FRISCO, Texas — For the third straight season the Dallas Stars are going to carry eight defenders on their opening-night roster.
At first glance it doesn’t make sense. Only six can play each night, and having a young waiver-exempt player like Julius Honka sit in the press box might seem short-sighted when he could be playing big minutes in the AHL.
But the Stars have a plan for Honka, and it might just work.
At this moment Honka is already one of the Stars top defenders with the puck on his stick and you could even argue he’s a better offensive defender than John Klingberg. But Honka’s defensive game needs work. He needs to get better in his own zone, he needs to read plays better, and he needs to solidify a crucial part of his game.
Ken Hitchcock is hoping assistant coach Rick Wilson, who has a reputation for molding young defenders, can help Honka take the next step. Honka will work closely with Wilson in practices and he’ll be expected to pay close attention from the press box — essentially the Stars want Honka to be a sponge soaking up NHL information.
And once he’s ready, Honka is going to get into an NHL game. Perhaps as early as the Oct. 14 game against the Colorado Avalanche or Oct. 17 tilt with the Arizona Coyotes.
Those games, whenever they may be, could be an important indicator whether Honka will spend the rest of the season in the NHL or the AHL.
“We got to get him in a rhythm, he’s either got to play all the time or play on a regular basis. Or else we’re better off with him playing in the American Hockey League. Depending on how quickly get Rick can get him up to speed, he has an asset that we need,” Hitchcock said. “And we want to get him playing on a regular basis, similar to a way you would with a second goaltender. In that we don’t want to let him sit for two or three weeks, and then expect him to come in and play. We want to get him in a rhythm and see how he looks.”
It’s a difficult line to walk. The Stars need Honka to get better before he plays an NHL game, but they also can’t let him get stale as a healthy scratch.
“We don’t want to let him get too far away without making a decision. We don’t want have a guy like him, who looks like he has tremendous upside, if he continues to grow as a player than he’s earned a right to keep playing,” Hitchcock said. “But he’s not there yet. He’s not in our top-six, but he’s got a chance to be a top-four guy. We want to see how far we can get him in the first 10 days here.”
Eventually the Stars will have to make a final decision and Hitchcock has been adamant about sticking with his top-six. So Honka is going to have to prove he’s a better defensive option than a current player in the top-six, if he can prove that his offensive upside would likely make him a permanent fixture in the lineup.
The Stars had a lengthy practice on Tuesday and have another long one on Wednesday, Hitchcock said both of those are partially designed with Honka in mind so the young defender can get as much work as possible with Wilson.
Power play wrinkle
The Stars had an interesting look to the power play on Tuesday as they worked on special teams for much of practice.
Devin Shore replaced Jason Spezza on the first unit and was working one of the points with John Klingberg. The rest of the unit was Tyler Seguin, Alexander Radulov, and Jamie Benn.
Without Spezza, Shore and Seguin were taking turns as the puck carrier on the zone entries.
On the second unit Spezza was working with Martin Hanzal, Mattias Janmark, Brett Ritchie, and Esa Lindell.
Lindell and Spezza were on the points, while Hanzal was the net-front player.
Lehtonen impresses
Hitchcock was asked after practice if he was concerned about his goalies after Ben Bishop posted sub-par numbers in the preseason.
He wasn’t concerned, and in fact he’s rather happy with his tandem in goal.
“Goaltending situation is the least of our our worries right now. We know how good Ben is, we know how he can play,” Hitchcock said. “And I think (Kari) Lehtonen, of all the players on the team, I would say Lehtonen has had the best camp of anybody. Including forwards and Ds, so we’re not worried about that. We got a great tandem and we’re going to need that tandem right away with the back-to-backs.”
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