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STARS MAILBAG: Defensemen, draft picks, trades, and breakout players under Hitch

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Today’s mailbag is massive, so I’m going to keep the intro short.

What do you want to see from Wrong Side of the Red Line? While the offseason is a chance for the Dallas Stars to fix and adjust their roster, it’s also a chance for media members to assess and best fit their coverage to their audience.

So what do you like? What don’t you like? What would you like to see? I’ll probably have a more formal survey for readers later this month, but in the mean time I’d love to hear from readers on Twitter or in the comments below this mailbag.

Let’s get started:

In my conversations with Ken Hitchcock he hasn’t mentioned Jamie Oleksiak directly. Right after he was hired I asked Hitchcock for his opinions on the Stars young defense and he said he was particularly impressed with Esa Lindell and Julius Honka.

He did, however, acknowledge that it’s hard to judge the Stars defense from this past season since they used so many players and carried eight defensemen all season.

So I believe that in Hithcock’s mind the jury is still out on Oleksiak.

If you are in the pro-Oleksiak camp, you hope Hitchock views him as an older version of Colton Parayko. Parayko thrived under Hitchcock and the Blues 6-foot-5 defender could be used as a blue print for Oleksiak, who is a couple years older but is still several steps behind in development.

(If you are looking to point fingers you can blame both coaching and the player for Oleksiak’s lack of development at the NHL level).

Esa Lindell. It’s not a surprise that he’ll be an impact player, but I think he’ll take major strides and out perform expectations next season.

There were times this past season where Lindell drew criticism (some of it fair) and he struggled. But it was often forgotten that he was still in the midst of his rookie season, and I think he’ll thrive in a system with better defensive structure.

If you are looking for a complete surprise, I’d look at Gemel Smith. He could shock some people (myself included) and make the NHL roster out of training camp.

I’ve been working on a similar list for my book, “100 Things Stars Fans Should Know & Do Before They Die,” which is set to come out in October 2018 through Triumph Publishing.

(Shameless plug, I know. But please buy the book when it comes out.)

It won’t make the Stars top 25, but I think an underrated moment in recent Stars history is the Dec. 23, 2010 fight between Jamie Benn and Jarome Iginla.

Benn had yet to be named the captain at that point, but that moment sticks out in my mind after a conversation I had with former Texas Stars coach Willie Desjardins, who was on the bench as the Stars associate head coach for that game.

“That time Jamie fought Iginla was when the rest of the world saw he was captain material,” Desjardins told me a couple years ago. “That was the moment he stood up and showed that he was the player that could do it all for his teammates. And to do it against Iginla, one of the best leaders in hockey at the time, that made it even more important.”

I think the Stars would like to hold onto their second first-round pick if the Ducks reach the Western Conference finals. However, it is an asset that the Stars can use to improve their goaltending situation if the market dictates it.

The Chicago Blackhawks and Carolina Hurricanes started to set the market when Scott Darling’s negotiating rights were traded for a third-round pick. If that’s the going rate to talk to a pending UFA, the price for a starter with a contract is going to be even steeper.

Zero.

If the Stars going to have two new goalies, I wouldn’t mind seeing Calvin Pickard as the back-up. Especially if the Stars end up signing or trading for a slightly older goalie (Fleury or Bishop).

Pickard’s numbers weren’t very good this year, but he actually played well on a horrendous team. I also had a chance to watch him closely in the AHL, and I think he could be a very good goalie on a Dallas team that has better defensive structure.

He should be available because reports out of Denver have indicated that Semyon Varlamov will be protected in the expansion draft, meaning Pickard should be available for a lower price than some of the other goalies on the market.

It’s too early to figure out the Texas Stars roster. With the expansion draft looming and other factors in play, figuring out the AHL roster is lower on the totem pole at this moment.

When you look at Dallas, all of the restricted free agents will be re-signed (Esa Lindell and Radek Faksa for example), while some of the unrestricted free agents (Ales Hemsky and Patrick Sharp) likely won’t be back thanks to cost and age factors.

I did see that article and I don’t see such a thing happening. I don’t see any reason for Dallas to trade the third overall pick for Corey Schneider when they could sign a similar option in free agency — Ben Bishop — or give up way less in a trade for another goalie.

Of those four players you listed, Brett Ritchie has the highest ceiling. He’s considered a potential long-term top-six winger that could score 25 to 30 goals a season in the right situation.

Curtis McKenzie is a good bottom-six forward and that’s the role he’ll continue to fill long-term. He might add a bit more offensive touch next season, but what McKenzie did this season is probably indicative of what he’ll provide an NHL team for the rest of his career — and that’s not a bad thing.

Remi Elie’s long-term projection is as a middle-six winger that follows a similar path to Antoine Roussel. He’s a pest to play against and he has the speed to be a potentially elite penalty killer if he continues to develop.

Gemel Smith projects out as a bottom-six center that can kill penalties and can score the occasional goal. He could threaten a player like McKenzie’s spot on the roster at some point in the near future, especially if Ken Hithcock values his speed the way Lindy Ruff did.

I like Devin Shore as a middle-six winger that can step in and take face-offs when needed. He can also play center on the fourth-line, but I think he brings more value playing right wing a bit higher in the lineup.

I certainly wouldn’t mind a second line of Mattias Janmark, Jason Spezza, and Shore. That would be a grouping that could put pucks in the net, while it would also pair Spezza with a couple players that would make him less of a defensive liability.

If I’m trading the third overall pick, I’d like a package that includes a top-10 pick and a second-round pick.

I would make that the opening price and see if I could get teams to bid against each other and add another pick to the mix to make a it a three-for-one deal (which I admit is a bit farfetched at this moment).

And you’re right, if the Stars move back to No. 7 or No. 6 they would be able to draft a player that also would have been a candidate to be the third-overall pick.

Yes and no. Losing Antoine Roussel would be a big loss for the team and he’s a spark plug on the ice. However, and this isn’t a knock on Roussel, he isn’t the locker room leader like Vernon Fiddler was for Dallas.

Fiddler was a veteran that brought the room together. He was a calming factor and several of the younger players leaned on him. If the Stars lost Roussel this offseason, and they might, they wouldn’t be losing that type of player in the locker room.

The Stars are still in win-now mode.

They made their moves for the future during the season and shed expiring contracts for prospects and picks, while the offseason will be dedicated to building the best team for next season.

I discovered hockey as a kid growing up in Wayne, New Jersey. There was a street hockey summer recreation program that I was signed up for, and five days a week in the summer we would play in the parking lot by the lake from 9 am to noon.

That was my first introduction to the sport and I was hooked. My first live NHL game was a meeting between the Ottawa Senators and New Jersey Devils — I can’t remember exactly how I old I was — and eventually street hockey games and Mylec goalie pads were traded in for my first pair of Kohos and pucks on the ice.

Twenty-something years later (I’ll be 28 next week) I stumbled into the opportunity to cover the Dallas Stars and the NHL for NHL.com before this past season. It was the unplanned result of a decision I made in 2013 when I was laid off from my job at The Cedar Park-Leander Statesman.

When I was laid off I decided, with the support of my wife, that I was going to pursue a career as a hockey journalist from Austin, Texas. It was probably a crazy idea, but the stories I got to tell around the AHL team and connections I made (both within the hockey and media world) led to my opportunity to cover the NHL team.

It’s funny, I almost stepped away from writing about hockey this season. And I don’t think I’ve shared this story publicly before you asked this mailbag question.

It was in late August and I had already interviewed and accepted a job at the Austin American-Statesman to be the University for Texas football recruiting writer. I was actually driving home from the pre-employment drug test when I got a call from the editor at NHL.com asking if I would be interested in an opportunity in Dallas.

I was definitely interested and a couple weeks later my wife and I were making plans to relocate from Cedar Park to Frisco.

I feel like it’s a certainty that Pittsburgh will trade Marc-Andre Fleury, and his value will be at an all-time high after this playoff run.

Pittsburgh is committed to Matt Murray as their goalie of the future and the expansion draft is going to force their hand.

I’d like to see Craig Anderson win the cup after his wife’s battle with cancer this season.

I like Gabriel Vilardi, in fact my scouting report on him published this morning for subscribers. I wouldn’t be surprised if he was the pick at No. 3 and he’s one of the players I would heavily consider in that spot.

However, if you were drafting him with plans of making him a winger, I’d lean toward Owen Tippet. In my view Tippet is the best pure winger in the draft and he has one of the best shots in this class (reminds of Phil Kessel).

The fun thing about the third pick is the number of options, and I’m glad I don’t have the responsibility of making that pick for real. Over the past couple days I’ve convinced myself that four different players would be worthy of that pick for Dallas, only to make arguments against that pick by the end of the day.

It wouldn’t create a logjam because that defenseman would only be 18 years old and would likely still be playing in Europe/college/junior next season.

Julius Honka was drafted in 2014 and he didn’t create a logjam until 2016, so the Stars would have time to properly remedy and plan for the defensive situation.

There are a number of goalies in the second round that could be worth the pick, especially with Dallas having an extra pick (first or second round) in the first two rounds from the Ducks.

Dallas has been burned on goalie draft picks before, but I think you have to take a shot here add a goalie prospect to the system in this draft.

I posted my scouting report of him this morning for subscribers. Follow this link to check that out.

It’s just a sign that the NHL is an ever-changing league and even an eight-seed, like the Predators, can be a cup threat.

I don’t think Stars fans should use that as a source for worry, rather look at it optimistically that things change each season and the Stars could be that turnaround story next year.

I don’t have any names at the moment, but that search is in process right now.

They aren’t working for the same team anymore, but if Nichushkin reached out to Tarasenko I think he’d get a positive review of Hitch.

I don’t think it’s on the broadcasters efforts, rather it’s the environment surrounding international tournaments. Consider in international tournaments all of the public relations officers and team officials are from that respective country, so that player’s name is being pronounced correctly by all parties involved.

In the NHL names are poorly pronounced across organizations. For example, I’ve heard Stars team officials pronounced Cole Ully’s name six different ways, I’m not even sure which pronunciation is correct.

Let’s hope it’s Mattias Janmark.

https://twitter.com/Don_Keypuncher/status/860289316832071680

Last I heard teams interested in Ryan Spooner included Vegas, Vancouver, and New Jersey.

It certainly would make the Stars a better team.

Price for Seguin seems more foolish in my mind. But I couldn’t justify either deal.

https://twitter.com/PatIversenSBN/status/860289373283241989

Games?

William Nylander should probably be in that conversation if he isn’t already.

We could work out a guest mailbag when I take my vacation this summer. Keep your head down, work hard on the podcast, and you might get a call-up.

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