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Dallas Stars Daily Links: Las Vegas Expansion Exposes "Legit NHL-Caliber Guys" to the Draft

Don&#39;t kid yourself: Your team <em>will</em> lose a regular. Plus, EA Sports will supersize its <em>NHL 17</em> roster, and Phil Kessel may spend his day with the Cup in Leafs territory.

Now that an NHL expansion team in Las Vegas looks inevitable, the other 30 teams will need to decide which regular players they can and cannot do without. And the new draft rules are designed to make the (proposed) Black Knights competitive sooner rather than later, writes Barry Petchesky of Deadspin:

For obvious financial reasons, the NHL is determined that Las Vegas achieve competitiveness relatively quickly, compared to most expansion teams of years past. An expansion draft is going to happen next year, and we already know roughly what it's going to look like.

Teams have already received preliminary guidelines on how the draft will go down, and Petchesky goes straight to those he says will have the greatest effect, including this one:

Teams will be forced to expose at least two forwards and one defenseman who played at least 40 games in the previous season, or a combined 70 in the previous two. That means legit NHL-caliber guys are going to be drafted.

Because Las Vegas must draft one player from all 30 teams, your team is going to lose someone it regularly ices.

There's more at the link. [Deadspin]

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The Dallas Stars have hammered out a two-year affiliate extension with the ECHL's Idaho Steelheads.

In other news, EA Sports has announced that the Steelheads roster – and that of every other ECHL team – will be available for play in NHL 17. [ECHL]

Winner, winner, chicken dinner: Prince George native Daryl "Razor" Reaugh has been chosen to receive the 2016 Bernie Pascall Media Award by the British Columbia Hockey Hall of Fame.

Fire up those prospect guides: Here are the positions where the Stars will be drafting next week.

Mike Heika discussed whether Jamie Benn is the best player in the world and whether the Stars should trade Jason Spezza for a No. 1 defender in his most recent Monday chat. [SportsDayDFW]

And Trevor Daley talked with The Ticket about how his Mom is doing, what he did with his playoff beard, and how he plans to spend his day with the Stanley Cup. [SportsDayDFW]

Phil Kessel isn't the first leading playoffs scorer to be overlooked for the Conn Smythe Trophy. Sean McIndoe devotes the latest edition of Down Goes Brown to five other times it happened (and to what the voters were thinking).

And if you didn't think you could love Kessel any more, the Madison, Wisconsin native says there's a "good chance" he'll spend his day with the Cup in Toronto. [USA Today]

Does Patrick Marleau have a future with the San Jose Sharks? Josh Cooper examines rumors that he may want a trade. [Puck Daddy]

There was good news and bad news about this year's Stanley Cup Finals TV ratings.

In more offseason injury news, Washington Capitals blueliner Karl Alzner has had successful surgery for a sports hernia he sustained during Round Two of the playoffs. [Sports Illustrated]

Ferris Bueller's Day Off had its 30th anniversary on the same weekend the world mourned Gordie Howe's passing. To mark that cultural milestone, here's the story – straight from Alan Ruck – of why Chicago kid Cameron Frye wore Gordie's No. 9 Red Wings sweater. [Sportsnet]

And on the subject of Mr. Hockey, Wayne Gretzky has called on the NHL to retire Howe's old number leaguewide. [NBC Sports]

Finally: Apropos of nothing, the Stars posted this short 2015-16 highlight video yesterday. Consider it your midweek gift and a reminder of what fans have to look forward to in a few short months.

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