Texas Stars 2016/2017

[93Crazed101]

Ludwig Bystrom signed to 1 year, 2-Way Deal

https://www.nhl.com/news/dallas-stars-sign-defenseman-ludwig-bystrom/c-289969328

2012 second round pick. A small bit of news, but I though I'd add it.

 

[LT]

Not really enough for its own thread.

Meh. No problems with it.

 

[Mr Misty]

Thank the gods. Bystrom is a quality defenseman. Might not ever get coffee and chicken fingers in Dallas, but he's higher quality than most of Dallas' overrated prospects and should be a top four in Cedar Park this season.

Ahead of Bayreuther and Heatherington?

 

[BigG44]

Ahead of Bayreuther and Heatherington?

Bystrom has played RD quite a bit in Sweden. I stopped buying the AHL package last year so I didn't see myself, but I think I heard he played RD last year.

 

[David Castillo]

^ Bystrom played the right side all year next to Pylon Stevenson. The only time he saw his natural side was briefly with Honka.

Ahead of Bayreuther and Heatherington?

Bayreuther? No way. Bayreuther isn't a liability defensively (people will hate the comparison but he's a pure Goligoski start kit), and is creative at breaking out of the zone and running the point.

I would say Bystrom's ahead of Heatherington though. I have no idea what Shapiro et al. (only talking crap because he still owes me a beer) see in Heatheringingington. He's just another Nemeth - a big guy who doesn't put up points and has developed good habits in his own zone because he hasn't developed good habits breaking out of his own zone. His skating isn't terrible, which is why people say he has a "high floor". Good AHL defensemen though.

 

[BigG44]

CapFriendly lists $650K NHL/$80K AHL for Bystrom. On the surface, that's actually fair. He got a $10K bump in AHL salary. That said, if it's accurate he had European interest to return home, that's surprisingly low.

For example, Backman jumps from $70K to $170K guaranteed after his ELC ends, and he had European teams pursuing him.

 

[BigG44]

Potential Texas Stars options from development camp:

F Nick Chyzowski (Kamloops/WHL)
F Sheldon Dries (Western Michigan/NCAA)***
F Samuel Laberge (Rimouski/QMJHL)
F Tomas Soustal (Kelowna/WHL)
D Shane Hanna (Michigan Tech/NCAA)***

***Already signed contract with Texas Stars

 

[BigG44]

Theoretically, the following NCAA players could also sign, but they still have college eligibility.

F Carson Gicewicz (St. Lawerence)
D Alexey Solovyev (Bentley)

I would expect all Dallas drafted NCAA players to return to college.

 

[BigG44]

I'm happier right now with Dallas' D and depth in net than I've been in a while. Nill has work to do on the forward depth, especially in the AHL, but you've built solid groups from the net out in Texas and Dallas.

I still have high hope that a guy like Nemeth slips through waivers.

Bayreuther-Nemeth
Heatherington-Bystrom
Bodnarchuk-Hansson

McKenna
Bow/Desrosiers

 

[BigG44]

Realistically, Cracknell probably could slide through waivers, and there's no reason to carry 14 forwards.

Flynn-Dickinson-Guiranov
Elie-Dowling-Cracknell
Hintz-Morin-McNeill
Ully-Smith-?????

Smith on the 4th line would be a shame though. If you just kept Cracknell in the NHL though ...

Elie-Dickinson-Gurianov
Hintz-Dowling-Flynn
Smith-Morin-McNeill
Ully-?????-?????

 

[Morry83]

Brent Regner. More AHL depth.

 

[BigG44]

I'm happier right now with Dallas' D and depth in net than I've been in a while. Nill has work to do on the forward depth, especially in the AHL, but you've built solid groups from the net out in Texas and Dallas.

I still have high hope that a guy like Nemeth slips through waivers.

Bayreuther-Nemeth
Heatherington-Bystrom
Bodnarchuk-Hansson

McKenna
Bow/Desrosiers

Signing Brent Regner probably was with the intention of him playing big minutes including PP time. That probably solidifies your Top 6 next season on defense, at least to start.

Bayreuther-Bystrom
Heatherington-Regner
Bodnarchuk-Hansson

 

[BigG44]

Bystrom and Hansson will be a very interesting competition. One will get Top 4 minutes, and the other will end up playing down the lineup.

I still expect Bayreuther, Regner, Bodnarchuk, and Hansson to get all the PP time though.

 

[BigG44]

This is with Flynn and Cracknell both on the NHL roster which hopefully is not likely.

 

[David Castillo]

LOL. Texas' top two lines might be better than at least two of Dallas' lines.

 

[BigG44]

Texas Stars have re-signed Greg Rallo. Spent last season in Germany. IIRC, he's mostly played with Morin in the past. This probably pushed Ully to the 4th line.

Elie-Dickinson-Gurianov
Hintz-Dowling-McNeill
Smith-Morin-Rallo
Dries-Fyten-Ully

 

[BigG44]

Veteran Rule and the Texas Stars .....

Reminder: 12 players on any given night must have played less than 260 pro games in the regular season. 1 must have played fewer than 320 pro games in the regular season. That means you can only have 5 guys with more than 320 regular season games on any given night. Goalies don't count.

Pro Games = NHL, AHL, ECHL (I think), and all European leagues.

Greg Rallo - 725 pro games
Travis Morin - 708 pro games
Andrew Bodnarchuk - 598 pro games
Brent Regner - 490 pro games
Justin Dowling - 368 pro games
Mark McNeill - 296 game
Ludwig Bystrom - 286 pro games

What that means is Texas can't play all of these guys at the same time. Only one of Bystrom and McNeill can qualify as the under 320 games player. The other would have to be counted among the veterans. You can only have 5 of those players.

You signed this off-season Rallo, Morin, Regner, Dowling, McNeill, and Bystrom. To me ... that means you probably are trading or loaning Bodnarchuk to a different team. That or you're rotating scratches with a vet which seems unlikely. My guess is this means they plan on Martenet playing in the AHL.

Bayreuther-Hansson
Heatherington-Bystrom
Martenet-Regner

 

[Mr Misty]

Texas Stars have re-signed Greg Rallo. Spent last season in Germany. IIRC, he's mostly played with Morin in the past. This probably pushed Ully to the 4th line.

Elie-Dickinson-Gurianov
Hintz-Dowling-McNeill
Smith-Morin-Rallo
Dries-Fyten-Ully

I can't claim to have seen a ton of Texas games so anybody who can correct me please don't hesitate to do so. When the Stars came to Milwaukee at the end of the year when most of the good players had been called up, I thought Ully was up there with Gurianov and Stransky as the best players up front. He had obvious skill and did things when he had the puck despite being on what I think was the 3rd line with nobodies. I am not unbiased, I always wanted this pick to work, but it seems like nobody in the Stars organization is the least bit interested in this player. If anybody thinks I am missing something I would love to hear about it because I find this baffling outside the context of his height.

 

[BigG44]

I just saw that 100 Degree Hockey confirmed the veteran issue, but he listed Dowling among the 260 to 320 games vets so the ECHL games do not count it appears. That's said, you still have the same problem. Only one of those 260-320 games would fill that veteran role, and the rest would be counted as a normal vet.

He did though remind me that the last time this happened, they made an AHL trade to send Wathier to Milwaukee, and Texas received Henderson in return.

That might occur again or they could just simply loan a player to a different AHL team ... maybe Chicago since Vegas won't have a ton of players. St. Louis will also already be sending players to Chicago as well. I don't think they're going to have a problem lending a guy somewhere.

Again ... I can't see it being anyone other than Bodnarchuk. Every other guy in the veteran boat was signed within the last month to Texas or Dallas.

 

[Mr Misty]

The plot thickens?

100 Degree Hockey had him as part of the problem.

 

[David Castillo]

I can't claim to have seen a ton of Texas games so anybody who can correct me please don't hesitate to do so. When the Stars came to Milwaukee at the end of the year when most of the good players had been called up, I thought Ully was up there with Gurianov and Stransky as the best players up front. He had obvious skill and did things when he had the puck despite being on what I think was the 3rd line with nobodies. I am not unbiased, I always wanted this pick to work, but it seems like nobody in the Stars organization is the least bit interested in this player. If anybody thinks I am missing something I would love to hear about it because I find this baffling outside the context of his height.

Ully is good. Even with limited minutes I think he was something like top 6 in goals (too lazy to look it up). He has a great shot, but he's a classic case of what makes GM's wary of small forwards. He's not fast (he's more agile than quick), so he doesn't offset that lack of speed with the things small forwards usually succeed with: quickness, agility, vision, playmaking, etc. And he plays to his weaknesses too, trying to crash and bang when his stature isn't built for that.

I'd really like to see him in the top six. He deserves it. But if it's Elie-Dickinson-Gurianov, and Hintz-Dowling-Smith to start the season, he's not better than any of them so I can see Laxdal's logic.

Also, there's no question Bayreuther will be the number one. He was basically the number one d-man once the Lindell, Johns, Honka core moved on.

 

[BigG44]

The plot thickens?

100 Degree Hockey had him as part of the problem.

Working backwards from Scott White confirming he's not, this has to mean that pro games played before the age of 20 do not count towards the AHL veteran rule. That would make some since when you consider Julius Honka's pro games and seasons prior to 20 didn't count towards the expansion rule. When you take his 18 and 19 year old seasons in the SHL and Allsvensakn, he's played just under 200 pro games in his other seasons.

The AHL rule though says nothing about 18 and 19 year old pro seasons being exempt, but as far as I can tell, this is the most reasonable answer.

 

[BigG44]

Texas is now also bringing back Matt Mangene .... I'm kind of at a loss for how much they've loaded up in Texas. Don't get me wrong, I'm happy Mangene is back. He's been a solid utility player. He plays defense more often than not, and he's been a fixture on the point on the PP. Still ... you have too many players all of a sudden.

He didn't return to Texas though to be a part time player. With the numbers he put up last year, he could have signed on for a permanent role on most AHL teams so my guess is he as some understanding that he's penciled into the lineup ... likely with PP time yet again. If he didn't think that was likely, I can't see him returning to Texas.

He fell a few games short of being a veteran player despite being 28 years old. He's only played 245 AHL regular season games. I honestly have no clue what his role is going to be. They called him a defender in the press release. Who is going to sit though? Between Dallas players likely to be in the AHL and Texas players under AHL contract, there are 9 defenders. Hanna and Martenet are obviously likely to start in the ECHL. There's not an obvious scratch though among the remainder. If the plan was for Mangene to be the 7th D who regularly plays at F when everyone is healthy or not on NHL call up, I would have assumed they might have mentioned him as a utility forward/defender in the press release. I seem to recall that being done before on other teams ... who knows?

Bayreuther, Heatherington, Hansson, and Bystrom are actual prospects. They're not going to sit. Bodnarchuk and Regner are under NHL contract so you'd assume they'd play. Maybe I'm overestimating Mangene's value in the AHL to other teams, but it's not like many guys can put up 8 goals and 27 points in a utility role. Still on this team, he only makes sense as a 4th line forward/7D, and they seem to like him on the PP so I assume that means 4th line F barring injuries or call ups.

 

[Mr Misty]

When all teams are good it is easier to save your job.

I wonder how the actual expenses line up year to year. They took a lot on in 15-16, maybe they had to cut the budget a bit all over to compensate.

 

[BigG44]

I don't want to totally oversell it, even if Morin and Rallo are in the twilight of their career, being just on the outside of the Top 6 in terms of quality players on an AHL team mean you're a pretty deep team. I think it would be hard to argue though that on paper, Morin will like be the 3rd best center on the team, and Rallo will either be the 2nd or 3rd best RW.

Laxdal is not going to have any excuses next year. I'd say the inaugural Texas defense was probably more loaded than this one, but overall, Dallas hasn't invested this much on an AHL team probably ever. There are ton of high priced AHL veterans on this team.