Dallas Stars: Who Will Step Up in 2009-10?

Posted on September 30th, 2009 7:18am by Jeff Miller
Filed under Dallas Stars, Hockey

Numbers of various origins – some statistical, some subjective – don’t paint a pretty picture for Stars fans going into the season that will start Saturday night at AAC against Nashville.

The 2008-09 team finished 20th in the NHL in scoring, 25th in defense. The Stars were 27th on the power play, 24th in penalty killing. They were one of eight teams that had no player finish in the top 10 in voting for the Hart Trophy (MVP), the Norris (top defenseman), the Vezina (top goalie), the Selke (best defensive forward) or the Calder (top rookie). They’re one of 15 teams that has no one listed among the top NHL’s top 50 players for the coming season as selected by The Hockey News. And on THN‘s list of “25 to Grow On” – young stars – no Stars.

And who has been added to the roster after last year’s 12th-place finish in the West? Brenden Morrow, given that he was lost last Nov. 20 to a knee injury that limited his season to 18 appearances. Brad Richards played only once after Feb. 16 after suffering injuries to both hands. But in terms of “transactional” additions, they brought in defenders Karlis Skrastins and Jeff Woywitka and veteran goalie Alex Auld to allow Marty Turco to wear his baseball cap more often. D Sergei Zubov is gone after playing only 10 games last season, D Darryl Sydor is gone after his brief third term with the team. Also veterans Brendan Morrison, Mark Parrish, Joel Lundqvist, Chris Connor and Steve Begin. W Jamie Benn, 20, arrives following a solid season in the Western Hockey League.

In the drive to return to the top eight, the best news for the Stars might be the competitive field looks to be smaller than 15 even as the season begins. Colorado and Phoenix are in dreadful shape. Edmonton only added G Nikolai Khabibulan. Minnesota is retooling much like Dallas, probably from a lesser base. Los Angeles’ young talent doesn’t yet appear to be playoff-ready. The Hockey News gives the Stars a shaky vote for finishing seventh.

So, who will make the biggest leap this season? A healthy Morrow (the league’s No. 15 player going into last season)? Turco (No. 29 a year ago) playing back to his old form in a contract season? Young defenders like Trevor Daley and Matt Niskanen? Even more from W Loui Eriksson?

(For more Stars preview, our own Bob Sturm will be joined by radio sidekick Dan McDowell plus Ralph and Razor on a special two-hour show on 1310 The Ticket on Thursday starting at 7 p.m.)

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3 Comments to “Dallas Stars: Who Will Step Up in 2009-10?”
  • Tippett's 'stache @ September 30th, 2009 at 1:53 pm

    I fully expect Benn to top Neal’s rookie campaign. Benn will be playing top line minutes with possibly the best passer on the team as well as likely seeing time on one of the powerplay units. Neal did not have these advantages for the majority of his rookie season.

    Morrow is (obviously) coming off of a bad season, and is hungry for hockey. To top it off, he is competing for a roster spot on Team Canada and there’s no bigger carrot than that for a Canadian hockey player.

    Richards should put up better numbers this season now that this is no longer a trap hockey team. Plus he has two very capable wingers in Neal and Loui. The line dominated in the preseason and I fully expect them to continue to do so in the regular season.

    Daley and Niskanen both stand the chance of having break-out seasons. Not because of Crawford, but rather the hiring of Huddy. Grebeshkov in Edmonton has said numerous times that his development last year was primarily because of Charlie Huddy.

    Not much to say about Turco. He could have a huge bounce-back season thanks to being better conditioned, better coached, in a contract season, and hopefully pride. Then again he could just be giving in to his age, something that will impact him a lot more than it will a positional goaltender like Nabokov due to Turco’s more athletic style of play.

    The first month should be very interesting.

  • Pepe @ September 30th, 2009 at 5:01 pm

    Brad Richards. I don’t think Tippett really ever knew how to utilize Richards’ talent… but in Crawford’s system, I think we’ll see him pick up his game a lot this year.

    I love seeing Stars stuff on the blog… keep it comin!

  • Jason @ September 30th, 2009 at 9:41 pm

    I too see Richards having a big year, he will surprise a lot of people, this is the first time he’s been healthy since being traded to Dallas. So while we didn’t add big name guys over the summer, having our big name guys healthy is an improvement over last season.