The Other Stars: Getting to know Justin Hryckowian, Dallas' new callup, and the usual prospect report rundown

Dallas gets a new Texas Star.

With Tyler Seguin going on IR (covered extensively by Sean and Robert), Dallas called up Texas Stars center, Justin Hryckowian.

It's a well-earned callup. He has 16 points in 17 games for the Stars of the South, which leads the team. While he didn’t make an impression during his brief cameo when Dallas signed him up out of college from Northeaster University (which he was the captain of in his final season), his playoff run signaled that Hryckowian would be solid addition, but nothing more. Instead he’s become Texas’ replacement for Mavrik Bourque; an essential piece of their offense.

Of course, getting the NHL callup means different things for different prospects. Like with Alex Petrovic, Hryckowian is up because he’s kind of a default option given Dallas’ injuries. With Logan Stankoven potentially drawing back in, it’s also possible we won’t see him at all. However, he’s put himself in a position to be the default option. The difference is worth noting because fans should temper expectations.

Hryckowian doesn’t have NHL potential, in my opinion. Friend of the Stars Stack and Defending Big D writer (plus co-host of the underrated Stargazing podcast) compared him to Justin Dowling, which I think is a great comparison: no real forward-facing skills — a generalist through and through — or impact talents, but he plays a details-oriented game.

Hryckowian (pronounced Ritz-co-vee-in) is not a prospect in my view. He’ll be 24 in February, which puts him into a statistical profile that, to me, qualifies more as a young veteran than a young prospect. I mention this because I haven’t paid super close attention to him. Once he started racking up points, I started to make some exceptions, so here’s a very modest mixtape (he wears #9) of what I mean when I call him a details-oriented forward.

The first clip is probably my favorite, even though nothing dramatic happens. It’s an example of an NHL-quality route. As soon as he identifies that Lian Bichsel has possession near the point, he gets into open space first (to receive a high danger pass), and then drives to the net second (to hunt for rebounds), where he actually manages to get a piece of the puck for a deflection. As you can see from the rest of the mix, he’s a five tools forward. He won’t make an impact, but he won’t hurt the team either.

Below I’ll be doing a quick recap of Lian Bichsel, Emil Hemming, Tristan Bertucci, and Antonio Stranges: Dallas’ four best prospects right now IMO. I wasn’t able to watch the college games I was hoping to catch with the holidays going on, but once we’re out of December, we’ll get back to tracking Dallas’ top 10, who’s trending up versus down, etc.