The Other Stars: Hemming extends point streak to seven, Stranges entertains, and a word on Dallas' depth situation
Plus some video on the big WHL Finnish defender.
Quick note: Paid subscribers will be getting two pieces a week now. And one of them will be these in-depth prospect reports, where I update you on the Dallas Stars future across the AHL, OHL, WHL, NCAA, and beyond.
Dallas holds the crown for Best Drafting Team in the NHL. But they’re about to hand it over to someone else. Lacking a 2025 first-round pick means they don’t have the opportunity to do what they did in 2017 or 2021 (a far more difficult draft to find talent than this year). But beyond that, their pool is thin.
Even with Lian Bichsel given status as a prospect per Scott Wheeler, the Stars rank 31st with the current pipeline. At the time of writing it, Bichsel was down in the AHL. Take away Bichsel, and they’d assuredly be last. Are things really so grim?
Not necessarily. Dallas has been really good about identifying maturity in prospects. That’s a very difficult thing to define, and certainly harder for an armchair amateur like me to feign understanding of. Because of that, it’s hard to say who’s a “lost cause” or not. Just look at someone like Oskar Bäck. I thought of him as just a Radek Faksa subclone. I didn’t think he had a chance to play in the NHL not because he was bad, but because he had no offense. Granted, time will tell whether or not he’s a the next Devin Shore, or the next…well, Faksa, but he’s earned an NHL coach’s trust so far, not to mention, a two-year extension.
So evaluating Dallas prospects is something of a Lynchian task. One thing’s for sure: for such a grim list of potential NHL talent, there is a lot to say about the best of the rest. For those curious, here’s my updated top 10. I dropped Chase Wheatcroft in favor of Brad Gardiner. I have a strict-ish rule about not including players 23 and up but Stranges (who turned 23 on the fifth of this month) is so darn fun to watch, we’ll wait until next season to exclude him.
Emil Hemming
Antonio Stranges
Tristan Bertucci
Aram Minnetian
Angus MacDonnell
Arno Tiefensee
Ayrtom Martino
Christian Kyrou
Niilopekka Muhonen
Brad Gardiner
What follows will be quick updates for each in descending order, with a little bit of film room and stats (yes, the good stuff compliments of Mitch Brown at EPRinkside) woven into the top 10 rundown.