Dallas Stars 2017 Season Preview: Draft Utopia

Dallas Stars 2017 Season Preview

The Dallas Stars are known for their first-line of forwards. The Stars finally got more offensive help last season. Now the defense has to step up in 2017-2018.

Chris Ransom follow @DraftUtopia Posted on 8/27/2017.

Dallas Stars Line 1 Forwards

Player	Position	Games Played	Height	Weight	Goals	Assists	Points
Jamie Benn	Left Wing	77	6-foot-2-inches	210-pounds	26	43	69
Tyler Seguin	Center	82	6-foot-1-inches	200-pounds	26	46	72
Alexander Radulov	Right Wing	76	6-foot-2-inches	205-pounds	18	36	54

Dallas Stars Line 2 Forwards

Player	Position	Games Played	Height	Weight	Goals	Assists	Points
Mattias Janmark	Left Wing	0	6-foot-1-inches	195-pounds	0	0	0
Martin Hanzal	Center	71	6-foot-6-inches	226-pounds	20	19	39
Jason Spezza	Right Wing	68	6-foot-3-inches	210-pounds	15	35	50

Dallas Stars Line 3 Forwards

Player	Position	Games Played	Height	Weight	Goals	Assists	Points
Antoine Roussel	Left Wing	60	6-foot-0-inches	200-pounds	12	15	27
Radek Faksa	Center	80	6-foot-3-inches	210-pounds	12	21	33
Brett Ritchie	Right Wing	78	6-foot-3-inches	215-pounds	16	8	24

Dallas Stars Line 4 Forwards

Player	Position	Games Played	Height	Weight	Goals	Assists	Points
Curtis McKenzie	Left Wing	53	6-foot-2-inches	205-pounds	6	10	16
Devin Shore	Center	82	6-foot-1-inches	205-pounds	13	20	33
Brian Flynn	Right Wing	51	6-foot-1-inches	183-pounds	6	4	10

Dallas Stars Forwards Review: Dallas is a team that has four outstanding lines of offense once again. The Benn and Seguin first line is elite, but the other three lines compliment that top line. Valeri Nichushkin will play in the KHL and be back next season.

Dallas was 16th in the NHL in goals scored. The Stars finished 20th on the power play in 2016-2017. This offense is capable of being a top 5 unit in both goals scored and the power play so expect Dallas to bounce back on offense in 2017-2018.

Dallas Stars Defensive Lines

Player	Line	Games Played	Height	Weight	Goals	Assists	Points
John Klingberg	Line 1	80	6-foot-2-inches	180-pounds	13	36	49
Esa Lindell	Line 1	73	6-foot-3-inches	215-pounds	6	12	18
Stephen Johns	Line 2	61	6-foot-4-inches	230-pounds	4	6	10
Dan Hamhuis	Line 2	79	6-foot-1-inches	200-pounds	1	15	16
Mark Methot	Line 3	68	6-foot-3-inches	220-pounds	0	12	12
Julius Honka	Line 3	16	5-foot-11-inches	195-pounds	1	4	5

Dallas Stars Defense Review Dallas had a complete mess on defense. The emergence of John Klingberg makes Dallas better on defense. The rest of the defense struggled in 2016-2017. With Ken Hitchcock being the new head coach expect the defense to improve since he specializes in developing players on the blue line which is the one huge weakness Dallas has.

In 2016-2017, Dallas was 29th in goals allowed and 30th in penalty killing. This season Dallas should improve in those categories. They will still be a bottom 5 or bottom 10 team in these categories, but they won't be tied with Colorado for the leagues worst defense in both of these categories.

Draft Utopia Between The Pipes Goalie Tracker

Starting Goalie

Player	Team	Games Played	Record	Shutouts	Save Percentage	Goals Against Average
Ben Bishop	Dallas Stars	37	18-15-5	1 Shutout	.910	2.54 GAA

Backup Goalie

Player	Team	Games Played	Record	Shutouts	Save Percentage	Goals Against Average
Kari Lehtonen	Dallas Stars	52	22-25-7	3 Shutouts	.902	2.85 GAA

Dallas Stars Goaltender Review Dallas made a huge move when trading for goalie Ben Bishop. Now Dallas has Ben Bishop as the starter and their starter for the past five years Kari Lehtonen as a backup. This is a very good situation for Dallas to be in.

Dallas Stars Prospect Pool: Dallas has Riley Tufte their 2016 first round pick at left wing in their system. Dallas got the best defender and best goalie in the 2017 NHL Draft by getting Miro Heiskanen and Jake Oettinger a goalie out of Boston University to groom for the future.

Dallas Stars 2017-2018 Prediction

Two years ago, when previewing this team, I didn't expect much, but Dallas got the best record in the Western Conference during the regular season. Dallas struggled last year and Lindy Ruff got fired as a result.

Dallas should revert to their 2015-2016 form under Ken Hitchcock. They won't be the best team in the Western Conference, but they should revert to their playoff form.