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Dallas Stars Daily Links: Sorting Out The Stars’ Forward Lines

Posted on by Kathleen Tibbetts

The Most Hockey-less Month is finally drawing to a close. Let’s indulge in a little more scatter-shooting before it’s time to dive into the Traverse City tournament and Dallas Stars training camp.

The Dallas Morning News’ Matthew DeFranks did some forward-corps speculation in a recent online chat – focusing on how the fourth line might shape up:

This is an interesting one because so much of it depends on what happens on the first three lines. Let’s assume for now that the top three lines include Jamie Benn, Tyler Seguin, Alexander Radulov, Roope Hintz, Joe Pavelski, Corey Perry, Andrew Cogliano, Radek Faksa and Blake Comeau — in some combination. There is a chance (in some cases, a remote one) that someone like Jason Dickinson, Jason Robertson, Ty Dellandrea, Mattias Janmark or Denis Gurianov push their way into the top nine, but for now, let’s assume they’re battling on the fourth line.

I think a line of Janmark, Dickinson and Gurianov would be very good on the fourth line. The speed that all three of them bring would match up with the modern game, they each have offensive ability (although Janmark and Dickinson’s results have been middling at times) and two of them are key penalty killers. They could match up with a variety of opposing lines and be fun to watch. That’s what I’d like to see, but also realize there’s a chance Dellandrea or Robertson or someone else stands out in training camp and makes a strong case for their inclusion on the NHL roster.

He also spent some time on an NHL-in-Houston thought experiment:

Expansion? No. I think with Seattle’s entrance to the league that pushes the league to 32 teams, expansion may be quiet for a bit. So that means we’d have to look at relocation for Texas to get another team. Arizona has a new owner, and I’m not going to pretend to know all about the Coyotes’ situation under him, but Tilman Fertitta has expressed interest in the past about bringing the NHL to Houston. It would be fun, that’s for sure. But I don’t know the future.

There’s more at the DMN website. [SportsDayDFW]

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Finally

They’re all hype videos now. Enjoy the anticipation.

Talking Points