Dallas Stars: 5 burning questions for 2018-19 season
By C.L. Kohuss
2. Does anyone else feel like scoring some points this season?
We’ve discussed Jim Nill’s changing approach to player development quite a bit this offseason, but at this point it’s still a burning question as to what will be provided once the season starts.
To say the Stars lacked quality depth beyond their first line is an understatement. Benn, Seguin, Radulov and defenseman John Klingberg joined together for 296 points while it took a combined effort from the next 14 (!) top scorers to match that total.
That isn’t to say Dallas needs two or three more players scoring 80 to 90 points a year. But consider that after Radulov’s 72, the next closest forward to his total is Mattias Janmark with 34. 34! That is a significant drop in production. It’s a huge reason as to why the Stars fell out of the playoff race in March.
In their eight game losing skid, they scored an average of just over two goals a contest. The “let’s hope every single player behind our first line produces tonight” narrative simply didn’t work. It ran out of gas as Dallas suffered immensely from a lack of reliability on lines two through four.
So what are we getting come this October? Well, the roster at forward is roughly the same except for the signing of Blake Comeau and the return of Valeri Nichushkin. After the AHL Texas Stars showed up and showed out at the Calder Cup, it’s also fair to say guys like Roope Hintz and Denis Gurianov may be fighting for spots at the NHL level as well, especially with Nill’s philosophy differing from years past.
But that simply leaves us with more questions. Comeau could come in and drop 35 to 40 points, sure. Can anyone not named Benn, Seguin or Rads put up 50 to 60? Are we really not worried that the top player on our second line could potentially net only 34 points?
Right now the depth outside of Janmark and Jason Spezza consists of players like Radek Faksa, Devin Shore, Brett Ritchie, Remie Elie and Gemel Smith. To Faksa’s credit he scored 17 goals with a plus-21, and for our money was not even close to being used up to his potential by Hitchcock. Aside from that, nothing about this list inspires confidence.
Shore will be going into his fourth year after posting a minus-30, Ritchie is in Year 5 at the NHL level and has scored only 29 goals in 188 games and Elie and Smith scored 25 points between them last season. This isn’t even considering the disappoint of the Martin Hanzal signing.