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Central Preview – Dallas Stars + Traverse City Update |
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Before I jump into the Dallas Stars preview, let's touch on the Traverse City update, as well as the Brendan Perlini signing.
Traverse City Rookie Tournament has kicked off and the Hawks sit 1-1. They need to win tonight vs. the baby St. Louis Blues to have the potential to move on.
The game takes place at 430 pm CT and will give the Hawks a chance to bounce back from a 6-3 loss to TOR.
There have been plenty of storylines to date but let's focus on a few positives:
Kirby Dach and Adam Boqvist leading the way – these two have looked like the best players for Chicago for the majority of the tournament – and they should be. They are the highest-ranked prospects in the system and need to make an impact.
Dach got off his game a bit vs. TOR and needs to reign that in. He and Boqvist will need to be difference makers to win tonight's game.
Philip Kurashev comes alive – after a mediocre game #1 on Friday night, Kurashev was arguably the best CHI skater on Saturday afternoon. I like his game a lot and if his strong play continues he can use that momentum to take into training camp.
Balance – this baby Hawks team has a good balance of skill throughout the forward and defence group. Captain Dennis Gilbert has been steady on the back end and Coach Derek King has been relatively consistent with his lineup in the first couple of games.
I expect Alexis Gravel to start tonight with the lines staying fairly similar.
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Moving on to Brendan Perlini… my LORD, what took so long for you to sign a 1-year / $874k contract?
All signs point to Perlini's camp blinking first to sign that deal. Perlini didn't have a lot of leverage in the situation. Also, I would want to sign ASAP with the season approaching if I were Brendan with the amount of competition amongst the forward group that looms near.
My take on the contract is this – the Hawks are better with a $874k / AAV Perlini than they are without.
The former 12th overall pick is just 23 years old and while he'll need to fight for his spot every day in the lineup, that's a good thing. He's also playing for his next contract, so if that doesn't light a fire in his belly then nothing will.
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The Dallas Stars on next on the list in our Central Division Preview.
Let's check out what DAL did in the offseason and where they are going:
2018-19 Recap:
Hawks fans should like the fact that the Stars took out the Nashville Predators in the 1st round of the playoffs last year in a 6 game series.
After that, they took the eventual Stanley Cup Champ, Blues to 7 games in round 2.
It was a great series and honestly if they were able to overcome the Blues in that series, would anyone be shocked if they were the "reigning" Cup Champs this year?
The Stars finished 4th in the Central last year with 93 points.
As usual, the Stars were led by their Benn-Seguin-Radulov line. However, they also had some studs break-through in the form of Miro Heiskanen and Roope Hintz.
GM Jim Nill was busy this summer, let's see what he got up to. Here's "Who's In" and "Who's Out":
Who's IN: Pavelski, Perry, Sekara, Kiviranta
Who's OUT: Lovejoy, Methot, Nichushkin, Pitlick, Ritchie, Spezza, Zuccarello
Projected Lineup:
Benn – Seguin – Radulov
Hintz – Pavelski – Perry
Cogliano – Faksa – Comeau
Janmark – Dickinson – Kiviranta
Lindell – Klingberg
Heiskanen – Johns/Oleksiak
Sekera – Polak
Bishop
Khudobin
2019-20 Outlook:
I'm torn on the Dallas Stars this year but I do like what they did by getting Joe Pavelski locked in. His contract might be terrible in a couple years, but the guy is a stud and will definitely help balance out the scoring.
From all I've heard the Stars are counting on Corey Perry to be a top 6 winger. Yikes! I don't know if that's going to happen.
The Stars do have some youngsters able to step up but upfront but the question will be is if there will be enough after the top line.
Their defence is very strong even if Sekera and Polak is their 3rd pairing. It might be a race as to who wins the Norris Trophy first between Klingberg and Heiskanen; they are both really good at the hockey.
In net, Ben Bishop and Anton Khudobin are as solid as you can get between the pipes.
If the "stars" align (sorry terrible pun) then they could win the division but I don't see it that way. Still, they make the playoffs and try to build off of last year's experience.
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What do you think of the Stars?
See ya out there!
TC
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Chicago Blackhawks Blogger • 
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