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Dallas Stars Daily Links: Shifting Focus

With the season over, the Stars now focus on the NHL Entry Draft, which is less than a week away. Plus, Rick Bowness still has the passion for coaching, ranking the 2020 playoff series, and more.

There was a chance that the Dallas Stars would be playing Game 7 of the Stanley Cup Finals tonight. Instead, they’re back in Dallas and the organization has already had to shift their focus towards the next major event: the NHL Entry Draft next Tuesday.

The Stars’ first pick of the draft will be 30th overall, which is much later than they’re accustomed to. But director of amateur scouting Joe McDonnell feels confident they can land a quality player at that position:

“This year we think the draft goes very deep,” McDonnell said. “I would say this year, there is a lot of guys after maybe 15 that are very interchangeable. So we think at 30 we’ll probably get somebody on our list we would have rated at 20, so we think it’s a good position that way.”

Thanks to the stoppage, many have spent the last several months re-evaluating the 2020 draft class, especially now since many of those same players have now started their seasons overseas. But the Stars are trying to not let recency bias affect their process:

“We’re not changing our list,” McDonnell said. “We made our list at the end of May or early June, and there might be the odd variance, but the only thing that has really changed is players that might have had medical issues and just seeing if they’ve had surgeries and how those went.”

You can read more from Sean Shapiro here.

Around the League

Bittersweet:

Although they fell short of the Stanley Cup this year, the Stars proved a lot of doubters wrong:

Will Rick Bowness be back behind the bench? It sure seems like it, as his love for coaching is stronger than ever:

Around the League

It’s the end of an era — the New York Rangers have bought out the final year of Henrik Lundqvist’s contract:

Down Goes Brown ranks this year’s playoff series from worst to best, with a certain Stars series taking home the crown:

Some powerful stuff here — Vancouver Canucks forward Tyler Motte shares his battles with mental health issues:

As discussed in the lead, the Draft is less than a week away. Corey Pronman gives his final evaluations of this year’s draft class:

Note: You should also check out our own Derek Neumeier‘s rankings here if you haven’t already.

Finally, after the Draft comes Free Agency. Here are some of the top wingers to keep an eye on. You know, just in case:

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