The Dallas Stars wrapped up their prospect development camp earlier this week. Over the five-day event, which included four days of on-ice training, prospects were given an orientation into professional hockey.
They worked on off-ice training, proper recovery, eating habits, and overall wellness that comes with being an NHL player.
“That’s the difference for a lot of these kids,” Stars general manager Jim Nill said. “The talent is so high now and there are so many opportunities, often the guys you see making the NHL are the ones that can be a pro in every facet of life.”
With that in mind it’s not exactly fair to grade prospects based off their showing in development camp. And if you are going to grade it comes with a massive curve — the older players tend to have an advantage, while those who have AHL experience are supposed to look like the most comfortable players on the ice.
But that isn’t going to stop us from taking a deeper dive into my notes from the five day camp.
Heiskanen “excitingly boring”
Miro Heiskanen is going to be a very good NHL player. That isn’t a bold statement — he was the No. 3 pick in the draft — but it’s something that I can verify after watching him a bit closer in person.
Heiskanen is better than his highlights, which tend to show goals, assists, and moments of offensive flare. Similar to what we saw on film from this past season, Heiskanen made certain plays what I like to call “excitingly boring,” during development camp.
So, what does that mean? It means the 17-year-old Finn can turn opponents possessions into non-event hockey. His skating is fluid and he can mirror his man impeccably, while his stick work around the net is at an expert level. If you want to be truly impressed with Heiskanen watch how he makes the minor adjustment with his body positioning and uses his stick to leverage the situation in his favor.
It’s a style that reminds me of Detroit Red Wings great Nicklas Lidström, who many in hockey refereed to as “the perfect human.” (Please note this is a style comparison, not an expectation that Heiskanen will be in the Hockey Hall of Fame).
I’m looking forward to watching Heiskanen at the Traverse City Prospects Tournament in September and in training camp before he heads back to Finland. When he was first drafted I felt Heiskanen would be two years from NHL duty, but he could be on a faster timeline and make his NHL debut during the 2018-19 season.
The Boston Cucumber
Georges Vezina, the namesake for the NHL’s top goalie award, was known as the “Chicoutimi Cucumber” for his calm and cooling composure in net. Styles may have changed drastically since Vezina played in the 1910s and 1920s, but being composed and cool in net has always been the hallmark of the NHL’s best goalies.
That’s what makes Jake Oettinger such an exciting prospect. The goalie who the Stars drafted with the No. 26 pick in the 2017 draft (and smartly moved up three spots to pick him) is incredibly poised and smooth for an 18-year-old.
There aren’t any wasted motions in Oettinger’s game, and he’s always in the right position. I love the work he does with his shoulders — while other larger goalies sometimes slump or get smaller when making the save, Oettinger stays upright and continues to take advantage of his height.
What he did this past season at Boston University is incredibly rare. He was a 17-year-old and he won the starting job at one of college hockey’s premier programs, most goalie prospects — even elite ones — don’t win a college starting job until they are 20.
Oettinger does need to work on his skating and stick handling, but he knows that and he pointed that out to the media before I could even ask him about those facets in an interview. He also has a great attitude and he says he isn’t thinking about the long-term line of succession in Dallas — which sets up favorably for him.
In a perfect world you’d like to see a Ben Bishop-Jake Oettinger goalie tandem in the fifth year of Bishop’s new six-year contract. That gives Oettinger two or three more years in college (depending on his preference) and at least one full AHL season before he can work with Bishop for two years before becoming the full-time starter as a 24-year-old.
The other goalies
We’ve talked a lot about Oettigner, but it would be remiss if we didn’t discuss the other three goalies in camp — Landon Bow, Colton Point, and Markus Ruusu.
Bow is a nice story, we saw him go from undrafted free agent to an AHL contract before he signed an NHL entry-level deal with Dallas that starts this season. Bow is big at 6-foot-5 and should be the other half of the goalie tandem in the AHL with Mike McKenna this season. Of all the goalies Bow could have the best chance to be the short-term back-up in Dallas for a couple seasons after Kari Lehtonen’s contract expires.
Point is another big college goalie and he’s an intriguing project. He tends to play his best games when he’s left out to dry by his defense and he already has a handful of high-quanity save games in his young career. I liked what I saw in development camp, and I’m interested to see what he can do as the full-time starter for Colgate.
Ruusu is the most athletic goalie of the bunch and made some of the most impressive looking saves in camp.
Markus Ruusu with a flair for the dramatic pic.twitter.com/KGjSUIHZiG
— Sean Shapiro (@seanshapiro) July 11, 2017
He’s quick and has sharp reflexes, but still needs to work on his finer mechanics. He’ll be playing in the top league in Finland this season, and it should be a good litmus test for his NHL future.
Gurianov dinged up
Denis Gurianov skated the first two days of camp, but was dinged up a bit on the third day of on-ice sessions.
It’s a minor thing and he’ll be fine going forward. He worked out with the rest of the prospects in off-ice sessions and it’s not worth rushing anyone back in a development camp.
Laberge gets AHL deal
I had a feeling Samuel Laberge would end up as a member of the Stars at some point, and that was finalized when he was signed to an AHL contract this week.
Laberge was one of the more impressive undrafted invitees in Traverse City last September and earned an invite to the Stars training camp. He’s not an overly skilled player, but he works hard, is physical, and does the little things you’d like to see in a depth forward.
He’s obviously got a fan in Stars assistant GM Scott White, who is also the GM of the Texas Stars and picks the Traverse City roster, and he could copy Justin Dowling as a depth player that turns a minor-league contract into an NHL contract.
Watch Gardner
Rhett Gardner didn’t stand out at development camp, but he’s a name that Stars fans should keep an eye on.
A fourth-round pick (116th overall) by Dallas in the 2016 draft as an over-ager, Gardner reminds me of Curtis McKenzie and his path to the NHL. He’s going to be a junior at North Dakota this season and he’s proven he can be a nice piece of a winning team.
Gardner kills penalties, plays in key defensive situations, wins face-offs, and scores the occasional goal. Like McKenzie he’ll be a bottom-six forward that will work hard each day and come with a low cap hit, and you need players like that in the cap era.
Catching up and coming up
This weekend I’ll be publishing the July Prospect insider. It will be in both PDF form and in page form at this site for subscribers. That’s going to include scouting reports on every prospect in the system and my updated prospect rankings after all the Stars offseason activity.
It was a busy week here at Wrong Side of the Red Line, catch up on the development camp stories you may have missed.
Olympic figure skater focussed on helping Stars prospects reach top speed
Passed over in the NHL draft, Bayreuther working on having last laugh with Stars
Jason Robertson making strong first impression at Stars development camp
Roope Hintz ready to make AHL jump and hoping to push for NHL opportunity
After tough start to NCAA career, Point building toward strong sophomore season
Hawel, Peterson, and Davis didn’t attend draft, but happy to land with Stars
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