Jump to content

Recommended Posts

Posted

It's Stars training camp week and we have our first preseason game this weekend!

Happy to change the thread title if someone has something better, btw.

My feeling going into last season was we were not as good as the 23-24 season based on our offseason moves, but I really don't know about this season. Same basic cast of characters but a new coach and some fairly ho-hum offseason moves. 

Anticipated lines:

Robertson-Hintz-Rantanen
Duchene-Johnston-Seguin
Benn-Steel-Bourque
Back-Faksa-Blackwell

Lindell-Heiskanen
Harley-Lyubushkin
Bichsel-Lundkvist

Oettinger-DeSmith

Honestly that last D pairing gives me both pause and hope. Maybe the brass think Nils is ready. I was sorta surprised we didn't make another D move, but we're so tight on the cap this season it's understandable.

What are your predictions for the season? 

Posted

Another preseason tilt again tonight against the Wild. Will have a mostly nhl lineup tonight, which I have mixed feelings about. on the one hand, you want your guys up to game speed by the start of the season, but also want them healthy. anywho, go Stars!

Posted
1 hour ago, Bill Brasky said:

I'm kinda meh on the offseason moves and especially at head coach.  I guess we'll see.  

serious question: do you watch hockey outside of the Stars? Glen Gulutzan has been a head coach before and has been an assistant coach running the PP with the Oilers for the last almost decade. I think he's going to be quite good, personally. I was sure they were going to bring Neil Graham all the way up, but making him an assistant right now makes sense. 

as far as the roster, I think there is a reason we are considered one of the contenders again this season. for reference, here is our opening night roster last season (and who is not on the roster this season)

Forwards (12)
Oskar Bäck, Jamie Benn, Colin Blackwell, Mavrik Bourque, Evgenii Dadonov, Matt Duchene, Roope Hintz, Wyatt Johnston, Mason Marchment, Jason Robertson, Tyler Seguin, Logan Stankoven, Sam Steel

Defensemen (7)
Mathew Dumba, Thomas Harley, Miro Heiskanen, Esa Lindell, Nils Lundkvist, Ilya Lyubushkin, Brendan Smith

Goaltenders (2)
Casey DeSmith, Jake Oettinger

Additions: Nathan Bastian, Lian Bichsel, Radek Faksa, Vladislav Kolyachonok, Mikko Rantanen

Obviously Rantanen, Bichsel, and Faksa are known commodities at this point and Rantanen (Stankoven) and Bichsel (Dumba) are massive upgrades over the players they replaced. Faksa and Bastian are both depth players and aren't expected to score a ton, which makes Marchment really the only uneven loss that I see (Dadonov disappeared most games so I don't think he'll be all that missed). But I assume the brass expect the rest of the roster to pick up his 47 points - and leave his PIMs at the door. Rantanen can make up those points on his own. I think the fact that Nill didn't make more moves shows how nearly solidified this roster is. The real question mark for me is Lundkvist - the previous coaches didn't trust him for some reason. If he can be 75% of the first round prospect he is supposed to be, he'll be a massive upgrade both in his puck pursuit but in scoring as well. We need more goals from the blueline this season. 

Posted

yeah I do.  especially once regular season football winds down.  nothing about this offseason stands out as moving the needle enough to get over the hump unless Gulutzan is able to maintain better team chemistry in the playoffs than DeBoer.  the best moves were moving on from Dumba and Marchment.    

Join the conversation

You can post now and register later. If you have an account, sign in now to post with your account.

Guest
Reply to this topic...

×   Pasted as rich text.   Paste as plain text instead

  Only 75 emoji are allowed.

×   Your link has been automatically embedded.   Display as a link instead

×   Your previous content has been restored.   Clear editor

×   You cannot paste images directly. Upload or insert images from URL.



×
×
  • Create New...