3 things the Dallas Stars can do to get to the 2020 Stanley Cup
By C.L. Kohuss
With the Dallas Stars playoff run now dead and gone, what can the team do over the summer to help their chances come next year?
Being knocked out of the NHL postseason in a multi-overtime Game 7 is just the worst. It’s disappointing. Heartbreaking. Excruciating. In summation? It’s one giant, raw banana sandwich: disgusting and completely unnecessary. Most of us would probably take having beach sand thrown in our eyes over losing in the playoffs.
Yet with every defeat and with every finishing touch—good or bad—on another season come and gone, there’s always something positive to gain and learn from the entirety of the campaign. While the Dallas Stars certainly didn’t accomplish all they had their sights on, there’s plenty to build around.
The goaltending was superb and the backbone of the team not only through the regular season, but through a nice run across a month of postseason action. Starter Ben Bishop and Anton Khudobin will both be back in 2019-20.
First-time NHL head coach Jim Montgomery was a solid, solid find out of the college level. The Stars are in good hands with his guidance. Rookie defenseman Miro Heiskanen? What else can be said about the Finnish kid that hasn’t been stated already. He was phenomenal and a gem. As was rookie forward Roope Hintz, whose star-turn at the end of the season and in Round 1 against the Nashville Predators should have fans excited about his future.
Still, no team can sit idle and expect to progress. Though Dallas should be proud of what it accomplished, it certainly has areas to shore up and fixes to be made. Here are three keys to making a deeper run in the 2020 Stanley Cup Playoffs.
3. Find another Top 4 defenseman
Right now the Dallas Stars have an embarrassment of riches on their blue line—at least at the top. John Klingberg, Esa Lindell and Miro Heiskanen are all legit top pairing defensemen, all three are young and not yet in their prime, and all three contributed heavily to what was the second best defensive team during the regular season.
But things get murky after that. Throughout the campaign, Montgomery and company relied a ton on a revolving door of aging veterans and AHL call-ups to not only fill the final spot in the top four, but to fill out their third pairing.
Roman Polak did an admirable job for most of the year while being a crucial cog to an excellent penalty kill, but if Dallas is to retain his services (he’s an unrestricted free agent), it won’t likely be to spend another season riding shotgun with Heiskanen.
Dallas also traded for Ben Lovejoy but he’s 35 and a free agent. Taylor Fedun? The coaching staff seemed to lose a lot of faith in him during the playoffs. Julius Honka? Forget it. Gavin Bayreuther? Not likely.
The name that will probably come up the most is Wun Wun impersonator Jamie Oleksiak. He was reacquired from the Pittsburgh Penguins during the year and played well enough in limited postseason action (before getting injured) on a bottom pairing role to have the staff take a look come training camp and preseason.
The Stars could certainly look outside and into free agency for additions, but let’s remember also that Lindell is about to get paid something serious. They also have other areas of concern, so … free-agent-to-be Erik Karlsson is off the table and we’ll leave it at that.
The best addition though might already be on their roster in Stephen Johns.
Johns when healthy is a legitimate top four defenseman who can move the puck, lay the big hit, put up a few goals and points and makes smart decisions in his own zone. He was clearly missed in Round 2 against the St. Louis Blues. He’s also still relatively young and was signed before last season to a longer term deal.
The problem? Nobody knows when he’ll play again as he’s been suffering from post-traumatic headaches that date all the way back to before the start of the 2018-19 season.