Seguin ($9.85 million cap hit) and Miro Heiskanen ($8.45) on LTIR, GM Jim Nill certainly had a little more room to manoeuvre. Now, the Stars definitely need Heiskanen, in particular, back at full strength to make a big post-season run, but he’s expected to be good for the post-season and it’s not hard to envision a scenario where, by Round 2, we’re talking about how his knee surgery was a blessing in disguise.
In terms of what else Dallas has going for it, there’s also the more abstract notion that this team’s time has come. Remember, this has been a final-four club each of the past two springs and the Stars should be at that notable intersection of hunger and experience as they attempt to push this thing all the way in 2025.
Switching back to concrete evidence of this squad’s potential, Dallas — after beating Vancouver 4-1 Sunday night — has the best points percentage in the entire NHL (.742) since play resumed after the Christmas break. That’s basically a 30-game sample size where the Stars were the cream of the crop.
With Heiskanen out, Thomas Harley — another draft-and-develop grand slam as the 18th selection in 2018 — has taken centre stage on the blueline. Canadians got acquainted with Harley’s smart, efficient game during the 4 Nations Face-Off, when he had two great outings as an injury replacement. Since Jan. 31, the only defenceman with more points than Harley’s 16 is his 4 Nations teammate and Central rival Cale Makar (19) in Colorado.
According to the site Tankathon, Dallas has the fourth-easiest schedule down the stretch of any team in the West. Winnipeg — a squad the Stars trail by six points for top spot in the conference — has the third-hardest.
Excuse us, but are the Stars aligning? If they are, let’s be clear, it has only a little to do with luck. Most of it hangs on the incredible work being done from top to bottom in one of the NHL’s very best organizations.
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Weekend Takeaways
• Logan Stankoven and Jarome Iginla were connected even before Friday’s stunning transaction that saw the latter move to Carolina as the centrepiece of the return for Rantanen. Both Iginla and Stankoven played major junior for the WHL’s Kamloops Blazers, and the former was a Blazers owner when the latter got there as a 15-year-old in 2018. Of course, Iginla was once also shipped out by the Stars in a get-us-over-the-top move that landed Joe Nieuwendyk from Calgary in 1995, four years before Nieuwendyk did indeed help Dallas summit the mountain. I’m not here to say Stankoven will go on to have Iginla’s career — that’s too much to put on most any NHL rookie — but it takes exceptional circumstances to move a player this good nine days after his 22nd birthday. In this case, Rantanen and his willingness to stay in Dallas was that exceptional circumstance.
Still, it took all of one game for Stankoven to show what he can do for Carolina, netting the game-winner in his Canes debut during a 4-2 victory over Winnipeg on Sunday. Stankoven skated on the top line with Sebastian Aho and Andrei Svechnikov during that game, and hopefully being in that prime role while still competing on a top contender helps take the sting out of being moved for this young man. Carolina got a good one.
• We had four hat tricks on the weekend and each of them were notable for one reason or another. On Saturday, Valeri Nichushkin scored three goals in Colorado’s 7-4 win over Toronto. It was a don’t-forget-about-me showing from Nichushkin, who was playing just his fifth game since returning from a lower-body ailment that sidelined him for nearly two months. Of course, he also missed the start of the season thanks to a suspension from last May that placed him in Stage 3 of the NHLPA player assistance program. For all the moves the Avs have made this year — and there have been a lot of them — getting Nichushkin back and scoring would be huge. His 15 tallies in 26 games this season represent a 47-goal pace.
Also on Saturday, Steven Stamkos — who had one goal in his previous 15 outings — scored a hatty, including the OT winner, versus Chicago in what was surely his most satisfying night as a Nashville Predator. On Sunday, Tomas Hertl tallied with 2:12 to go in the third to pull his Knights within one during a wild game with Los Angeles. Vegas wound up losing 6-5. Still, it was the first hat trick for Hertl since he landed in the desert a year ago and, with 27 goals, he should have no problem hitting the 30-goal barrier for the third time in his career.
Finally, Adam Fantilli’s second career hat trick felt like a bit of a statement on Sunday, as his Jackets blasted the New York Rangers 7-3 in Madison Square Garden. Fantilli’s first hat trick came on Jan. 22 and he’s got 10 goals and 18 points in 16 contests from that game through the win in New York. The sophomore is really hitting his NHL stride.
The Week Ahead
• We know the injured Brad Marchand won’t be in the lineup, but don’t tell us there won’t be a little something in the air when the Panthers visit Marchand’s former team in Boston — how weird does that still sound? — on Tuesday.
• Wednesday brings an all-Canadian clash with big time playoff-chase implications in the West, as the Canucks visit Calgary.
• Matt Roy, who played 369 games with the Kings before leaving as a free agent last summer, returns to L.A. as a member of the Eastern Conference-leading Washington Capitals on Thursday. Of course, that also means Pierre-Luc Dubois — who spent just a single, disappointing year in L.A. — is back at Crypto, too.
• The Battle of Ontario should have a little extra juice on Saturday when the Sens visit the Leafs. There will, no doubt, be all kinds of chatter about the game being a possible Rd. 1 preview.
• It’s a big week for Colorado. Nathan MacKinnon’s next point will be the 1,000th of his NHL career and could come as soon as Tuesday night when the Avs, winners of five straight games, visit the Wild club they have now jumped in the race for third place in the Central. Of course, that 2/3 matchup in the Central is one everyone has been talking about because it would almost certainly pit the Avs against old friend and new Dallas Star, Mikko Rantanen. Either way, Rantanen is coming to town on Sunday with the Stars, visiting Denver for the first time since he was traded for the first time this year in late January.
Red and White Power Rankings
1. Winnipeg Jets (44-17-4): Brandon Tanev has already played two games as a Jet (actually his 196th and 197th games with the team where his NHL journey started), while fellow deadline pickup Luke Schenn is expected to debut on the blueline Tuesday when the Rangers visit.
2. Toronto Maple Leafs (38-22-3): The Leafs will try to halt a three-game skid on Monday in Utah, then turn their attention to a massive home tilt with the Atlantic-leading Florida Panthers on Thursday.
3. Edmonton Oilers (37-22-4): The Oilers begin a four-game roadie on Monday in Buffalo, and it’s possible, with 46 goals on the board, that Leon Draisaitl will hit the 50-goal mark for the fourth time in his career before Edmonton returns home. The only player this century with more than two 50-goal campaigns is Alex Ovechkin.
4. Calgary Flames (30-23-10): Dustin Wolf, past five starts: 3-1-1 with a .935 save percentage.
5. Ottawa Senators (32-25-5): The Sens turned a looming regulation loss against a wild-card rival into an overtime win by scoring with 2:52 left in the third on Saturday versus the Rangers and watching Brady Tkachuk get the decisive marker in extra time. Now, Ottawa does it all over again on Monday as the Senators host another wild-card chaser, the Detroit Red Wings. A 60-minute win by Ottawa would have the Sens feeling great in their pursuit of the team’s first playoff appearance since 2017.
6. Vancouver Canucks (29-23-11): The Canucks simply don’t score enough, especially in the past two months. Since Jan. 8, Vancouver’s 2.17 goals per game is fewer than every club in the NHL.
7. Montreal Canadiens (30-27-6): Management chose not to sell and now it’s up to the Habs players to validate that decision by staying in the playoff chase as long as possible. They need to grab at least three of four available points in the final two contests of their current western swing, which ends with games Tuesday in Vancouver and the following night in Seattle.
from Sportsnet.ca
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