The draft is still over a month away, but that doesn’t mean we can’t speculate about the possibilities and look over possible picks for the Stars.

The first player we’ll look at today will be Finnish defenseman Rasmus Ristolainen.

Profile

Age: 18

Height: 6’3”

Weight: ~210 lbs

Position: Defenseman

Shoots: Right-handed

Ristolainen is being projected in most drafts somewhere between the No. 8 and No. 12 picks, though NHL.com’s Steven Hoffner curiously doesn’t even have him going in the first round. His mock is the clear outlier though.

Ristolainen is generally considered a top-10 talent in this draft, and he’s a top-four defenseman in this year’s class.

Despite being just 18-years-old, Ristolainen has played at the top level in the SM-Liiga for the past two seasons (with HC TPS) and has been seeing significant time. The kid is one of two teenagers on the team, and he has been the assistant captain and captain for various Finnish U-18 and U-20 teams in the past three years.

He’s pretty much all you can ask for in a d-prospect. He’s big, smart, considered a solid puck-mover, smooth skater, has a big-time shot and has a nasty streak as a punishing hitter. He’s a solid two-way prospect.

He said himself that he tries to model his game after Chris Pronger. As long as that’s young, un-concussed Pronger, what’s not to like about that.

The always great Corey Pronman of Hockey Prospectus is a big fan of Ristolainen.

Why Draft Him?

So, why should Dallas take Ristolainen? The team is already flush with a ton of defense prospects (and I mean a ton).

Well, first off, you can never ever have too many d-prospects. Defensemen are always going to be a bit tough to project at the next level, and the more you have, the better off you’ll be in the future. The Stars are going to be in desperate need for some more NHL-worthy guys in a few years, and Ristolainen looks to be one of the safer picks in this draft.

He’s played big, tough minutes in a good league over in Finland (not too common for someone his age). Dallas needs as many reliable guys in the pipeline as they can get their hands on. He's not going to blow people away with his abilities, but there's low risk in taking him.

Secondly, he would be a rare right-handed shot on this team, especially on the blue line. At the moment, here are the right-handed shooters on the blue line in the Dallas system.

Stephane Robidas – Gone in a couple of years, if not next year.

Philip Larsen – Disappointing this season, doesn’t look like he’ll be a top-four defenseman.

Jace Coyle – Not getting time at the NHL level anytime soon, if at all.

Carl Sneep – Same as Coyle.

Troy Vance – Interesting project, but not expecting much from him. Little offensive contributions here.

John Klingberg – A good prospect, but poor defensively and doesn’t have a lot of weight to him. He’s an offensive-defenseman.

Ristolainen would instantly become the best right-handed defensive prospect on the team and would be the only solid two-way player. He’s very advanced at this stage of his career and could easily make his way to the AHL level within a year or two.

There are a lot of choices for the Stars at No. 10, but, at the moment, Ristolainen is at the top of my plausible “hope he’ll be there” list.

Alex Goligoski

I mentioned before the season started that this (half) year was going to the critical year in Goose’s Stars’ career. He had been getting a lot of grief (a lot) because of the trade that sent James Neal away. Out of all the players on the team, he was the one who was going to have to step up the most.

Four months later, I’d have to say that Goose stepped up and had an excellent season, one that would have been a career best if a full 82 had been played.

His 27 points on the year was tied for top 12 among defensemen in the league while his 24 assists had him tied with the top five. The power play wasn’t overly great, but when it was on, Goligoski was a huge reason why it worked.

He led the team with 11 assists on the power play and led the team in average TOI/G (yes, even more than Robidas). He was healthy this season (played 47 games) and was the team’s defensive leader in corsi (though it wasn’t that great).

Now, some of this can be attributed to Goligoski playing most of his defensive time against the second lines of opposing teams while Robidas and Dillon took the first lines. Even so, Goose was still second on the team in average TOI/G on even strength. Defensively, he still had his lapses and struggled in coverage at times.

He was consistent throughout the season on offense, scoring seven, nine and then eight points in the last three months of the year. His production would have been even better if he had shot at a better percentage.

His 3.8 shooting percentage was the worst of his career, a full four points lower than his usual average (though it would only translate to about three more goals this year).

This was a fine season for Goligoski. I just hope people can just look rationally at what he’s done and realize that he’s become an excellent weapon on the team.

2013 Prediction: 44 GP, 4 goals, 17 assists, 21 points, +2 rating, 6 PIM

2013 Actual Stats: 47 GP, 3 goals, 24 assists, 27 points, +4 rating, 18 PIM

Ancillary stats of note: 22:23 ATOI/G (team leader), 18:03 ES ATOI/G (2nd on team), 2:53 PP TOI/G (4th on team, defense leader), 56 hits, 66 blocked shots, 80 shots, 11 PPA (team leader)

Erik Cole

Erik Cole came to Dallas as part of that much-maligned Michael Ryder trade about a month into the season. He was working as a second/third liner in Montreal and took that same role with Dallas, ostensibly replacing Brenden Morrow.

On the ice, Cole had some nice games here and there, but he really failed to impress in his short time with the Stars. He had a bunch of different linemates in his time here, playing with Benn, Jagr, Eriksson, Whitney, Roy, Fiddler and Roussel during his time here.

His more noteworthy contributions weren’t things you would find on a statsheet.

He worked hard to get back on defense, was pretty much the only big body that Dallas could put in front of net and he worked with all the units of the team.

The 34-year-old is signed through the 2014-2015 season, and hopefully he’ll be in a better groove with Dallas next year.

2013 Stats: 28 GP, 6 goals, 1 assist, 7 points, -7 rating, 10 PIM (with Dallas)

                  19 GP, 3 goals, 3 assists, 6 points, +1 rating, 10 PIM (with Montreal)

Brenden Morrow

Coming into this season, the prevailing thought was that Morrow was pretty much that this was going to be his final year in Dallas. Once the Ryder-for-Cole trade was made, the writing was wall that a Morrow trade would be following soon.

That all came to fruition a week before the trade deadline when he was sent to Pittsburgh (along with a third-round pick) for Joe Morrow and a fifth-round pick.

It was a tough way for the longtime Stars captain to end his career here. He had been a liability in Dallas the past year with his numerous bonehead penalties and severely declining production.

He’d been reduced to a third-line grinder role coming into the year before finding a bit of a rejuvenation playing with Benn and Jagr.

 He was on his way to a pretty productive season with Dallas before his trade, and he did very well in his time with the Penguins. I’m hoping Morrow gets his Cup this season with Pittsburgh.

2013 Prediction: 38 GP, 13 goals, 6 assists, 19 points, -4, 48 PIM

2013 Actual Stats: 29 GP, 6 goals, 5 assists, 11 points, -8, 18 PIM (with Dallas)

                               15 GP, 6 goals, 8 assists, 14 points, +5, 19 PIM (with Pittsburgh)

Jamie Benn

It was a bit of a weird year for everyone’s favorite future captain. Benn missed the first five games of the season due to his contract issues and arrived on the team without having played with Jaromir Jagr or Ray Whitney, guys he would center for much of the year.

Those chemistry issues were quickly put to rest, mostly due to Jagr’s ability to click with his linemates, and Benn started his season with a great run, registering 14 points in the first 16 games. Things were coming up aces for Benn offensively until the calendar flipped to April.

After registering double-digit points in January and February, Benn had only eight points in the critical stretch of games (two points in the final five games) and often disappeared from games.

Now, much of that could be attributed to a nagging wrist issue that bothered him for six weeks, per the great Mike Heika. That would certainly explain why he scored only six goals in the final two months of the season. The constant fluctuation of the players around him also did no favors for Benn.

While there can be some excuses for his offense, there can be none about his defense. It happened a bit inexplicably this season, but Benn often, way too often, found himself on the ice for an opposing goal.

I hate, really really hate, to use plus/minus as any indicator for anything in reference to a player’s skill, but there was definitely a reason why Benn was a career worst minus-12 this season.

There was a bad stretch in late-January/early-February when Benn was just lost on defense, always late to cover his man and always getting beaten to the puck around the net. Defensive-zone turnovers also became an issue. Things got a bit better at the end of the season, but that’s when his offense failed him.

In the end, Benn still led the team in points and shots on goal, but I still feel like this was a down year for Benn, especially since he got himself a new contract this year.

2013 Prediction: 45 GP, 14 goals, 29 assists, 43 points, +16 rating, 28 PIM

2013 Actual Stats: 41 GP, 12 goals, 21 assists, 33 points, -12 rating, 40 PIM

Ancillary stats of note: 71 hits (3rd among forwards), 46.1 FO%, 110 shots, 19:54 TOI/G (2nd most among forwards), 3:19 PP TOI/G (2nd among forwards), 10 PP points

Loui Eriksson

I mentioned before the season started that it was really good to be Loui Eriksson. Everyone’s favorite underrated player was entering this year surrounded by playmakers in Benn, Jagr, Whitney and Derek Roy. Everything was set up perfectly to be near a point-per-game player.

In that aspect, it was great to be Eriksson. He was a nightmare for the opposition as he found golden scoring opportunities in abundance this season.

The only problem here was that the nightmare applied to both sides. I’ve never seen Loui look so inept on the offensive end of the ice. His shooting percentage of 11.5 was the worst since his rookie year in 2006-07 and a full three points lower than his career average.

It wasn’t just the average; it was the nature of his chances as well. These were one-on-one opportunities, shots with the goalie out of position and golden chances in which he couldn’t even hit the net.

I would usually chalk up things like this to injury, but it seems Loui was perfectly healthy and will be playing for Sweden in the World Championships.

It’s quite literally a mystery as to what happened to Loui this year. I just hope it can all be attributed to the constant shifting of the players around him and a clear distress that he was getting so many PIMs this season, a whopping eight.

Loui still managed 12 goals (tied for second on the team) and was his usual healthy self to the tune of his second year of 20:00+ minutes of TOI/G.

2013 Prediction: 48 GP, 20 goals, 22 assists, 42 points, +19, 2 PIM

2013 Actual Stats: 48 GP, 12 goals, 17 assists, 29 points, -9, 8 PIM

Ancillary stats of note: 20:07 TOI/G (1st among forwards), 104 shots, 155:51 PP TOI (1st among forwards), 10 PP points

Texas Stars

The new look Texas Stars had a nice week, winning two of three games and maintaining their overall lead in the Western Conference. They clinched the division title with their win on Sunday night.

The Stars really outplayed their opponents in all three games and probably should have won their first game of the week. They outshot Charlotte by a 47-32 margin but gave up a late power-play goal in a 4-3 loss. Texas recovered for a 3-2 win in overtime in another game against Charlotte and then demolished San Antonio in an 8-2 victory.

With Cris Nilstorp in Dallas to back up Richard Bachman, Jack Campbell found himself starting all three games. He made 76 saves on 84 shots. He’s going to be the clear starter for Texas once the playoffs get underway. Nilstorp will be the backup once he returns to Texas.

Brett Ritchie continues to impress in his maiden voyage with the team. More on his week in his section.

With 14 goals scored, there were plenty of solid performances last week. The standouts were Travis Morin and new Star Cameron Gaunce. Both guys had a goal and four assists during the week, with Gaunce registering four assists in the Sunday game against the Rampage.

Off the ice, Texas made some news by adding another defenseman to the group with the assignment of Jyrki Jokipakka to the squad from Finland. The solid prospect will probably see a small amount of time on ice this week.

The regular season winds down this week for the AHL. Texas needs one win and a loss from Toronto to clinch the conference title.

Apr. 16 – Texas Stars @ San Antonio Rampage

Apr. 19 – Houston Aeros @ Texas Stars

Apr. 20 – Rockford IceHogs @ Texas Stars

Brett Ritchie - Niagara IceDogs, Texas Stars

As stated above, Ritchie continues to do well in his first couple of weeks of pro games. He played in two of Texas’ games last week and had two goals to add to his ledger. He also had 11 shots on net in his two games, showing his aggression and want-to in front of the net.

He’s scoring those garbage, scramble-in-front-of-the-net goals that are a result of hard work and toughness in front of the net. He’s now riding a three game points streak and has registered a point in four of his first five games with the team.

Season totals: 53 games, 41 goals, 35 assists, 40 PIM, +35 rating (With Niagara)

                       5 games, 3 goals, 1 assist, 0 PIM, +3 rating (With Texas)

Playoff totals: 4 games, 1 goal, 3 assist, 9 PIM, -1 rating (With Niagara)

Dallas Stars (19-17-3, 41 pts) @ Nashville Predators (15-18-8, 38 pts)

7:00 PM CT

Bridgestone Arena, Nashville, Tennessee

The Predators – 13th in the West

Rankings:

Goals – 29th, Goals Against – 15th, Power Play – 18th, Penalty Kill – 26th

The Predators are reeling and reeling badly. They’ve lost seven of the last eight games and scored one goal or fewer in four of those seven losses. They enter tonight having lost four in a row and have been shutout twice in that span.

Things can be a bit deceiving though. Nashville has been running through the central division for the past couple of weeks, and five of their losses have come against the Chicago Blackhawks, St. Louis Blues and the surprising Columbus Blue Jackets.

That’s some tough competition for Nashville to play, so the Stars cannot count on a lackluster performance to get them through this game, especially considering the fact that Nashville has beaten them twice already by a combined 9-4 margin.

Nashville may be terrible offensively (second worst in the NHL, one behind Columbus), but that hasn’t bothered them against the Stars this season.

One factor that will help Dallas is that Nashville no longer has Martin Erat, who is still the team leader in assists. Mike Fisher, Paul Gaustad, Colin Wilson and Gabriel Bourque are all injured and out.

As expected, there are no guys for the Predators who are rolling along coming into this game. David Legwand and Shea Weber lead the team with 23 points apiece, but it’s been a struggle lately.

In some rather surprising news, it looks like Chris Mason will be getting the start tonight for the Predators. He hasn’t played since March 28 and has lost seven straight games.

Possible line combos:

Kostitsyn – Legwand – Hornqvist

Clune – Spaling – Butler

Beck – Smith – Mueller

Bang – Halischuck – Watson

D-Pairings:

Weber – Josi

Gill – Klein

Blum – Bartley

Texas Stars

A revamped Texas team had a rather pedestrian week, going 1-2-0 in a three games in three nights set over the weekend. The losses proved to be inconsequential this past week though as the Stars officially clinched a playoff spot and are still holding strong as the number one seed in the Western Conference.

The Stars had a bunch of new, or returning, faces on the team this past week as a result of the trade deadline. Kevin Connauton had his debut with the team and registered a couple of assists on Sunday. Brett Ritchie also had goal and an assist during the week.

It was mostly a quiet week on the offensive end though, with Mike Hedden leading the way with four points. Reilly Smith, Travis Morin and Colton Sceviour had three apiece.

Jack Campbell had two of the three starts, going 1-1-0, and stopped 46 of 50 shots. His starts might be cut back a bit during these final two weeks to get him some rest before the playoffs. He’s been the main man since February, and there’s no reason why that should change.

Cris Nilstorp made his return to the lineup with a start on Saturday that ended up being a 2-1 loss. He stopped 20 of 22 shots in his first game with Texas since March 13.

There’s only six games left in the regular season for Texas, and a four game road trip is on the horizon this week.

Apr. 11 – Texas Stars @ Charlotte Checkers

Apr. 12 – Texas Stars @ Charlotte Checkers (again)

Apr. 14 – Texas Stars @ San Antonio Rampage

Brett Ritchie - Niagara IceDogs, now Texas Stars

Ritchie is now with the Texas Stars after his IceDogs were bounced in the playoffs. He had a nice debut with the team as he scored a goal and later had an assist during the week.

It’s a great start to his pro career and hopefully a sign of things to come when he reaches the NHL. He’ll be with Texas throughout the playoffs now.

Season totals: 53 games, 41 goals, 35 assists, 40 PIM, +35 rating (With Niagara)

                       3 games, 1 goal, 1 assist, 0 PIM, +2 rating (With Texas)

Playoff totals: 4 games, 1 goals, 3 assist, 9 PIM, -1 rating

Texas Stars

Texas is back on a good roll again with a pair of wins last week. They’ve now won four of their last five games and are steadying the ship with just three weeks left in the season.

Jack Campbell started both games last week and had a whirlwind adventure. He allowed six goals in a wild OT 7-6 win against Houston before stymieing the Grand Rapids Griffins to just one goal.

Campbell ended up with 65 saves on 72 shots last week. He’ll be the main horse the rest of the year for Texas so he just needs to stay healthy and sharp.

With 10 goals last week, there were a good number of folks that had multiple points. Justin Dowling ended up leading the way with four points (three goals, one assist), and nine other guys had multiple points.

Texas reclaimed the league lead in points with their two wins and now sits atop all with 89 points.

There’s going to be some roster turnover in the coming weeks with the OHL winding down and the usual call-ups to the NHL so things might be in flux for Texas.

Apr. 05 – Oklahoma City @ Texas Stars

Apr. 06 – Hamilton Bulldogs @ Texas Stars

Apr. 07 – Texas Stars @ San Antonio Rampage

Texas Stars

Texas went 2-1-0 last week as they’re slowly winding down the regular season.

The starts this past week were split between Richard Bachman and Jack Campbell. Campbell was in Dallas during the beginning of the week while Bachman was in the AHL to get some work.

Bachman did pretty well during his two starts of the week, stopping 52 of 56 shots and winning both of his starts. Campbell had some big troubles in his return to Austin. He allowed four goals on 27 shots in the Stars one loss of the week.

Offensively for the Stars, it was a wide spread of scorers, but no one really stood out.. Taylor Vause, Luke Gazdic, Colton Sceviour, Travis Morin and Matt Fraser all had multiple points during the week.

For Texas, it’s really all about staying healthy the rest of the regular season as they gear up for the playoffs. They’re just trying to keep their good rhythm before it really starts counting.

Texas still sits first in the Western Conference and second overall in the AHL.

Mar. 26 – Texas Stars @ Houston Aeros

Mar. 30 – Grand Rapids Griffins @ Texas Stars

Minnesota Wild (18-10-2, 38 pts) @ Dallas Stars (15-13-3, 33 pts)

8:30 PM CT

American Airlines Center, Dallas, Texas

The Wild – 4th in the West

Rankings:

Goals – 19th, Goals Against – 4th, Power Play – 14th, Penalty Kill – 3rd

Much like the Stars much publicized back-to-back troubles of the past couple of seasons, the Wild also have a dubious losing streak of their own. In the past 10 years (10!), the Wild have gone 0-11-5 against the Stars in Dallas.

Throw in their road troubles as a whole this season and, despite how much the Wild have improved, the Stars really shouldn’t feel like they’re on the ropes tonight.

Minnesota has won five games in a row and seven of their last eight. Three of those have been on the road. Those three road wins got their road record this season back to 7-7-1 though.

Things have just been clicking for Minnesota. Niklas Backstrom is playing his best hockey of the season and has allowed three or more goals in only three of the last 10 games.

The offense has been scoring in bunches since some early season struggles and have scored three or goals in five of the last seven games. Their power play has scored at least one goal in 11 of the last 13 games.

The Wild have five players with 20+ points: Mikko Koivu, Ryan Suter, Zach Parise, Matt Cullen and Devin Setoguchi. As such, each of those five guys have been on some nice scoring streaks heading into tonight’s game.

The biggest threat right now is, perhaps surprisingly, sudden Norris Trophy candidate Ryan Suter. Suter has 14 points this month (two points and 12 assists) and has points in all but two games this month. He’s been on a roll and has been the running force in their power play. He’s second in the NHL among defensemen in points.

The other guy they need to watch is Matt Cullen. Cullen had a six-game point streak before having it broken in their last game against the Sharks. He’s been an assist machine the past month and has been able to hide before the bigger names of the team.

Backstrom will be in net tonight. The only injury concern is depth-winger Michael Rupp (lower body). Rupp is a game-time decision tonight.

Possible line combos:

Parise – Koivu – Heatley

Bouchard – Cullen – Setoguchi

Coyle – Brodziak – Clutterbuck

Dowell – Zonopka – Mitchell

D-Pairings:

Suter – Brodin

Gilbert – Spurgeon

Falk – Stoner