Dallas Stars Preview

Departures
Darryl Sydor, Brendan Morrison, Joel Lundqvist, Sergei Zubov, Chris Conner, Steve Begin, Tobis Stephan, Mark Parrish, Landon Wilson

Arrivals
Karlis Skrastins, Jeff Woywitka, Alex Auld

Forwards
The Stars were hit hard with big injuries last season. Captain Morrow missed 64 games (knee), Jere Lehtinen missed 34 (groin), and Brad Richards missed 26 (hand/wrist). Which explains why the Stars slipped out of the playoffs. This season all the forwards are healthy. With a year of experience for Fabian Brunnstrom and James Neal as well as the breakout seasons for Loui Eriksson and Steve Ott the Stars will surely improve on their goal output (20th last season). Mike Riberio is a solid No. 1 center and Mike Modano still has some left in the tank. Kelowna Rockets forward Jamie Benn will likely get a long look from GM Nieuwendyk.

Defenseman
Veterans Sergei Zubov and Darryl Sydor have left, leaving a fairly green group to patrol the blueline. Stephan Robidas and Trevor Daley will be looked upon to be the new leaders. With no real offensive catalyst it will be scoring by committee for this defense corps.

Goalies
Marty Turco had his worst season as a pro last year ranking 30th in GAA and 42nd in SV%. It cost him an invite to Canada’s olympic orientation camp. The 34-year-old will be looking to prove he still has what it takes to be an elite goalie at the NHL level. He’s also in the last year of his contract, which is always a motivator.

Strengths
- With a healthy forward lineup they are as deep as any of the top-five teams in the league.

- With new GM Nieuwendyk and new head coach Marc Crawford the Stars are sure to play a more exciting offensive game this season. It’s a style that better suits the forwards on the team.

– The Stars have the right mix of youth and veterans to make a deep playoff push.

Weaknesses
- A no-name defense is going to struggle to put up points that are desparately needed from the back-end.

- Injuries crippled this team last season and without much added this year more injuries could once again keep the Stars out of the playoffs.

Analysis
The Stars missed the playoffs last season because of poor goaltending and a ton of major injuries to their key players. This won’t happen again this season. The Stars will once again be back in the playoff picture in April.

Prediction: 7th in the West