Tuesday Dallas Stars Roundup: Theories about Sam Steel's Scoring, East/West Split, and the Elusive Frequency of Intensity

New Jersey is in town

This will be the Devils’ only visit of the year to American Airlines Center. Or at least, it will be, unless New Jersey manages to make up 13 points’ worth of ground in their final 13 games. Charitably, we’ll call that a long shot.

Former Star Evgenii Dadonov skated with the Devils this morning, but he is likely to be a healthy scratch tonight—a notable departure from much of this season, which started off with a fracture to Dadonov’s hand, and hasn’t gotten much better since. Dadonov has played just one game since the Olympic break, getting nine shifts and 7:27 of ice time in New Jersey’s loss to Detroit back on March 8. The 37-year-old winger may continue to have trouble cracking the lineup down the stretch if the Devils prefer to give runway to younger players down the stretch of a lost season rather than Dadonov, but we shall see.

Another former Star in Brenden Dillon will play tonight for the Devils. As you might recall from the Stars’ trip to the Garden State in December, Dillon took a couple of nasty punches in his 1,000th career NHL game during a fight he was never really able to prepare himself for, but he’s nonetheless played in every one of his team’s 69 games so far this year.

And head coach Sheldon Keefe knows how impressive Dillon is, both as a player and a person. In fact Keefe mentioned this morning that it’s a testament to just how big an NHL career Dillon has carved out for himself that Keefe had actually forgotten that it began in Dallas, over a decade ago. Regardless, Keefe said Dillon is an easy player to root for.

“Just tremendous character, personality, integrity. He hasn’t had very many easy days in this league,” Keefe said. “We just talked about Dougie [Hamilton] and 900 [games], and Dilly getting over 1,000, that’s a tough road. Undrafted guy, it’s a pretty remarkable story for the career he’s had, the life he’s built for himself and his family. And it’s all on the back of hard work, character, being a great teammate, doing the things that not many people in the league want to do.”

Thanks to the archives of DBD, we have a quote from Dillon from way back from July 2012 following a strong showing at that year’s development camp. Dillon had just made his debut in Dallas’s final NHL game of the 2011-12 season (for Glen Gulutzan, no less) against St. Louis, but Dillon was clearly not taking anything for granted even after getting an NHL look.

“I’ve come a long way, but until I am a full-time Dallas Star, the journey is not over yet,” said Dillon. “This summer is a big summer for me. With what’s gone on in free agency and the offseason, you realize the opportunity, and it comes down to how bad you want it. That’s what the summer is for.”

Safe to say, Dillon spent his summers wisely, or whatever you call hanging out with these guys:

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As for the 2026 Dallas Stars, Glen Gulutzan said the Stars will be making two lineup changes after their loss to Vegas the other night: Tyler Myers and Adam Erne will come back in, while Ilya Lyubushkin and Nate Bastian will draw out.

Given that Erne’s absence was for maintenance, it makes sense that Gulutzan would want to get him back into the lineup as soon as he was ready to do so. Still, you’d have to think Bastian would have loved to play a second game against the Devils team he logged 264 games with in prior years. (Bastian did play in the Stars’ aforementioned trip to New Jersey back in December.)

Here were the Stars’ line rushes today at morning skate:

Robertson-Johnston-Bourque
Bunting-Duchene-Benn
Steel-Hryckowian-Blackwell
Bäck-Hyry-Erne

Lindell-Heiskanen
Harley-Lundkvist
Bichsel-Myers

(Oettinger will start in goal, Gulutzan confirmed.)

Tyler Myers continues to look like the player who will likely start Game 1 of the playoffs next to Lian Bichsel, even after getting the night off on Sunday against Vegas. My guess is that Gulutzan will continue to rotate other defensemen into the lineup down the stretch, especially on their two remaining back-to-back sets, and perhaps even more so if and when the Stars’ playoff positioning is set in stone.

I had a chance to chat with Myers today, and I was curious: Did he see something different while watching the Vegas loss the other night than perhaps he might have on the ice? After all, players don’t often view the game from way up in the stands, so I was wondering if perhaps he noticed a particularly effective tactic the Golden Knights were employing.