With Niklas Hansson’s HV71 claiming the SHL crown on Saturday the last Dallas Stars’ prospect saw his season end.
It was a disappointing postseason for Hansson, much like his regular season, as he only played in two games for HV71’s entire playoffs.
After playing impressively in the 2015-2016 season, Hansson’s game appears to have taken a step back. He finished with half the points he got in the previous season.
Hansson has signed an entry level contract and could be playing in the AHL for the Texas Stars next year.
Outside of the postseason there has been a couple of Dallas Stars prospects who have been named to their national World Championship squads.
Julius Honka and Roope Hintz have been named to the Finnish squad. Valeri Nichushkin is also on the roster for Russia while Antoine Roussel with the French rounds off the Stars contingent.
Thoughts on the season
With this being the last prospect update of the season I wanted to give some brief thoughts on how it has gone for the Dallas Stars’ prospects.
There have been some prospects that have underperformed, Niklas Hansson being the most obvious example, or have had average seasons.
A lot of prospects have taken some steps forward and one 2016 draftee has proven their worth. Nicholas Caamano’s season, 63 points in 67 games for the Flint Firebirds, was impressive and hopefully next season will see an even bigger step forward.
Roope Hintz, despite losing the start of the season to injury, really turned on the jets and had a very good season. He had 30 points in 44 games and finished the top scorer in the Liiga playoffs with 14 points in 14 games.
Outside of those two, there were some good but not outstanding performances. Riley Tufte had a very slow start to the season but finally got going later on while Fredrik Karlstrom did well in the Allsvenska.
John Nyberg also deserves a mention for stepping up and taking a bigger role in the SHL and becoming a top four defenseman on one of the best teams in the league.
With the 2017 NHL Draft coming up it will be interesting to see what the Stars do. For now it feels like the Dallas Stars prospect pool is distinctly average with a few bright spots in Roope Hintz and Nick Caamano.