The Other Stars: Ayrton Martino sets personal career high, Angus MacDonell nets a hat trick, and more!
It was/is a pretty good week for Dallas' prospects, all told.
As we approach the stretch run, I just want to thank the readers who interact with these prospect articles. Not everyone cares about non-NHL hockey. As someone who watches a lot of really bad hockey at these levels, I can attest to the fact that you’re not missing much as far as quality hockey goes. However, covering Dallas’ prospects is a chance for me to write—for lack of a better phrase—from the future. And that’s part of the Dallas Stars story. Whether it manifests or not.
So thank you.
Speaking of thanks, we have somewhat of a doozy. As always, it’s important to preface all of the following ‘praise’ with this: Dallas does not have a good prospect pool right for reasons everyone understands at this point. If the Stars needed to trade their entire pool for a quality rental, I’d accept it every day of the week and twice on domingo1. None of these players are what anyone would call Tier 1 prospects; that is, prospects above replacement level potential as either minute-heavy or light generalists, and minute-heavy or light specialists. There is no Wyatt Johnston or Lian Bichsel in the system. There are only the Ty Dellandreas and Nils Lundkvists left.
Could I be wrong? Obviously. And that’s part of the fun. We all have broad ideas about who players are. And we assume that some traits might be innate. A fast player is a fast player. A playmaker is a playmaker. The guy is bad along the wall. He doesn’t relocate the point of attack. He’s slow to process plays. Etc. But every now and then, they surprise you, and we got a few last week.
Just like last week, don’t forget that the headings follow the leagues ranked by statistical difficulty in descending order.