Tales From the Clipped: It Was the Lian Bichsel Show At Traverse City Versus Detroit

A lot of good Dallas Stars prospects were on tap at Traverse City but only one stood above the rest, literally and figuratively.

Traverse City is always a lot of fun. Only four teams get to take part: Dallas, Detroit, Toronto, and Columbus. But the story going into this season is figuring out which prospects are trending up, down, and everything in between.

Normally this would be a extensive exercise. Lian Bichsel, Mavrik Bourque, Logan Stankoven, Antonio Stranges, Matthew Seminoff, Francesco Arcuri, Christian Kyrou, Tristan Bertucci, Artem Grushnikov — with so many quality prospects, you’d think we’d be highlighting more than one. And for sure, some showed some quality chops. But Thursday night was the Bichsel show through and through. (Stick tap to Remi Poirier, who was solid.)

Since no one else is saying it, I will: Bichsel is NHL ready. I counted 25 clip-worthy plays, and Bichsel accounted for 56 percent of them. I’m not about to post all 14 clips, but I do want to talk about five of them. And yes, we’ll get to others.

The Gorilla from Olten

Hey: his words, not mine. In 2022, there was only two defensemen worth picking with Mateychuk and Mintyukov off the board: Owen Pickering, and the big Swiss defensemen out of the SHL. Something I’ve said before, but I’m through underrating “smooth skating defenders with questionable offense.” Usually what these reports mean is that the prospect in question doesn’t produce enough. For defenders, production is not as interesting as performance.

One of the things that makes Thomas Harley stand out, as I wrote about in our TFTC series, is deception. Trying to channel passes through predictable lanes, or taking standard routes is no longer the name of the game. Fortunately for Dallas, Bichsel is capable of this.

The evidence here is space. Here Bichsel gives himself a ton of space with some shifty puckhandling and good edgework. It’s kind of a vanilla play, but it’s the kind of confidence with his feet and hands that you don’t see in a 6’5, 225lb defenseman.

He did the same thing here, harnessing is lower and upperbody to great effect on a play where he had very little real estate.

That little bit of manipulation goes a long way, and it’s that movement that allows him to deliver the pass underneath the forechecker’s stick.

Bichsel’s assertiveness playing the body served him well too.

Going back to the Harley piece this is something I criticized the puck mover on: taking hard angles without necessarily taking away space. Bichsel takes a hard angle, but he also bodybags his man.

All throughout the tournament Bichsel made plays like this: clean outlet passes, quality puck control, movement in all three zones, etc.

It wasn’t always perfect.

Here he just holds onto the puck way too long. A couple of things though: Antonio Stranges (71) is posted way too high. If he were supporting the play lower, it’s possible Bichsel cuts across the slot to him. Secondly, Bichsel is on his offhand. Cut to 0:07 of the clip and notice how much easier a pass to Mavrik Bourque (22) is if he’s on his strongside. If I put my Bichsel Goggles back on, I love it personally. I love the confidence in movement, and it’s the kind of sequence I’d argue forms the base of what I want my “stay at home” defenders to be able to do in the modern game.

Sidebar: Bichsel will have to get used to playing on his offside because that’s the only way he figures into the top four. I see him sometimes listed as “RHD” and I have no idea why. Yes, he has experience on his offhand, but he’s not Niklas Hjalmarsson either.

There’s a little too much extra at times, like below.

But I go back to Marty St. Louis’ comment: “I’d rather see a player make a bad read than no read at all.”

Bichsel doesn’t always make the right play, but he is reading it. To write (generating chances) you have to read (processing the play), which tells me he’s on his way to being a top-four author on Dallas’ blueline.

Stankoven: Half-Blaze (But Still Good)

Expectations are high on Stankoven, and while he didn’t deliver through one game, I thought his talents were on half-display.

In a straight line, Stankoven is rock ’n' roll. He doesn’t have the stride power to go ballistic like Roope Hintz, but he’s so quick with his feet and his hands that it’s just outright fun to watch.

What was apparent to me as I watched (and this was especially true for Bourque) is that Dallas is extremely weak on wingers in their system. Seminoff and Blumel had their moments, but they’re not tier 1 prospects. While I think Stankoven tried to do too much at times, I also felt like his flanks weren’t giving him enough.

Regardless, he was able to jailbreak the neutral zone with some handywork like this little give and go with Gavin White (74).

Stankoven’s top speed is not elite, but his movement in flight is sometimes almost mindbending.

Stray Observations

• Bourque is not a plus athlete so he’s never gonna standout the way Stankoven and Bichsel do. He’s also never gonna look good next to ungood players. This isn’t necessarily a knock on Antonio Stranges and Kyle McDonald, but that line had no chemistry, which kept Bourque more or less in the shadows.

• Artem Grushnikov has always been known for his skating as one of his few strengths, but he looked smoother than I remember. It looked like he had better control of his feet, better stops and starts, and overall just a decent meat and potatoes stay at home defender. Nothing great, but decent.

• Christian Kyrou was a player I expected more from. Again, just one game. But he looked timid, and his offensive prowess took a backseat to the Bichsel Show.

• The other defenders didn’t stand out much. White, Tristan Bertucci, and Jacob Murray seemed overwhelmed by a Detroit forward group that didn’t have a ton of depth, but still had excellent top line talent in Kasper, Danielson, and Soderblom.

• If you’ve been eating your breakfast salvos, you know I had something to say about Angus MacDonell. He didn’t play enough, but I liked what I saw in glimpses.

• Chase Wheatcroft is another player that pleasantly surprised me. Given his age, I would expect him to be more developed, but he looked like the lifeblood of his line, which is worth noting since his teammates were either older (Back) or more talented (Arcuri).