Tuesday Dallas Stars Roundup: Miro Heiskanen "Month-to-Month" after Undergoing Successful Knee Surgery

The surgery took place in New York on Tuesday morning

From the moment Mark Stone collided with Miro Heiskanen’s knee last week, it was clear the Stars would be going without their best defenseman for a while.

On Tuesday morning, it was revealed that the timeline would, as feared, not be a short one. Head coach Peter DeBoer told the media that Heiskanen had undergone “successful” knee surgery in New York earlier that day. The team is terming Heiskanen “month-to-month.”

While hearing about a surgery might make things sound worse than previously thought, there is reason to think this is all what the Stars have been expecting. Last week, for instance, DeBoer said he believed a surgery would happen, and that the Stars were just waiting to confirm precisely what sort of surgery it would be.

Here’s what DeBoer said on The Ticket last week:

“I believe there is gonna be a surgery,” continued DeBoer. “It’s just the extent of that surgery. When you’re dealing with knees and shoulders, some surgeries are six months, and some are 8 to 10 to 12 weeks. So we’re obviously hoping for the latter.”

DeBoer also said something else in that same interview that should be mildly encouraging for Stars fans:

“It’s definitely gonna be a while,” said DeBoer. “I don’t believe it’s year-ending, from what it looks like right now. So I’m optimistic about that.”

The fact that Heiskanen’s surgery makes him “month-to-month” bodes well for now, relatively speaking. By comparison, the team announced last weekend that Nils Lundkvist was shut down for the season after requiring shoulder surgery. The fact that the team has not made such an announcement for Heiskanen suggests that his timeline could well align more closely with the “8 to 10 to 12 weeks” that DeBoer mentioned last week.

With the playoffs approaching, injury details from teams are only going to get sparser. But in many cases, knee injuries—and I’m speaking generally here, without any specific knowledge of Heiskanen’s injury—don’t prevent a player from returning, even if they have to do so while wearing a stabilizing brace under their socks and pads.

You can read about all the fun ligaments in a knee if you want, but of course, we don’t know exactly which (if any) ligaments were damaged, in Heiskanen’s case. But we do know that the surgery was “successful,” and that’s probably the best sort of news the team was likely to release at this time.

With the 4 Nations Face-Off starting next week, we likely won’t hear more about Heiskanen’s recovery until late February. The Stars’ first game after the tournament is on February 22, in New Jersey.

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In the meantime, it looks like Dallas is going to roll with the same defense pairings we saw against Columbus on Sunday.

Mavrik Bourque skated during practice, but he didn’t join line rushes and stayed out late after morning skate. Brendan Smith also looks like a scratch.

DeBoer confirmed Bourque is still recovering from taking a puck to the face on Sunday, and Colin Blackwell willl draw in for him on the fourth line, as well as return to his spot next to Sam Steel on the team’s main penalty-killing forward duo.

Here’s what lines looked like at morning skate in Anaheim today:

Robertson-Hintz-Stankoven
Marchment-Duchene-Granlund
Benn-Johnston-Dadonov
Bäck-Steel-Blackwell

Harley-Lyubushkin
Lindell-Ceci
Bichsel-Dumba

Oettinger will start against John Gibson tonight, who is having himself a very good season.

“He always plays well against us,” said DeBoer of Gibson. “Handles the puck well, so anytime he’s in the net, you gotta be prepared to win 2-1, 3-2. You’re not probably gonna get five or six on a guy like that no matter how many opportunities you get, so our defensive mindset has to be good.”

Gibson has been discussed as a possible trade target this year, but with two years still left on his deal, Anaheim may wait until the summer to consider such a move, when more teams than just Carolina will be looking for goaltending solutions.

Gibson (along with Lukáš Dostál, who humbled Dallas back in November) has been solidly above-average this season, so DeBoer knows that of which he speaks. To wit:

Side note: one of the most memorable John Gibson moments for Dallas fans was this game, when Gibson essentially cried “uncle” after Dallas overwhelmed the Ducks with an unbelievable 30 shots on goal in the second period alone:

If you ever think goaltending is less physically taxing than any other position, just watch that second period. Gibson was absolutely gassed 15 minutes into it, with the John Klingberg goal finally breaking him:

I wouldn’t expect a repeat performance of that game, probably ever. But with that said, Anaheim’s defense has been the opposite of stingy this year, which makes their goaltending even more impressive. The Ducks generate dangerous chances on offense, however, and if they can get a lead on Dallas while their goaltending gets into the shooters’ heads, the Stars could have their work cut out for them.

By the way, you might notice that Mikael Granlund is on Duchene’s right wing in the above lines. While that might seem odd given that Granlund shoots left, he told me yesterday that he actually played on his off-wing for most of his time in Minnesota, so he’s very familiar with the position.

That versatility, coupled with his familiarity with Matt Duchene from their time together in Nashville, bodes well for Granlund’s making this forward group deeper than ever, regardless of where he plays. It’s nice to have another team’s top-scorer suddenly available to help wherever you might need him.

Granlund can always drop back to playing center on the third line, where he started against Columbus, if DeBoer wants to move Johnston up with Hintz and Robertson, as he did earlier in the year. I wouldn’t be surprised to see that top trio reunited in situations where the Stars need some extra offense, but the nice thing about depth is that you don’t have to load up one line when you kind of have three loaded lines to begin with.

The Dallas Stars are in Anaheim to face the Ducks tonight at 9:30 Central Time.