Jason Dickinson set to make season debut against Winnipeg

Jason Dickinson will make his season debut when the Dallas Stars visit the Winnipeg Jets on Thursday night.

Dickinson has been off to a nice start in the AHL with the Texas Stars, and said he’s excited about his opportunity.

“I’m excited to be back, I feel like I’ve been playing pretty consistently lately,” Dickinson said. “I think it’s a big step for me to carry that into the game tonight.”

The Stars have been looking for depth scoring, and the Stars are hoping Dickinson can provide a boost.

“(Dickinson) is going to play left wing and center today, and he’s going to play on the second-unit power play,” Stars coach Ken Hitchcock said. “He’s going to get lots of exposure. Obviously he’s playing really well down there. He had a great training camp, so we’ll see if he keeps up the pace that he had when he went down.”

The Stars had an optional morning skate on Thursday, but it is known that Brett Ritchie won’t play with an upper-body injury and has already flown back to Dallas. Martin Hanzal is questionable, and will likely miss another game.

Hitchcock said the injuries didn’t have anything to do with Dickinson’s inclusion in the lineup, but it did make his decision easier.

We are speculating with an optional morning skate, but Stars lineup could look something like this:

Benn-Seguin-Radulov
Janmark-Dickinson-Spezza
Roussel-Faksa-Pitlick
Elie-Shore-Smith

Methot-Klingberg
Hamhuis-Pateryn
Lindell-Johns

Bishop