Tuesday Dallas Stars Roundup: Adam Erne Talks Hip Surgery, Mikko Rantanen's Celebrity Encounter, and the End of Texas Summer

We are all Ilya Lyubushkin, sometimes

Adam Erne skates at Dallas Stars Training Camp in Frisco, TX. -September 18, 2025

According to the forecasts this morning, fall weather should finally be arriving in Dallas starting tomorrow. Today, however, promises to be muggy in advance of a storm front arriving overnight. Probably you did not need me to tell you that, if you’ve been outside at all today.

Still, longtime Texans know that this past summer wasn’t as sweltering as some other recent ones, all things considered. But as someone who was spoiled by the climate of the California coast for much of my childhood, I eagerly await the days when evenings actually feel cool and when layering finally becomes as necessary outside hockey rinks as inside.

In catching up with Ilya Lyubushkin after morning skate on Tuesday, he said that he’d opted for a better plan in terms of dealing with the Texas heat: his family went home to Russia for a couple of months during the summer. But eventually, they had to come back while the heat was still doing its Texas thing.

And you never really do get used to it.

“Just standing outside for ten minutes…” Lyubushkin said while shaking his head, and I sympathized. You can acclimate to these things, but that doesn’t mean you have to like them.

For my part, after spending five years working at a school where teachers and administrators were outside each afternoon from early August through late May helping with the dismissal process, I only now rarely have to suffer the heat while also wearing a tie. Though this afternoon will, perhaps for the last time for months, be one of those times. And thank goodness for that.

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The Stars will ice a pretty veteran group tonight against the Minnesota Wild, who will be bringing a roster of hockey players that technically meets the minimum veteran requirements for such a game. Here’s what Minnesota will ice tonight, including old friends Tyler Pitlick and Ben Gleason:

In very great contrast, these Stars lines are based on what we saw at morning skate today:

Robertson-Hintz-Rantanen
Benn-Duchene-Seguin
Erne-Scott-Lind
Ertel-Shlaine-Hanas

Lindell-Heiskanen
Harley-Lundkvist
Taylor-Lyubushkin

Oettinger and Kraws were both in goal, and if I had to guess, I’d say Oettinger will start the game (he was the first one off the ice, after all). But a guess is all it is, as Neil Graham, like he did Saturday morning, declined to reveal Glen Gulutzan’s goalie plans.

“I’ll leave that to them,” Graham said with a smile. “I’m gonna stay off the goalies, there. They keep putting me up here, I’m gonna stay off that part of it.”

(I didn’t really expect him to divulge more information this time around, but you gotta ask, right?)

As for the skaters in the lineup, it’s as veteran a roster as you could ask for in the second game of the preseason. That doesn’t necessarily guarantee results, but that’s not what these games are really about—though frankly, this Stars lineup should win this game.

Four Stars players in tonight’s game also played on Saturday: Nils Lundkvist, Trey Taylor, Kole Lind, and Adam Erne. I do not think it is a coincidence that they are getting another one this quickly—more information in a serious NHL lineup will only be a good thing when it comes to eveluating these players.

So, in my view, this game will be largely about things like the following:

• How the Lundkvist-Harley pairing looks after Lundkvist had a up-and-down game playing next to Vladislav Kolyachonok on Saturday.

• How Trey Taylor builds on his first NHL preseason game on Saturday

• Whether Adam Erne (see much more on him below) has another solid game after his Stars debut on Saturday