Dallas Stars Training Camp: Centers, Cuts, and Power Play Possibilities
And a bit of fashion (non)sense
As usually happens in the second week of an NHL training camp, the first round of re-assignments happened, reducing the Stars’ practice groups from three to two.
Four of the six roster moves were 2025 draft picks being returned to their junior teams (Charlie Paquette, Brandon Gorzynski, Dawson Sharkey, and Cameron Schmidt), with Niilopekka Muhonen having been drafted the year prior, in 2024.
One other thing to keep in mind is the fact Muhonen signed his entry-level contract with Dallas over the summer. Thus, he gets “loaned” rather than “returned” to his WHL team, since he is now under contract with Dallas. A small difference, but a real one.
The decisions aren’t terribly shocking—most NHL teams did the exact same thing with their respective training camps today—especially given that Cameron Schmidt was moved from Group B to Group C last week. The players listed here will all benefit most by playing with their respective junior teams while the Dallas training camp focuses more and more on what the NHL team is trying to accomplish.
If there’s any intrigue to be had here (and I don’t think there probably is), you might notice that Emil Hemming—drafted the same year as Muhonen, and also with an ELC—was not returned to juniors just yet.
Sean reported last year that Hemming was drafted out of TPS in Finland rather than out of the CHL, which means he could be eligible to play in the AHL this year despite not being 20 yet—something that also happened with a certain other Finnish first-rounder last decade.
Personally though, I’d be surprised if Hemming does so. As a 19-year-old, his most likely destination in my view remains the more conventional one: Barrie in the OHL, whenever that loan takes place. Last year, if you recall, Hemming and Tristan Bertucci were sent back to juniors on the Tuesday of the second week of training camp. So it is entirely possible that we will see a similar situation later this week, or even as soon as tomorrow. But it is always good to know what options remain on the table.
(Note: Under the new NHL/NHLPA collective bargaining agreement beginning in the 2026-27 season, clubs will have more options at their disposal if they want to bring teenage players to the AHL.)
As for Anthony Cristoforo, his release isn’t entirely unexpected, given how crowded the Texas Stars’ defensive depth is right now. Despite being a right-shot defenseman, the Texas blue line already looked pretty packed with players like Trey Taylor, Michael Karow, and Kyle Capobianco all looking likely to begin the year in Texas. I had wondered if Luke Krys’s injury that looks to keep him out until at least January might have opened a bit of a door for Cristoforo, but for now, that doesn’t appear to be the case.
The remaining players in camp on PTOs are Antoine Bibeau, Cross Hanas, and Adam Erne—about the latter of whom we’ll have much more tomorrow.
Power Play QBs
The Stars spent a good amount of time working on power play things today, and the most noticeable thing was that Thomas Harley was working with Rantanen, Robertson, Johnston, and Hintz on the presumptive first unit. Heiskanen worked with Duchene, Seguin, Benn, and Mavrik Bourque on the second unit.
Gulutzan was careful not to say that what we saw is how the power plays are going to be all year, but he did stress that he wants some “unpredictability” on the power play, which can help to keep things fresh.
He pointed to his time in Edmonton, and how they would sometimes roll different looks, and it sure sounds like that means Harley or Heiskanen could both be quarterbacking the top unit at times this year.
Then again, the first thing a coach does in practice, in my view, tends to be the thing he’s most interested in seeing. So for now, at least, Harley on the top unit is something to watch.
“Each guy’s got his own skill set, right?” said Gulutzan. “Brings something different to the table. Sometimes that’s healthy to do, too.”
Given what we saw last year, Harley has certainly earned the opportunity to run the top unit for a spell. One power play goal in particular comes to mind:
Don’t overlook Bourque on the power play, either. Last season, Pete DeBoer kept him off the power play for much of the year, as Bourque was battling to get healthy early on, and the Stars’ forward depth increased later in the year. But at least for now, it looks like that big opportunity Gulutzan has talked about will include Bourque on the power play.
I’d encourage you to watch Gulutzan’s availibility from today if you want to hear more about his philosophical approach to the power play. The phrase “mix and match” came up a lot, and I wonder if the “road hockey” mentality Gulutzan has preached in Dallas and in past years in Edmonton might be particularly apparent to Stars fans when it comes to power play execution. Certainly they will be hoping that’s the case, at least.
System Updates Pending
The Stars also worked on some 5-on-5 defensive zone drills today. And while you’ve surely heard much about the “tweaks” and “adjustments” Gulutzan has said he wants to make, today was one of the clearest examples of it thus far, with Gulutzan even pausing a drill to reiterate exactly where and when players should or shouldn’t activate to provide puck support along the wall.
“Knowing your cues,” Gulutzan said. “That’s what we were working on today…Without saying too much more, knowing your cues, when you’re gonna exchange. That’s what we went over today.”
To my relatively untrained eye, this was a significant change from what we saw last year in the Stars’ defensive zone. So, it makes sense that some additional instruction would be needed, after three years taking a slightly different approach under Pete DeBoer.
“A lot of new stuff,” Roope Hintz said after practice, “But at the same time, it doesn’t feel like a lot’s gonna change. Just some little details. At the same time, a new voice behind the bench. Just little tweaks on the system.”
So, how did the team do with said changes in Game 1 of the preseason last Saturday? Not bad, said Gulutzan—though he emphasized that there would, of course, be some room for improvement along the way.
“The young players did a really good job,” Gulutzan said of the St. Louis game. “I told the guys, ‘Let’s just be aggressive in our mindset, and we’ll chip out mistakes as we go. We’ll just keep chipping them out.’”
(To clarify, I believe Gulutzan was speaking metaphorically here about slowly excising mistakes—not that his system is predicated on actually chipping pucks out of the zone.)
Another question Gulutzan got was about the role of the center in the new approach, and he confirmed that the Stars will be asking more of their pivots.
“There is more responsibility on the center, but it’s a more natural center route and a more natural defenseman route, is what we’re trying to get after here,” said Gulutzan.
It’s not a revolutionary approach, though. Gultuzan acknowledged that other teams in the league have a similar take on the defensive zone. But the ultimate goal is to take the strengths of the Dallas roster that were apparent under DeBoer and marry them with some new approaches to create something special in the process.
"Our coaching staff,” Gulutzan said, “We spent a lot of time on this, thinking ‘What can we put together that’s a little bit unique to us, with our skillset in this area?’”
When asked about what some of those changes mean for centers, Wyatt Johnston confirmed that there would indeed be some new things asked of him.
“Obviously a different system, to some extent,” said Johnston. “You’re not getting that man-on-man as much. I think as a forward, it’s great. It allows you to kind of play, I don’t want to say ‘play looser,’ but it allows you to kind of play in the middle of the ice a little more and make reads, and stuff like that, versus kind of being strict one-on-one, swarm, stuff like that.”
“Still pretty early, and still learning, and still kind of seeing how it’ll feel and adjust to some extent,” Johnston said, “But overall it’s been great.”
Lineups Ahead of Tuesday Night’s Game
Here were the line combos from the first group this morning in Frisco:
Steel-Hintz-Rantanen
Robertson-Johnston-Bourque
Benn-Duchene-Seguin
Bäck-Faksa-Blackwell
Bastian-Hryckowian-Lind
Lindell-Heiskanen
Harley-Lundkvist
Bichsel-Lyubushkin
Kolyachonok-Petrovic
Oettinger
DeSmith
Kraws
After both groups had practiced, Glen Gulutzan stressed that we shouldn’t read too much into the divide between the first group (which featured a good deal of the most likely NHL roster players) and the second group, calling the lines between the two “blurry.”
“We’ve got guys who played really good games, and they’re in Group 2,” Gulutzan said. “And that doesn’t mean anything, it’s just the way we divided them up.”
Gulutzan did say that, on the whole, he expects a more veteran lineup in Game 2 on Tuesday night against Minnesota. So we’ll have to wait and see what “veteran” means in that regard.
And hey, speaking of things people said, how about some
Assorted Quotes from the Third Full Day of Training Camp
“I’m not, but you can ask him what he’s gonna do.” -Esa Lindell (on coordinating game-day outfits with Roope Hintz)
“Maybe not a suit every game, I would say […] I just go [with] whatever I feel.” -Roope Hintz (on game-day outfits)
“I haven’t figured it out yet. We’ll see. I’ll keep it a surprise.” -Wyatt Johnston (On, yes, game-day outfits)
“It was awesome. Got to meet a ton of guys that I’ve watched pretty much my whole life. It was pretty cool to go there and mett and see guys off the ice. Just a great experience. Obviously playing for Team Canada would be such an amazing thing.” -Wyatt Johnston (on Team Canada Orientation)
“Yeah it was actually good (last year). Because you get some games, and there was, I can’t remember how many days off there was, maybe ten. So it was pretty good that you get to play, and then you were ready when you got back.” -Roope Hintz (on adjusting back to the NHL following Four Nations/Olympics breaks)
“It’s exciting. He’s a player that can make stuff out of nothing, so it’s fun having an opportunity to play with someone like that. It’s been fun just to watch him last year, and this year as well, get to know him and just kind of watch what he does on and off the ice and see what makes him such a special player.” -Wyatt Johnston (on playing with Mikko Rantanen)
“You just gotta be ready. I’ve started to realize in this league, there’s guys that can make plays you can’t even see. So you just gotta be ready for the puck when a guy like Mikko has it.” -Wyatt Johnston
“He has very good style. I would think that he would rock it.” -Esa Lindell (On dress codes and, yes, Roope Hintz)
“Is this actually the third day of training camp, though? Sunday was an off-day, and Saturday still saw players practicing, even if a third of them were playing a preseason game. It’s more like the fifth, or maybe the fourth, at least. What kind of janky numbering system do you even use for this thing, dude?” -My inner critic
Can’t wait to see the new D system! Hopefully it include exits with possession??? Crazy talk!
To paraphrase Johnston, Rantanen is a magician