Saturday Dallas Stars Roundup: Seven Defensemen in Seattle, Miro Heiskanen Skating in Frisco, Rantanen's Ice Time, and Pete DeBoer's Fun with Tyler Seguin

Miro Heiskanen has taken a very big step in his recovery

Hello from Seattle, where it’s always threatening to rain. But as I like to say after being back in Texas for nearly six years with extremely dry summers: don’t threaten me with a good time.

The biggest Stars news of the day is Miro Heiskanen, who has taken an important step in his recovery from his knee injury (and subsequent surgery) nearly two months back.

After morning skate today, I asked Stars coach Pete DeBoer if Miro Heiskanen was “status quo” in his recovery, and DeBoer gave a very different answer than I expected:

“He’s skating back in Frisco,” DeBoer said. “And you know, nothing but positive reports. But just started.”

The implication of the end of the quote is, I think it’s safe to say, that Heiskanen is still not on the cusp of returning. But we’ve been saying all along that beginning to skate would be the next big step in Heiskanen’s recovery, so it was welcome news to hear that has begun happening.

The Stars have just over three weeks until the beginning of the playoffs, so Heiskanen’s return is still on track for “some time during the first round,” as far as we know. One suspects we’ll have a better idea when he starts joining practices, so keep an eye out for that next week, if it happens.

And hey, speaking of practicing…

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Tyler Seguin joined the rest of the team for another morning skate, which has become more common in the last ten days or so. Seguin looks very quick on the ice, and while DeBoer was clear last week that Seguin needs to build up by stringing together four or five days’ worth of serious work on the ice, seeing him participate in hockey activities without any obvious limitations is a welcome sight.

Today, Seguin and Jamie Benn were the first skaters on the ice. Seguin was in good spirits as he usually is, even mugging for the Stars’ social media camera along the glass today.

DeBoer got into the fun himself, even staying out a little later than usual on the ice to work with Seguin—though “work” may not be quite the most accurate description, as there were some hijinx involved.