With the 2013 NHL Draft looming on the horizon, with all seven rounds held on Sunday 30th June, I thought it would be a good time to quickly remind everyone of the current depth of the Stars prospect pool. Below is a table of those who are still prospects grouped by the position that they predominantly play at (though there is some cross over with some of these players).
NOTE: Both Brenden Dillon and Reilly Smith played more than 25 games this season therefore removing their rookie status and therefore they do not appear on these lists.
| Goaltenders | Defensemen | Left Wing | Right Wing | Centre |
| Tyler Beskorowany | Ludwig Bystrom | Matt Fraser | Alex Chiasson | Radek Faksa |
| Jack Campbell | Kevin Connauton | Alex Guptill | Scott Glennie | Emil Molin |
| Henri Kiviaho | Cameron Gaunce | Lane MacDermid | Cody Payne | Taylor Peters |
| Maxime Lagace | Jyrki Jokipakka | Curtis McKenzie | Brett Ritchie | Devin Shore |
| John Klingberg | Austin Smith | Gemel Smith | ||
| Esa Lindell | Matej Stransky | Mike Winther | ||
| Joe Morrow | Branden Troock | |||
| Patrick Nemeth | ||||
| Jamie Oleksiak | ||||
| Dmitry Sinitsyn | ||||
| Troy Vance |
The Stars have in the past taken a ‘shotgun’ style to drafting, drafting heavily for organisational needs in the middle and late rounds of the draft. The emphasis on drafting centres in the past two years is quite noticeable, all were drafted in the past two years or, in the case of Taylor Peters, signed within the past two years. In the years before that it was defensemen.
Overall there is no single particular area of weakness in the Stars system. Yes, it can better but there is no glaring weakness. A brief over look of the prospect pool points towards the Stars needing more forward depth, particularly on the left wing and centre.
I think that the Stars might draft or sign a free agent goaltender out of the juniors to add to the goaltender depth. I’d expect one to be taken in the late rounds. I only say this because its likely they Beskorowany isn’t going to be around for much longer and when it comes to goaltenders its far better to keep the pipeline full than have it completely bare.
This article is only meant to serve as a brief reminder of where the prospect pool stands currently, to see a more indepth article on the issue I recommend you read this article I wrote on the issue at the end of April. I have slightly changed my mind on the goaltender issue since this piece but generally it remains true to my views of how the Stars will approach the draft.
Following the draft there will of course be analysis of whether the Stars have addressed any of the issues that currently exist within their prospect pool.