Dallas Stars Prospect Update: Heiskanen’s Marathon Season Will Continue at World Championships

Does Miro Heiskanen ever get tired?

The 18-year-old Finnish defenseman has had a busy season. Beyond his time with HIFK in Finland’s top professional league — which included 13 playoff games, the last of which he played in was a crushing Game 7 defeat this past week — he jetted off to Buffalo earlier this year to take part in the World Juniors, and then not long after headed to South Korea to play in the Olympics.

He has one more Liiga game left to play — the bronze medal game — before wrapping up his season at the World Hockey Championships, hosted this year in Denmark.

Phew. Talk about a lot of frequent flyer miles.

The most impressive thing about his season, though, is that he logged a ton of ice time all season long, no matter where he played. The same will probably be true at the Worlds in a few weeks.

His current average time on ice for this year’s Liiga playoffs is 26:29, a full 1:09 more than the closest player behind him. During the regular season he logged 25:06, also the highest in the league.

The ability to play that much hockey — and play well — should serve him very well when he joins Dallas in the NHL, which could be as soon as the fall.

This year’s World Championships go from May 4 to May 20.

North American Juniors

OHL

Jason Robertson finished with seven points in six games as the Kingston Frontenacs eliminated the Barrie Colts to move on to the OHL semifinals. He now has a total of 14 points in 11 playoff games.

Nick Caamano kept his playoff-long point scoring streak alive as the Hamilton Bulldogs defeated the Niagara IceDogs in a five-game series. That’s now 10 games in a row where Caamano has picked up a point, and he sits with 13 in total.

Both teams will now have to face off against each other to see which team claims the honors of winning the OHL’s Eastern Conference. No matter what, one Dallas Stars prospect will be off to the league’s finals and one step away from the Memorial Cup.

WHL

Ondrej Vala picked up three assists as the Everett Silvertips made a playoff victory over a very, very good Portland Winterhawks team seem far too easy. The Silvertips advanced to the next round in just five games. Vala spent the series on the team’s defensive top unit next to overage defenseman Kevin Davis, a duo that did a great job of shutting down top prospects Cody Glass and Kiefer Bellows.

Their next round could be a real doozy, however, as they now have to face the Tri-City Americans — a team that swept both of their first two rounds while scoring an average of 5.75 goals per game. Tri-City forwards Michael Rasmussen and Morgan Geekie each have 24 points through eight games.

AHL

The Texas Stars wrapped up their regular season with two wins and a loss. They defeated the Grand Rapids Griffins 3-2 on Wednesday, and then the San Antonio Rampage 4-2 on Friday, before falling to the Rampage 4-3 in the shootout on Saturday.

Denis Gurianov was hot last week, scoring three goals in three games. He finished the regular season with 19 tallies and 34 points in 74 games.

Gavin Bayreuther only played in two of the three games, but still picked up three assists. The puck-moving blueliner enters the playoffs riding a five-game point scoring streak, and has 11 points in his past 12 games. He’s really taken steps forward in his play in the latter half of the season.

The newest prospect in the Dallas Stars’ system, forward Tony Calderone, wasted little time picking up his first professional goal, lighting the lamp on Saturday with a dangerous wrist shot.

Texas’ opponent in the opening round of the playoffs will be the Ontario Reign, the farm team of the Los Angeles Kings. The first game comes Thursday.

ECHL

A few Stars prospects are currently involved in postseason action down in the ECHL with the Idaho Steelheads. Idaho currently sits in a 2-0 hole at the hands of the Allen Americans, who are once again one of the top teams in the league.

Cole Ully has two assists so far, while Philippe Desrosiers suffered a loss in his only start, allowing three goals on 24 shots. Defenseman Chris Martenet has been sitting out as a healthy scratch.