Jake Oettinger Returning to Dallas Today, Mikko Rantanen "Out for Some Time" with Lower-Body Injury as Stars Roster Questions Continue
Radek Faksa and Roope Hintz could also miss Wednesday's game
Update: As of 5:45pm, Radek Faksa was placed on Injured Reserve.
The original post details the Stars’ options if Faksa and Hintz are both unavailable tomorrow, as is beginning to look likely. Putting Faksa on IR opens up another roster spot for Dallas, so that makes it perhaps more likely that they activate Lian Bichsel and go with an 11F/7D lineup tomorrow.
It’s been a whirlwind of a day for Dallas Stars news.
First, we learned that Texas Stars goaltender Rémi Poirier had been recalled to Dallas today. Poirier has been playing very well for Texas this year, sporting a .906 save percentage and a 16-14-4 record for the Stars’ AHL club. He’s also stopped 14 of 16 shots he’s faced in the shootout this year, which is exceptional.
After practice, however, we learned the Poirier’s recall was merely a precautionary one for now, done in case Jake Oettinger hit bad weather that prevented his flying back to Dallas after his celebrations with Team USA in Miami.
“No, he’s [Oettinger] not playing tomorrow, but he should be here for morning skate,” Gulutzan said. “We were just wanting to get Rémi up, just in case, you know, all the storms out east and everything that’s going on. I know the NHL changed some flights into Miami, but we just wanted to make sure that we were covered on both ways. I would expect Jake tomorrow at morning skate.”
Gulutzan went on to say that, if Oettinger is back in Dallas as planned tomorrow, then he expects him to back up Casey DeSmith in goal against Seattle on Wednesday, which would likely mean Poirier will be re-assigned to Texas tomorrow morning.
In fact, Lia Assimakopoulos reported after practice today that Oettinger is indeed scheduled to return to Dallas well before morning skate tomorrow: Today, in fact.
So if all goes to plan, Poirier will likely be sent back to Texas between now and tomorrow morning. The Stars would then have Mikko Rantanen’s open roster spot to use once again for another player, while he’s on injured reserve.
Speaking of Rantanen, the biggest news of all on Tuesday was about his lower-body injury. And the news wasn’t good.
“It won't be one or two games,” Gulutzan said. “It'll be, let's start at two weeks, and then see where it goes from there. So he'll be out for some time.”
On the heels of yesterday’s news, this might seem like a big blow. But Gulutzan went on to say today that it wasn’t much of a surprise to him, given what they’d heard before Gulutzan was evaluated by the team’s doctors yesterday.
And if it’s any consolation, Gulutzan did say that he believes Rantanen should be back…eventually.
“He’ll be back before the end of the season, with all the indications we’re getting,” Gulutzan said.
For now, this means the Stars will be playing without Rantanen through the trade deadline a week from Friday, at the very least. Given the way Gulutzan phrased it today, Rantanen could end up missing a good chunk of the Stars’ remaining 25 games. But as always, a lot will depend on how the player’s recovery goes.
Rantanen’s absence likely won’t be the only one among the forwards tomorrow, however.
Three of the Stars’ seven Olympians were back on the ice at practice today: Miro Heiskanen, Esa Lindell, and Radek Faksa. Thomas Harley is also back in Dallas, although Gulutzan said he worked out off the ice today. The Stars do expect to have all their current defensemen available for tomorrow’s game, whatever the lineup ends up being.
Roope Hintz is currently at home in Dallas recovering from an illness, Gulutzan said today. And his status for tomorrow is currently in doubt.
“Roope is at home now, so I would say he's unlikely for tomorrow,” Gulutzan said. “We'll see how he's doing.”
Despite losing Rantanen, the Stars still have 13 forwards on the active roster. So if Hintz doesn’t play tomorrow, the Stars would still have 12 forwards available. Except, another question mark for the Stars’ forward lineup tomorrow is Radek Faksa, who is still not certain to play on Wednesday, either.
Faksa suffered an upper-body in his third game of the Olympics, after which he neither practiced nor played for Czechia in their final two games of the tournament.
The Stars’ centerman did practice with Dallas this morning. Whatever his injury was, it didn’t appear to be preventing him from shooting or stickhandling or skating today.
“He’s a possibility for tomorrow,” Gulutzan said of Faksa. “He's still got to go through some tests here today, so we'll see where he is. I would say he's probable for tomorrow, but not 100%.”
If those tests (whatever they are for) don’t come back clear for Faksa, the Stars will be down to 11 forwards, and that gives them some decisions to make.
(One other note here: It’s also worth mentioning that Colin Blackwell wasn’t skating with the team this morning, although that doesn’t necessarily mean he’s dealing with anything. Blackwell was practicing with the team regularly over the last few days, but Gulutzan wasn’t asked about him today [which I admit with some chagrin] in the midst of all the other questions about injuries, so we won’t have clarity on that situation until tomorrow at morning skate. Again, it could be nothing, but it’s worth mentioning.)
If the Stars don’t have 12 healthy forwards tomorrow, they’ll have to decide between going with an 11F/7D lineup or recalling another forward from Texas. And remember, they also have a healthy Lian Bichsel ready to be activated from IR, which also requires a roster spot.
“We have eight healthy D going into tomorrow,” Gulutzan said today. “So we’ll just put our roster together like we usually do in the morning, based on everybody checking in and see how they’re [feeling]. You know, colds and whatnot. And then we’ll put a roster out for tomorrow.”
So, here’s where things stand: With Rantanen on IR, the Stars have 13 forwards, 7 defensemen, and 2 goalies on the 23-man roster.
If Oettinger returns to back up DeSmith, and if at least one of Faksa or Hintz is cleared to play tomorrow, then the Stars would be able to dress 12 forwards on Wednesday and activate Bichsel, presuming Poirier is sent back down tomorrow.
That would give them a 13 forward/8 defensemen roster, much like we saw for most of last decade, when the Stars’ carrying eight defensemen was a common sight.
However, if both Faksa and Hintz are unavailable tomorrow, the Stars have two options: Either play Seattle with 11 forwards and 7 defensemen, or put a defenseman like Kyle Capobianco on waivers for an AHL assignment (if he clears) in order to open up a roster spot to recall another forward from Texas.
And remember, looming over all of these short-term decisions is another big one about whether to put Tyler Seguin on Season-Ending LTIR. That’s a call the Stars have to make before the trade deadline, as it directly impacts both how much salary cap space they’ll have to work with and what holes they need to fill, come playoff time.
All told, the final two months of the season are shaping up to look a lot like the beginning of the year: Filled with injuries, big decisions, opportunity, and uncertainty.
Injuries to star players. 😑