The 2016-17 season was an illness for the Stars organization.
A healthy franchise in seemingly top physical shape during the 2015-16 season took a nosedive. The Dallas Stars missed the playoffs, they parted ways with their coach, and less than 12 months after being the talk of the metroplex they were an afterthought.
The ‘illness’ also had it’s impact on the AHL-affiliated Texas Stars. Injuries and struggles in Dallas left the AHL club with limited resources — for example Adam Cracknell was originally signed with thoughts of him playing for the Texas — and on-ice issues with defensive consistency and goaltending (sound familiar?) led to Texas missing the playoffs for just the second time in franchise history.
Sometimes an illness is a necessary evil. It’s your body warning you that something’s wrong and you need to fix it — if we didn’t get sick, we’d just die instantly without warning.
So the Stars set out to treat the illness this season. Headline-grabbing moves should help the NHL club, while the Stars management group also showed an early dedication to fixing organizational depth and fielding a winning team in Cedar Park.
That’s why the Stars had a series of depth signings on July 1, a day typically reserved for bigger names. Depth forward Bryan Flynn and defenseman Brent Regner signed one-year, two-way contracts, while Dallas also addressed a position of need and signed veteran goalie Mike McKenna to serve as the AHL starter and the insurance policy in case of an injury to Ben Bishop or Kari Lehtonen.
“From the interview period it was pretty obvious there was going to be a quick market for those depth players this year,” Stars assistant general manager Scott White said. “If you were going to take care of your depth you had to do it early, you couldn’t wait and see how things played out.”
For White, who is also the Texas Stars GM, it was important to add veterans to help mentor the young prospects in the AHL.
“They’re players that can compete and try to win a job in Dallas, but we really are going to see the benefit when they are in Texas with the younger players,” White said. “It’s an example of how to be a pro, and what young players can learn from.”
Bringing back Greg Rallo on an AHL contract was part of that effort. Rallo, who will turn 36 in August, spent last season in Germany and is returning for his third stint with the Stars.
“Greg and I spoke, we have a good relationship, and he wanted to come back,” White said. “He understands what his role is and what I expect from him on the ice. Will he play 76 games? That’s up to him. But his impact in the locker room is going to be big.”
McKenna is expected to have a similar impact in the locker room, but White said the bigger factor was his play on the ice.
“You can research and look up his character, and it’s great, but the most important thing for me is stopping the puck,” White said. “That’s what I care the most about. He’s going to be our No. 3 (goalie in the organization) and we expect him to play like that.”
Overall it should be a much better season for Texas in the standings. In addition to the veteran signings, the AHL team should benefit from the internal competition after Dallas signed Alexander Radulov, Martin Hanzal, and Tyler Pitlick. That seemingly eliminated three NHL jobs and could keep promising young players in the AHL.
Texas Stars potential lineup
Elie-Dickinson-Gurianov
Hintz-Dowling-Smith
Rallo-Morin-McNeil
Ully-Fyten-Dries
Bayreuther-Hansson
Heatherington-Bodnarchuck
Bystrom-Regner
Martenet
McKenna
Bow OR Desrosiers
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