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Dallas Stars Prospect Jason Dickinson Blossoms In Second Half Of The Season

Jason Dickinson entered the season with high expectations. He had scored 78 points in his post draft year and had helped lead the Guelph Storm to their first OHL championship since 2004. Dickinson was expected to reach even greater heights as he plays what is almost certainly his final year of junior hockey. Instead the first three months of the season were not what was hoped. Through 26 games Dickinson had 27 points. Not a bad total but not what was expected.

December saw Dickinson miss a chance to play for Canada at the World Junior Championship. He was playing the defensive minutes that the Guelph Storm knew he could play and needed him to play but it had hurt his offensive production. The second half of the season saw that all change.

While he missed the WJC his team mate, Robby Fabbri, did not. Fabbri would suffer an injury and Dickinson would have to fill his spot on the top line in Guelph. It was here that Dickinson hit the burners, scoring 30 points in 18 games. This included a 13 game point streak where he had 21 points.

The transformation since the beginning of January has been impressive to watch. While injury helped him up the lineup he is showing what he can do when he doesn’t need to focus predominately on defensive assignments. He features a lot on both the powerplay and the penalty kill.

He is third on the team in powerplay goals, behind Robby Fabbri and Tyler Bertuzzi, with six powerplay goals. He leads the Guelph Storm with five shorthanded goals, third in the entire OHL. His points per game numbers are slightly up from last season, from 1.15PPG to 1.3PPG. His 57 points equals just over 30% of the entire team’s point totals.

His ability to play both the wing and centre well will be a valuable asset at the professional level. While he has spent most of the past two years playing centre he has played wing before. Where he’ll play with Texas will be interesting to see.

Though the Guelph Storm haven’t clinched a playoff spot yet it is quite likely that they will be featuring in the playoffs and hoping to go a few rounds. Depending on their progress and the Texas Stars season, Jason Dickinson could get some time with the Texas Stars late in the season or as part of their playoff run.

If he continues like this it won’t be long until he is donning the victory green in Dallas.

Talking Points