The Dallas Stars have avoided injuries that could cause a major overhaul for the past two seasons. Although there have been scares (Roope Hintz in January of last season, and Miro Heiskanen in January of this season), the Stars have not had many major injuries during the regular season aside from Scott Wedgewood’s injury in late February of the previous season.
That’s about to change.
“(Evgenii Dadonov) is out for a while,” Stars head coach Pete DeBoer said on Tuesday morning. “There’s a (lower-body) fracture. They’re making decisions now whether screws have to be put in, things like that, but it’s not good news.”
For the Stars, this may be the first occasion in the previous two seasons that a sad injury to a player has aligned with how the depth of the organization is built, even though it is a heavy blow for Dadonov in the short term.
The Stars’ defensive group was remarkably healthy throughout the season; the only injuries they did deal with were at forward (Hintz) and goaltender (Wedgewood). The Stars and Harley were forced to wait until April to finally give Harley the NHL chance he had earned months earlier due to roster and cap management. Last season, the Stars had a young defenseman in Thomas Harley who began the season in the AHL and was NHL-ready by December.
The team’s strength is its forwards this year, especially Mavrik Bourque and Logan Stankoven (though Matęj Blümel should also be mentioned). All three are AHL All-Stars, and the former two lead the league in scoring as the only two players with 50 points or more as of Tuesday morning. As a result, while Jake Oettinger’s injury in mid-December was devastating to the Stars, it prevented them from using their depth, as was the case with their star defenseman, Heiskanen, in early January.
Dadonov’s injury creates an opportunity.
First of all, there is the obvious cascading effect it can have on the lineup. Before Dadonov’s injury in Montreal on Saturday, DeBoer had returned to his original lineup following a stretch with a new look, which included Wyatt Johnston moving up to the top line. DeBoer’s original lineup consisted of Joe Pavelski, Jason Robertson, and Hintz once again, while Mason Marchment, Matt Duchene, and Tyler Seguin remained together in the top six, as they have for the most part this season.
At his best, Dadonov is a bottom-six forward; at his worst, he was a healthy scratch earlier this season, albeit for a very brief period of time. The Stars’ decision to move from Dadonov to Ty Deallandrea, who has largely been the 13th forward this season, is more or less a lateral move. Dadonov was demoted to the fourth line during the line shuffling that brought Johnston up to the top line. When DeBoer put the original lines back together, Dadonov again took his place on the third line.
With Dadonov’s injury, there is a natural spot for either Bourque or Stankoven in the lineup without having to mess with the heartbeat of what has made the Stars’ forwards successful this season. The Duchene line can remain untouched. Clearly, DeBoer wants the original version of the top line to play to its ability that has consistently been on display for two full seasons but only showed up in flashes this year. The Stars did not want to disrupt their forwards group, and understandably so. Even though the Stars were not producing up front as a unit, they were nonetheless producing up front.
The reason DeBoer gave for putting Johnston back to third-line center, despite the top line producing results with him as the winger, was that DeBoer wanted depth down the middle and felt Johnston had done enough to recapture some confidence and mojo during his time at the top. Now, DeBoer wants Johnston to go “back to the middle here with some of that confidence and makes people around him better.”
Putting Stankoven, who tore up juniors in 2022–23 and is tearing up the AHL this season in his first year as a pro, next to Johnston and on a line with Benn feels like the natural next move. For what it is worth, that trio has spent some preseason time together, dating back to 2022, and the results were promising, even then. Johnston being flanked by Benn and Dadonov was not working this season.
This Benn, Stankoven, Johnston line was been a force tonight
— Saad Yousuf (@SaadYousuf126) September 27, 2022
The Stars were set go with Dellandrea in the lineup on Tuesday, which made sense. Dellandrea is a capable NHL option and the Texas Stars were in Rockford for a game on Tuesday night. This isn’t an emergency situation in which Stankoven or Bourque needed to rushed to Dallas for Tuesday’s game against the Carolina Hurricanes. However, the Texas Stars return home after Tuesday’s game, and the Dallas Stars next play in Nashville. A four-game road trip also looms for Dallas next week.
Both Stankoven and Bourque are at similar levels of NHL readiness, so the debate over who should be called up first is legitimate. Bourque was supposed to be the next man up in the playoffs after Benn’s suspension and, ironically, Dadonov’s injury. Bourque is also a little more seasoned professionally than Stankoven, as this is Stankoven’s first year as a pro and Bourque’s second. If it comes down to it, the choice between the two will need to take into account factors like lineup fit and potential special team roles. With Bourque seen more as a future center with a penalty-killing role and Stankoven as a converted winger on the power play, that advantage could lean towards Stankoven.
There’s a second layer to Dadonov’s injury that’s important to keep in mind. DeBoer’s outlook on Dadonov seemed grim. There’s a fracture. There could be surgery. Could there be a stint on long-term injured reserve? If so, how does that affect the roster spot and cap space standing for the Stars before the trade deadline?
There are a ton of factors in play, such as the timing of making such a move and how that impacts how much cap space the Stars can accrue daily (going into LTIR brings a halt to that). How prudent is it to turn to LTIR, with major performance bonuses cutting into next year’s cap? Does Dadonov’s cap figure of $2.25 million AAV make it worthwhile (Stars already have almost $1.25 million of cap space available)? Is there a player available who can be attained for what the Stars would be willing to give up in assets? Pertaining to Dadonov’s own future with the Stars, could the Stars try to find a trade partner for Dadonov (beyond his 10-team no-trade list), whether it’s a team that sees Dadonov as part of their plans or is just an avenue for the Stars to get out of Dadonov’s $2.25 million for next season, when they could be trying to re-sign Duchene?
A closer look reveals that, although Dadonov’s injury appears to be a bottom-six forward loss, there is another bottom-six forward option on the roster who can step in. If the Stars want to, things may get very interesting over the next few weeks.
(Photo of Evgenii Dadonov: Minas Panagiotakis / Getty Images)
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