Dallas Stars Prospect Update: Jason Robertson Knows How To Score Goals

The start of the NHL regular season is still a few long, excruciating days away, but luckily, more hockey happened in other leagues around the world this past weekend to help tide fans over...at least for the time being.

NCAA hockey kicked off on Saturday with a couple of games, joining the Canadian Major Junior leagues and pro leagues throughout Europe, which are already underway.

The AHL hasn’t begun yet either, but the Texas Stars played their only two preseason games over the weekend, splitting the pair with a win and a loss. Their regular season kicks off on October 6, the same night as their parent club.

Let’s take a look at the prospects that are playing already and see how their past weeks went.

North American Juniors

OHL

Jason Robertson knows a thing or two about scoring goals.

He scored a whopping 42 of them in the regular season last year for the Kingston Frontenacs, before adding another five in the playoffs. That scoring prowess was one of, if not the biggest, reasons why the Dallas Stars selected him 39th overall in the 2017 NHL Entry Draft.

He hasn’t lost that touch to start the 2017-18 season, with four goals in five games so far. No assists yet, though, but he picked up 39 of those last year (and then 13 more in the playoffs), so they’ll come.

He had a big game on Sunday, scoring the tying goal in the 3rd period and then the game-winner in the shootout as Kingston beat the Hamilton Bulldogs 4-3. Video of that game can be found here.

Nick Caamano had another strong weekend for Flint, scoring his first two goals of the season in a 5-4 overtime win over the Ottawa 67’s. His second goal of the night was a pretty breakaway, using a soft pair of mitts to finish. Video can be found here.

Liam Hawel missed the previous two games for Guelph with a lower-body injury.

WHL

Brett Davis scored the first two goals of his season for the Kootenay Ice. The Ice are 2-2-1 to start the year, hoping to right the ship after a nightmarish 2016-17 season. Davis, the 2017 Stars 6th rounder, is a winger with above-average size, speed and skating, similar in some ways to Caamano. Video if his first goal of the season can be found here.

Ondrej Vala picked up his first goal and assist of the season for the Kamloops Blazers, but he’s been on the wrong side of a lot of goals coming the other way so far. The Blazers are off to a rough 0-5 start.

NCAA

Jake Oettinger, the Stars’ 1st round, 26th overall selection in the 2017 draft, started off his season with a win as Boston University edged Union by a score of 4-1. Oettinger made 31 saves in the win.

Colton Point, Dallas’ other NCAA goalie, had an almost identical game on Saturday, stopping 31 of 32 shots as his Colgate team beat Niagara 5-1. Point isn’t as well-known as a lot of other Stars prospects, but he’s a big, poised, smart goalie, tools that most successful netminders in the NHL possess these days. Keep an eye out for him.

Europe

Sweden

Fredrik Karlstrom continues to have a slow start adjusting to a new team this season. He’s been held pointless through six games for Linkopings in the SHL.

John Nyberg also is without a point so far, but considering he’s a defenseman, that’s not all that concerning. The bigger stat, though, is that he leads all defenders on his team in ice time, at 18:40 per game. (Talk about rolling all of your defensive pairs.)

Finland

Some potentially good news this week about Miro Heiskanen, who continues to be held out of play over in Finland due to a concussion that he suffered recently.

Not sure on the credibility of the source, and Google Translate is pretty finicky, but according to this link it seems like Heiskanen might be ready to return to action soon.

From the piece and through some shaky translating:

“HIFK's young defender Miro Heiskanen will probably be in the squad already next week.

No fatigue or headaches have ever felt. With the team I have not been there yet, but I probably will play next week, he said before the start of the Ässät match.”

Hopefully this is accurate, and that Heiskanen is feeling well and will be back in action soon.

AHL

Denis Gurianov had a very productive preseason game for Texas on Saturday, scoring a goal and adding two assists in a 4-0 win over the San Antonio Rampage. Cole Ully, who is in the last year of his contract, scored in both of the two weekend games, the Friday one coming as a 4-2 loss, also versus the Rampage.

2018 NHL Entry Draft Watch

Finnish center Rasmus Kupari is a player that I’m going to be watching like a hawk this season.

The reason? The talented Finnish center brings a style of play that is sorely lacking in the Stars’ prospect system right now. He’s a sublime playmaker with great acceleration, vision and passing ability. He’s the type of forward that makes his linemates better, which would be a great complement to all the big, fast wingers that are already in the system.

He scored his first goal in the Liiga a few days ago, and it was a good one: