GDT: [Game #60] Dallas Stars vs. St. Louis Blues – 5.00 PM CT (TNT)

[M88K]

Back to back 4 point games for Hintz

I think he'll lose his assist on Johnston's last goal. Doesn't look like the puck ever touched him.
It should go Harley & Robertson

 

[Kcb12345]

Extremely high praise for the Stars, Nill, and the organization as a whole from Rick Bowness on TNT.

Gave major props to Jamie Benn, Joe Pavelski, and Jim Nill in particular. Cool to hear him talk about that. Said Benn stayed in the locker room after the Cup Final loss to Tampa for 2 hours in full gear just sitting alone. Said Benn is one of the best captains ever

Also praised the Stars development process and mentioned how Johnston could've played in the NHL at 18 based on how good he looked in camp but that the team did the right thing sending him back to juniors for the year

 

[rockymtnoyster]

 

[starsfan86]

What a f***ing game from Wyatt. Hintz is on fire now. I’ve been hard on him in the past, but it’s only because I know he’s this talented.

 

[Azzuri]

Our big guns are looking good lately cuz the PP has turned it around. Funny how that works. Chicken and egg etc.

They're playing with a lot of offensive confidence right now.

 

[Kiorei]

Fun game. Wyatt was feeling it. Even better beating division rivals. Really hope they keep the vibes rolling.

 

[catters078]

The skill level on PP1 is unreal

 

[Johno]

What a f***ing game from Wyatt. Hintz is on fire now. I’ve been hard on him in the past, but it’s only because I know he’s this talented.

That’s 20 points in the past 13 games now, I think. With 11p in the last 5gp

 

[serp]

The big guys are carrying the team and the powerplay is clicking bigtime. They absolutely now need another defenseman. Smith is just a non-option . Bichsel hopefully won't take too long and Heiskanen hopefully comes back but just the threat of Smith playing in games is scary enough to force another move. On forwards the team is more than fine.

 

[catters078]

The big guys are carrying the team and the powerplay is clicking bigtime. They absolutely now need another defenseman. Smith is just a non-option . Bichsel hopefully won't take too long and Heiskanen hopefully comes back and just the threat of Smith playing in games is scary enough to force another move. On forwards the team is more than fine.

Agree think there is no more need for forward. If Dallas is fortunate to be fully healthy when seguin gets back then likely have Back and Blackwell as healthy scratches and Injury call ups and they are more than capable 4th liners.

My only question mark is what % of Tyler Seguin do we get back. What is fair to expect after major surgery and rehab. Will he be maybe 80% ? If that's his limit. Is that a concern. Maybe not, but a thought.

 

[LT]

The big guys are carrying the team and the powerplay is clicking bigtime. They absolutely now need another defenseman. Smith is just a non-option . Bichsel hopefully won't take too long and Heiskanen hopefully comes back but just the threat of Smith playing in games is scary enough to force another move. On forwards the team is more than fine.

Bichsel is supposed to be back Tuesday.

And I suspect we'll have another Dman on the roster by Friday.

 

[M88K]

Bichsel is supposed to be back Tuesday.

And I suspect we'll have another Dman on the roster by Friday.

I'm doubting we add another defenseman.
Just going off Nill's criteria of "UFA only", there's nobody that is much of an upgrade, that's at least rumored to be available.
Jokiharju maybe.
Everyone else is probably slightly better than Dumba, but prone to all the same issues, hell even Jokiharju will look AHL caliber at times.

Shuffling 6/7th d-men just to say we shuffled 6/7th d-men is pointless. There's no #3-4 guys who are UFA.
We just have to hope the coaching staff treats Dumba like it did Lundkvist in the PO last year. 5-6mins a night

 

[Kipper 17]

Agree think there is no more need for forward. If Dallas is fortunate to be fully healthy when seguin gets back then likely have Back and Blackwell as healthy scratches and Injury call ups and they are more than capable 4th liners.

My only question mark is what % of Tyler Seguin do we get back. What is fair to expect after major surgery and rehab. Will he be maybe 80% ? If that's his limit. Is that a concern. Maybe not, but a thought.

The last few times Seguin has come back from an injury, hasn’t he got back up to speed very quickly? Maybe I am remembering wrong though and as he gets older I am sure it isn’t getting easier to recover.

 

[piqued]

Also praised the Stars development process and mentioned how Johnston could've played in the NHL at 18 based on how good he looked in camp but that the team did the right thing sending him back to juniors for the year

When a #1 overall talent goes #23 overall, not only do you get the talent, you get the leeway to send them back to junior to dominate rather than getting immediately thrown in the show trying to keep their head above water like most 1st overalls.

 

[TangoMcBride]

Nill and his staff deserve endless praise not only for their ability to identify talent in the draft but also for their patient approach when it comes to prospect development. It's clearly doing wonders for our young players. We are a lucky fan base.

 

[Troy McClure]

The last few times Seguin has come back from an injury, hasn’t he got back up to speed very quickly? Maybe I am remembering wrong though and as he gets older I am sure it isn’t getting easier to recover.

I wonder if this one might be different since it was about pain relief. If he comes back pain free, he might actually come back with a spring in his step.

 

[Azzuri]

Nill and his staff deserve endless praise not only for their ability to identify talent in the draft but also for their patient approach when it comes to prospect development. It's clearly doing wonders for our young players. We are a lucky fan base.

I think sometimes we are spoiled and forget this. We say it a lot but its still worth pinching yourself sometimes. So many of our low 1st and high 2nd round picks would go top 3 in their draft if you could go back in time.

Then look at how some guys have developed.

-Wyatt we knew would be good, but he's legit turning into the best player from that draft
-Harley is turning into an elite #1 D, wild to think about a few years ago
-Hintz and Robo solid 1st line players
-Bichel will be at least a #4 or better
-Mavs will be a top 6 player or better
-Stank will be a top 9 player or better

The highest ANY of those players were drafted is 18th overall. We are the envy of the league, don't forget that boys.

 

[FirstRowUpperDeck]

My only worry about Nill's drafting is that the original string of misses is just being statistically corrected by the recent string of greatest hits. Starting with Emil, I hope it doesn't swing backward to the inevitable regression to mean. Given the picks he has traded the last few years, he will have, if nothing else, fewer chances to be brilliant......

 

[M88K]

My only worry about Nill's drafting is that the original string of misses is just being statistically corrected by the recent string of greatest hits. Starting with Emil, I hope it doesn't swing backward to the inevitable regression to mean. Given the picks he has traded the last few years, he will have, if nothing else, fewer chances to be brilliant......

As long as their drafting philosophy doesn't revert they should be fine.

 

[FirstRowUpperDeck]

What do you think has changed about their philosophy? How would you characterize it?

I know we applauded the early picks based on offensive talent and speed, vs. the old philosophy of drafting for size and character. Those early picks didn't work out well, although Nuke did turn out to be a wonderful, if flawed, player.

Watching young players picked in the teens and 20's of the first round excel is something we have rarely experienced since the Stars came to DFW.

 

[M88K]

What do you think has changed about their philosophy? How would you characterize it?

I know we applauded the early picks based on offensive talent and speed, vs. the old philosophy of drafting for size and character. Those early picks didn't work out well, although Nuke did turn out to be a wonderful, if flawed, player.

Watching young players picked in the teens and 20's of the first round excel is something we have rarely experienced since the Stars came to DFW.

They seem to place a higher emphasis on IQ now, at least in the first few rounds.

For most of Nills early tenure up to about 2018 they really prioritized getting specific boxes checked. Be it Size, Character, or organizational need.
the 2014 draft they almost burned every pick on d-men passing up high skill guys at just about every stop along the way.
2017, i don't know if their focus really changed all that much, winning the lotto kind of forced things.
Hindsight obviously shows we took the wrong d-man, but you can see the same "safer pick" logic applied to him over Makar (of note, i wanted Heiskanen in 2017 too) and then having a player with Robertson's skillset available in the 2nd round is about as easy as a slam dunk as Barzal over Gurianov should have been.

2018 was the last draft where Hockey IQ didn't factor into the 1st round really.
Or at least in coincidence.

 

[LT]

They seem to place a higher emphasis on IQ now, at least in the first few rounds.

For most of Nills early tenure up to about 2018 they really prioritized getting specific boxes checked. Be it Size, Character, or organizational need.
the 2014 draft they almost burned every pick on d-men passing up high skill guys at just about every stop along the way.
2017, i don't know if their focus really changed all that much, winning the lotto kind of forced things.
Hindsight obviously shows we took the wrong d-man, but you can see the same "safer pick" logic applied to him over Makar (of note, i wanted Heiskanen in 2017 too) and then having a player with Robertson's skillset available in the 2nd round is about as easy as a slam dunk as Barzal over Gurianov should have been.

2018 was the last draft where Hockey IQ didn't factor into the 1st round really.
Or at least in coincidence.

2018 is hard to point to as a huge mistake, too. Farabee is better but clearly has his own issues as well. After that, you have to go down to K'Andre Miller to find someone better than Dellandrea. KAM would've been an even bigger reach.

All around, not a great or deep draft.

Albin Eriksson 5 picks before Marchenko does hurt, though.

 

[M88K]

2018 is hard to point to as a huge mistake, too. Farabee is better but clearly has his own issues as well. After that, you have to go down to K'Andre Miller to find someone better than Dellandrea. KAM would've been an even bigger reach.

All around, not a great or deep draft.

Albin Eriksson 5 picks before Marchenko does hurt, though.

Dellandrea fit the mold of low ceiling, high floor character mold to a T.
Basically the same thing they did when they grabbed Faksa. You don't aim for an at best (potential ceiling) 3rd line center in middle of the 1st round. You settle for a 1st round only becoming a bottom 6 guy.
Everything had to break right for Dellandrea to turn into nothing.

 

[Troy McClure]

Dellandrea fit the mold of low ceiling, high floor character mold to a T.
Basically the same thing they did when they grabbed Faksa. You don't aim for an at best (potential ceiling) 3rd line center in middle of the 1st round. You settle for a 1st round only becoming a bottom 6 guy.
Everything had to break right for Dellandrea to turn into nothing.

The Faksa one is at least excusable only because the entire draft from top to bottom produced zero skater talent. Faksa is among the better players from the entire draft.

It did crank out a number of awesome goalies.

 

[M88K]

The Faksa one is at least excusable only because the entire draft from top to bottom produced zero skater talent. Faksa is among the better players from the entire draft.

It did crank out a number of awesome goalies.

There was quite a few decent players that draft produced. he might be among the better centers, but he's not in the running for best players from that draft. There was quite a few good defensemen in that draft.

Slavin, Lindell, Rielly, Forsberg, Wilson and Hertl all came out of that draft.

As did Severson, Teravainen, Ghost, Parayko, and Lindholm.


After looking it up
so did Trouba, Stephenson, Pearson, Kerfoot, Skjei, Laughton, Brown, Anderson.
Plus a bunch of other decent NHL talent.

Faksa is probably the 10-15th best center, but probably in the 30's for talent from the draft (excluding goalies)