Five Specific Things I'm Watching On and Off the Ice at the Dallas Stars Prospect Games in Frisco
Hockey is always chaotic, but it doesn't have to be unintelligble
This weekend in Frisco, the Stars will play two games against prospects from the Detroit Red Wings. More information about attending the games can be found here.
On paper, the matchup might seem a bit tilted. Detroit has, by virtue of missing the playoffs for nine consecutive seasons, amassed a strong prospect pool that Elite Prospects recently ranked 12th in the NHL. The Stars, in contrast, do not have as deep of a group, coming in at 29th in those same rankings, right around other bottom teams like Vegas, Colorado, Florida, and Tampa Bay.
Teams that do worse in the NHL season get higher draft picks that following summer. And ideally, that leads to a deeper prospect group over time. That’s part of the reason Detroit swept the two games against Dallas last year: When one team keeps picking higher in the draft while the other keeps making deep playoff runs and sending picks and prospects away for NHL assets at the trade deadline, a prospect tournament should not be an even matchup. The Stars have been doing what an NHL club in the Stars’ position should be doing with a wide-open window, and the Red Wings would surely have been happy to switch places with Dallas over the last number of years.
One other contributing factor to Dallas’s less-deep prospect pool is a very good one, for Dallas: Some of that team’s best players from recent drafts have already graduated to the NHL at 19 or 20, like Wyatt Johnston and Lian Bichsel did. The Stars will once again be facing Detroit players like Nate Danielson and Michael Brandsegg-Nygård, while the Red Wings will no longer have to face Bichsel in this tournament. On the whole, that’s a better sign for Dallas, even if it means their prospect team has one fewer premium defensemen.
Detroit will be bringing four first-round draft picks to this weekend’s games. Dallas will be bringing just one (Emil Hemming, 2023). So, I think I’ve droned on long enough about how grading these games based on the final score is pretty silly in the broader scope of things; it’s all about what the players actually do on the ice.
And those players—along with their coaches—absolutely want to win these games.
That’s why, this weekend, you might decide to drive up to Frisco and watch two hockey games featuring a ton of talented hockey prospects that you may never have seen play before (so long as you reserve your tickets beforehand on the Stars’ website). It’s a cool opportunity for hockey fans in Dallas, and regardless of the prospect pool rankings, every player on the ice for both clubs has plenty of incentive to make these two very fun games. The opportunities afforded to the people playing in them are very real, providing players the chance to make a big impression in the only hockey games these two NHL organizations will be watching on Saturday and Sunday evening.
If you’re a player who felt like you didn’t quite have the season you wanted to last year, this weekend is a great chance to show you’re on a mission to take a very real step forward this year. If you’re a new draft pick, this is a chance to impress the people who will be deciding what sorts of contract and playing time you will merit in the coming years. It’s not the biggest game of these players’ lives, but it’s still an important one.
So, with that in mind, here are a few very specific things that I’ll be watching for in this tournament. And we’re going to start with a couple of non-player things, actually.
1. The Broadcast
Unlike prior years, when the Traverse City Prospect Tournament was streamed primarily by Detroit, the Stars will be taking advantage of their own streaming platform to provide coverage on Victory+. Brien Rea and Brent Severyn will be calling the game.
Many fans might be more familiar with Rea and Severyn’s current pre-game, post-game, and intermission work for Dallas, but both have many years of game-calling experience on their respective resumés. Severyn did years of color commentary for the Anaheim Ducks’ radio broadcast, and Rea did the Texas Stars’ play-by-play call for four years before coming to Dallas.
Rea and Severyn’s broadcast will serve as a preview for some of the Dallas games the Stars will be airing during the preseason, too. From the sound of things, this preseason will feature more straightforward game calls on Victory+ rather than the mixture of commentary and interviews the Stars did in some away games last preseason.
In past years, Josh Bogorad and Daryl Reaugh have called the final game of the preseason, and I expect that to remain the case this time around, too. But until then, getting to hear Rea and Severyn call prospect and preseason games for free on Victory+ will be welcome news for Stars fans—especially those who remember the days when video broadcasts of such games were limited to Mark Stepneski holding up his phone to send out a live Vine (or whatever the video thing was called) from the stands in Traverse City. Personally, I quite enjoyed those days, but there it little point denying that we have made progress.
2. The Coach
This weekend will also be the Stars coaching debut for Toby Petersen, who will be coaching the Dallas prospects along with the rest of his staff from the AHL, including his former Texas Stars teammates Travis Morin and Max Fortunus.
As an aside, I ran into Curtis McKenzie in Frisco on Friday. McKenzie, who will be returning as captain of the Texas Stars this year, is also a former teammate of Graham’s from that 2014 Calder Cup-winning Texas team. One would expect there will be no shortage of good stories to swap in Cedar Park this year.
Petersen took over as head coach in Texas after Neil Graham was promoted to Dallas to join Glen Gulutzan’s coaching staff this summer. Graham had previously been on the bench for every Stars prospect game as far back as Miro Heiskanen’s 2018 showing in Traverse City, so Petersen has some veteran shoes to fill in that regard.
Petersen was also among the coaches in the Stars organization who met for a few days at the end of August, so it’s possible we’ll see some efforts at rolling out approaches that are at least not inconsistent with those that Texas and Dallas will be trying to employ this year.
Now, to be clear: am I saying that you will be able to learn something about how the NHL club might be tweaking their system under Glen Gulutzan by watching two prospect games played by a diverse group of players on largely unfamiliar lines and defense pairings after just one practice?
No, obviously. But also, sure, why not? Please take extensive notes on the forecheck and the neutral zone play, paying special attention to how Tommy Bergsland executes the breakout from the right side. Submit your work in the basket on my desk (sorry, it’s always this messy) by Monday at 8:00am. It will be 30% of your course grade this term. No late work will be accepted.
3. The Goalies
Arno Tiefensee and Ben Kraws will be the goalies this weekend, and at least in the short term, it’s probably fair to look at these games as a bit of an audition for the backup spot in the AHL, where Remi Poirier currently looks to hold the starter’s net after Magnus Hellberg’s return to Sweden this summer.
The 25-year-old Kraws played well for Idaho in the ECHL last season, and he also got a brief set of games in Texas early in 2025, going 2-1-0 for the AHL club in February. Kraws finished the season back in the ECHL, where he earned the Rookie of the Month award in March before coming up to Dallas to serve as a black ace during the Stanley Cup Playoffs, working mostly as a practice goalie for Dallas to give Jake Oettinger some added rest.
Kraws also has one of the better nicknames in the organization, which counts for a lot in my book. But if you have the time, you might also check out this longer Kraws interview, which I present with no introduction:
As for the other goaltender, Arno Tiefensee was drafted in 2023, during which time he’s been playing in the DEL with the Mannheim Eagles along with old friend Jyrki Jokipakka, and playing quite well. The 6-foot-4 Tiefensee was even the third goalie for Germany at the IIHF World Championships this summer, behind Philipp Grubauer and Mathias Niederberger, so he certainly has ambitions of wearing his country’s sweater again as his career progresses.
As far as English coverage, here’s a piece by Sean talking about Tiefensee’s game two years ago right after he was drafted, if you’re into deep cuts. I also enjoyed asking Tiefensee about Jokipakka during development camp a couple of months ago, too.
And by now, you’re probably wondering if you’re saying his name correctly, so allow me to assist: Tiefensee’s name can be heard with correct pronunciation at the 1:00 mark of the below video, and to my ear, it’s in the neighborhood of “TIEF-ehn-zee.”
You can watch a German interview in an even more animated style in the next video, where the 23-year-old Tiefensee talks about (among other things) how he is about to get a haircut for the first time in a couple of years, after which he’s going to donate his hair for people living with cancer:
There are plenty of reasons for rooting for both of these guys, in other words.
4. Whether Certain Skaters “Pop”
Going into this tournament, I’ll be very interested in what we see from many players, but in a very specific way, from Hemming, Cameron Schmidt, and Trey Taylor. Because in different ways, I think it’s fair to expect a bit more out of them.
Taylor just finished a deep AHL playoff run after signing with the Texas Stars after finishing with Clarkson University this spring. From what I’ve seen of his game in a few in-person viewings, his skating looks as good as any defenseman in the organization not on the NHL roster, and he was one of the standouts during development camp this summer, at which he was joined by his younger brother, Tate. Thus far, he looks like a very strong signing by Texas.
(Stars Thoughts Fun Fact: Taylor holds dual citizenship with Canada and Great Britain, as his parents both hail from across the pond. Unfortunately, Taylor supports Liverpool in the EPL. Nobody’s perfect.)
Taylor has been running the second power play in Texas almost since the day he arrived last season, and it will be particularly intriguing to see how dangerous he can be against Detroit’s penalty kill. I’d expect Taylor to quarterback one of the Stars’ power play unit this weekend, and if Friday’s practice was any indication, he could run a unit with Charlie Paquette, Angus MacDonnell, Justin Ertel, and Artem Shlaine (the latter of whom we’ll have much more about in the coming days). But it’s best not to get too locked into player combinations until morning skate.
As for Schmidt, his shot and skating are tools both well-known and highly regarded. While the 18-year-old forward will be facing much older, bigger, and stronger players than he has been back in the WHL, this weekend will be a great chance for him to show that his smaller size isn’t a liability when playing against older players than he usually faces in juniors. Even if Schmidt adds some more size in the next couple of years, his having a couple of “wow” moments (along with smart, responsible play off the puck) would be a very positive reflection of his potential in the early days of his development with Dallas. How you adapt to players who try to seize upon perceived weaknesses is one of the most crucial parts of NHL development.
Hemming, whose chemistry with Arttu Hyry and goal-scoring ability impressed Sean last year during the Traverse City tournament, looks once again like one of the Stars’ best weapons in these two games. He was playing on a line with Texas forwards Justin Ertel and Harrison Scott a bit on Friday, but again, we’ll wait for morning skates to be sure.
In practice on Friday, Schmidt was working on the power play along the half-wall (which you can see up in the picture headlining this story), with Hemming on the opposite side from him. Hemming’s Barrie Colts teammate Tristan Bertucci was quarterbacking that unit, with Harrison Scott and Ayrton Martino closer to the net. In other words, Hemming and Schmidt both look likely to get a chance to utilize their offensive skill on the power play this weekend. That’s a pretty ideal situation for their respective skill sets.
As for the rest of the roster, “pop” can look different. Here are a couple of examples:
In some cases, it could just mean a sign of progress from last year, an indication that real growth is happening. Defenseman Tristan Bertucci is a good example of someone that should be more than ready for this tournament at 20 years old, but not an easy one. Still, you might keep an eye out to watch for him on the power play, and to see if he ends up playing on the right side at all this weekend, since the Stars only have two RHD on the roster (sound familiar?) for now. Responsibility is a big deal, even in a prospect tournament.
Anthony Cristoforo is one of the two right-shot defensemen along with Tommy Bergsland. Cristoforo is joining the team on a PTO, and the undrafted 19-year-old might well “pop” by simply looking like a reliable and viable option in an organizational position of need. The undrafted Cristoforo was at a similar prospect camp with Ottawa last year, but after putting up 61 points in 65 games with Windsor as a defenseman, now is as good a time as any for him to make another first impression.
In other cases, it could mean a college player around 22 or 23 shows that he’s more than ready for the challenges of the AHL consistently. Artem Shlaine and Harrison Scott are in this group, for me. They’re newer to the organization, but they’ve played a chunk of professional hockey now for Texas, so you’d like to see them show some of that seasoning in a tournament like this.
Brandon Gorzynski is the youngest player on the roster, and it’s his first prospect camp for Dallas, which means some expectations will be tempered, for now. But if he can push for more minutes and responsibility, that would be a really strong first impression for the young forward.
But with a few names, the expectations are a little higher, as they should be. So if you can only watch for a couple of players, those are the three I would start with.
5. Who Gets More PIMs This Weekend: Dawson Sharkey or Niilopekka Muhonen
You may remember hearing about Dawson Sharkey after the Stars drafted him this summer in the sixth round. Specifically, you may remember hearing about how he led the entire QMJHL in penalty minutes this year.
Stars Director of Amateur Scouting Joe McDonnell colloquially referred to Sharkey after the draft as someone who likes to cause trouble. And yes, that’s absolutely part of his game, though he’s also got some hands, too.
But when it comes to any potential fights this weekend, I was fascinated to see that Niilopekka Muhonen had two fights this year—and both were against the same player, Carson Wetsch.
Muhonen is very large, listed at 6-foot-5 and 215-lbs on the Stars’ roster. His size, skating, and reach eats up ice and takes away shot lanes, and the Stars signed him to an ELC this summer after seeing things they liked about his game. But the large defender’s game doesn’t usually have quite as much of a nasty streak as someone like Bichsel’s, so the fights stuck out to me. Was there a grudge there?
“Yeah, I don’t know,” Muhonen said with a grin. “It was like, the first preseason game, he just dropped his gloves, so I went with it. Then the next fight, the same guy again, he asked me to go, and I was like, ‘Yeah, let’s go.’”
Muhonen says there wasn’t really much else to the fights. Wetsch is much more of a fighter—he had seven last season—but Muhonen says he felt like he did pretty well in both bouts, the second of which you can watch for yourself below. For my money, both players look like they land a decent shot or two before mutual exhaustion sets in after an all-out battle.
As for playing with Hemming, his fellow Finn, Muhonen says he enjoys facing him in practice, particularly when he’s on the penalty kill against Hemming’s power play unit, as he was Friday morning.
“Oh yeah, that’s the best,” laughed Muhonen.
We also talked with Muhonen at development camp as well, which you can check out here, if you haven’t done so yet.
