The Dallas Stars made a series of moves today in advance of the 4 PM EST deadline on Monday for finalized rosters in advance of the NHL season starting.
Up front, Riley Damiani was loaned to the AHL Texas Stars and Logan Stankoven, who had a strong showing in Traverse City and solid outings in the preseason, was returned to his junior team, the Kamloops Blazers. He’ll get a chance to compete for the Memorial Cup which his team will be hosting this season.
Those moves mean that Ty Dellandrea, who broke a finger tip in the preseason but is expected to be ready by Thursday night’s season opener in Nashville, and 19-year-old Wyatt Johnston will be on the final roster. We talked about this among the media at training camp in Cedar Park, and this may be the first time the Stars have had a Canadian major junior forward make their roster out of camp since the team moved to Dallas in 1994 (so not including anyone that came from college or had played in European leagues prior to the move.) If you can prove that theory wrong, let us know in the comments.
Here’s the anticipated forward lineup for the Stars this season:
Joe Pavelski – Roope Hintz – Jason Robertson
Mason Marchment – Tyler Seguin – Wyatt Johnston
Jamie Benn – Radek Faksa – Denis Gurianov
Jacob Peterson – Luke Glendening – Ty Dellandrea
Joel Kiviranta
On defense, the Stars waived Will Butcher, and it’s expected that he will be assigned to Texas once he clears tomorrow. Thomas Harley was also assigned to Texas. The anticipated blueline for the Stars is something like this:
Ryan Suter – Miro Heiskanen
Esa Lindell – Nils Lundkvist
Colin Miller – Jani Hakanpaa
Joel Hanley
With Anton Khudobin already clearing waivers without a claim and assigned to the Texas Stars, the goaltenders (the position without much intrigue for a change this season) will be Jake Oettinger as starter and Scott Wedgewood as his backup.
The Dallas Stars will open the season with a home-and-home with the Nashville Predators starting on the road on Thursday before opening at home on Saturday.