Dallas Stars Training Camp 2011: The Defense

by Brad Gardner on Sep 16, 2011 7:01 AM CDT in Dallas Stars Analysis

Dallas Stars fans tasted their first real life, tangible news about the sale of the team in quite some time yesterday with the bankruptcy court filing. A time line has been established (60-75 days) and sometime just after Thanksgiving, in what we can call the Christmas season, we're all going to get a present we've been waiting on for a very long time.

Even better news... the Dallas Stars are taking the ice in a day for training camp. It's time to get our thoughts back on the ice where they belong, and we'll start with taking a quick look at the defensive corps the Stars have invited this year.

Just a quick fifteen months ago as the 2010 draft approached, we said repeatedly that the "defensive cupboard was a little bare". Ivan Vishnevskiy, though to be the clubs best defensive prospect at the time, had just been traded for Kari Lehtonen and Philip Larsen had yet to play much North American hockey. There were seemingly no NHL caliber replacements in the pipeline and the team's defensive struggles on the ice made the issue feel all that more pressing.

Fast forward to this weekend and the unquestioned organizational strength where prospects are concerned is defense, and it will be on display this preseason in the form of Philip Larsen, Jamie Oleksiak and Brenden Dillon, to name but a few.

The departures of Matt Niskanen, Jeff Woywitka and Karlis Skrastins mean there's a lot to think about on the NHL level as well, of course. A static defensive unit for the last two seasons under Charlie Huddy has been shuffled and a new boss, Paul Jerrard, will be in charge. Indeed one of the biggest unknowns going into camp is the defensive pairings.

NHL defensemen likely include:

How do you best put them together...?

Continued after the jump...

We could try to read a little too far into things and note that Stephane Robidas are on the same training camp group while Nick Grossman is a part of the other. We could try to draw a ridiculous conclusion from this that Grossman is being taken from his long time partner in Stephane Robidas and that he'll see time with Trevor Daley instead.

We could do that. We know better, of course. (See the d-men groupings at camp here)

Speculation from DBD and from the Dallas Morning News earlier in the summer produced pairings that looked like this....

Robidas-Goligoski
Grossman-Daley
Souray-Pardy

Fistric (7th)

Mark Fistric was lauded after the 2009-2010 season with his outrageous +27 number and the next step for him seemed imminent. Some minor injuries and some coaching decisions people are still talking about later and we're still trying to figure out what happened in nine short months.

He'll have plenty of opportunity to earn playing time coming up, but the evidence pointing to his being the seventh man is pretty weighty. Adam Pardy's $2.0M salary is hard to overlook and the assumption is he was given that money to play every day. Sheldon Souray's presence looms large as well and the Stars hope he'll be able to contribute on the power play and regain some of his form from three years ago. So, if remotely true, where does all of that leave Mark Fistric? Time will tell.

One wonders if a Souray/Pardy pairing will have enough mobility and speed, but not having seen either one of these players ply their craft in some time, we'll leave such observations to the final preseason games.

Can Anyone Push Their Way Up Onto The NHL Roster?

You may have missed it in a flurry of posts yesterday, but Brandon had a good discussion up about how many roster positions are open for competition from the young guys and whether or not the roster is already set. The conclusion was that...there probably is NOT a spot open on the defense right now, unless a complete stand out performance is observed in camp/preseason.

The group of what must at this point be considered to be prospect defensemen (plus Brad Lukowich) is:

	2009-2010 Team
Brenden Dillon	Seattle (WHL)
Philip Larsen	Texas Stars
Jamieson Oleksiak	Northwestern
Jordie Benn	Texas Stars
Jayce Coyle	Medicine Hat (WHL)
Hubert Labrie	Gatineau (QMJHL)
Dan Spang	Texas Stars
Maxime Fortunus	Texas Stars
Brad Lukowich	Texas Stars
Alex Theriau	Medicine Hat (WHL)

Brenden Dillon and Philip Larsen are in-arguably the most NHL ready of the bunch, but it does not behoove either of their development curve's to be the number seven man on an NHL roster and not get much in the way of ice time. More likely, barring injury, is that they'll return to Cedar Park and be part of a pretty salty defensive unit there with Lukowich, Spang, Benn and Fortunus all expected to return.

The good news is that their skill sets and attributes do not overlap a ton, and that gives Dallas flexibility and confidence in being able to call up a player to fit any injuries sustained.

According to Hundred Degree Hockey Hubert Labrie and Jayce Coyle will start what should be a competition spanning two different training camps this weekend that decides which one sticks in Austin, and which one goes to Boise. Both finished their junior careers last season and one will likely end up in the ECHL. It's a big month for those two young men.

And That's (Not) All Folks

We'd remiss for if we didn't (once again) mention the European prospects who have already begun their seasons across the Atlantic and cannot attend this camp. John Klingberg and Patrik Nemeth would fit in quite well with this group, and together with Oleksiak, Dillon, Larsen (and the absent Troy Vance) could represent an entire NHL defense and then some of the future. Klingberg in particular impressed at development camp in July and we can't wait to see him here soon to show what we can do. It's an embarrassment of riches on the Stars prospective blue line.

Pairings I most want to see in a preseason game: Brenden Dillon + Alex Goligoski. Stephane Robidas + Jamie Oleksiak.

What are your ideal defensive pairings?

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Comments

Wouldn't mind seeing Grossman and Oleksiak together

Reckon that would be pretty solid defensively. Also I think the pair wouldn’t be dominated physically, in fact probably the other way round.

Goose and Dillon is a good shout. Goose and Larsen maybe? Although that is offensively orientated, could rotate this pair and the above pair and have Robi and Pardy as the set?

S’all speculation :)

Tonight's forecast... a freeze!!!
James Neal - 45 points. Alex Goligoski - 46 points. Nieuwendyk lost?

by Great British Stars Fan on Sep 16, 2011 7:54 AM CDT reply actions

And I hope to see some of it come to fruition for a shift or two

During the preseason.

I’ll tell you guys all about it in stunning detail ;)

Defending Big D

by Brad Gardner on Sep 16, 2011 8:42 AM CDT up reply actions

My tastes for D-men is to always pair up a big guy with a quick mover. That way you can hold the line, or if you need to pinch in during the shift, your quick mover can be the one to do it.

I’m interested to see how Souray does. If he is really healed, and in shape (which may be the most daunting task for him, after being in the minors for so long), I think he’s going to play a bigger role than 3rd line.

Not matter how you swing it, though, you have 3 very capable lines now. Something that was not the case last season. If I had to organize them, i’d probably go with:

Goose – Grossman
Robi – Souray
Daley – Pardy

But this is one of those where I think you can run the lines evenly, instead of overloading the top 2 lines. I also think Robi is more effective with a little more rest than what he got last year. He does an amazing job for us, and I want him to be on his toes 24/7. Not worn out and throwing pucks over the glass. I hesitate putting Daley down on the 3rd line, but it’s the only thing that really seems to fit for me.

Obviously though, throw all of that out, and go with what chemistry works best during training camp.

"I want to have Jamie Benn's babies. And you can quote me on that." - Brandon Worley

by Tsudbury on Sep 16, 2011 8:59 AM CDT reply actions

Pretty good combinations

I was originally thinking to put Robi with Grossman, but since Souray is a bit of an unknown it is good to have someone like Robi with him that can make up for any mistakes Souray may make.

If Souray doesn’t work out, they can bring in Fistric to take his place and pair him with Goligosky and put Robi back with Grossman. Not that they ever ask my advice though! :)

by RB16 on Sep 16, 2011 9:13 AM CDT up reply actions

That's usually my thinking as well.

But I also want to keep Robidas and Grossman together in my own little perfect world, so…

If we’re talking about the best shutdown pairing, I think that’s it. Obviously we can’t read anything into what Marc Crawford did last year (which was play Robi and Goose together a lot down the stretch, even when Grossman was healthy) so we’ll just have to wait and see.

The big question mark here, for me, is how well does Souray move. If we see guys turning the corner too often on Souray and/or Pardy then the thinking will change a bit.

Defending Big D

by Brad Gardner on Sep 16, 2011 9:40 AM CDT up reply actions

If Souray doesn't move fast enough

I can see him being 6th or 7th D-man. Even if he’s7th, you can put him out as the quarterback on PPs. and then bench him when it’s over. But hopefully that won’t be a problem.

"I want to have Jamie Benn's babies. And you can quote me on that." - Brandon Worley

by Tsudbury on Sep 16, 2011 9:59 AM CDT up reply actions

imagine Grossman and Oleksiak taking on other team's top lines.

What a shutdown pair they would be. I think it’s safe to say Souray is the biggest unknown in the NHL group so if anyone gets bumped down it will be him.
I keep reading good stuff about Pardy, plus I think he was by far the friendliest player I met at the ice breaker next the Benn.

by T-rom on Sep 16, 2011 10:02 AM CDT via iPhone app reply actions

especially in a game like last February against the Bruins

I don’t particularly want goons that just go looking for fights, but you gotta love the deterrent value.

It’s like when I was a little kid, playing street hockey with friends in the circle several of us lived on. Some kids several years older from down the block came down and kicked us off, saying they were bigger, what are we going to do about it. Out come my father and the father of the kids next door. Dad was 6’6" and 300 lbs. The dad next door was a former Notre Dame lineman. We never got kicked off the circle again!

by denniso on Sep 16, 2011 12:43 PM CDT up reply actions