Today’s profile is over Samuel Morin, a giant defenseman who has spent the last two seasons playing with Rimouski in the QMJHL.

Profile

Age: 17 (Born July 17, 1995)

Height: 6’6”

Weight: ~200 lbs

Position: Defenseman

Shoots: Left-handed

Scouting Ranks

ISS: 32nd

NHL CS: 23rd among American skaters

Hockey Prospectus: 60th

Future Considerations: 29th in April, now out of the top 30

The subject of today’s profile is center Bo Horvat, an excellent prospect who has been playing in the OHL with the London Knights in the past two seasons.

Profile

Age: 18 (Born April 5, 1995)

Height: 6’1”

Weight: ~200 lbs

Position: Center

Shoots: Left-handed

Scouting Ranks

ISS: 10th

NHL CS: 15th among American skaters

Hockey Prospectus: 14th

Future Considerations: 23rd

The subject of today’s profile is defenseman Robert Hagg, a young Swedish defenseman who has slowly been making his way through the MODO system in the last four years.

Profile

Age: 18 (Born Feb.  8, 1995)

Height: 6’2”

Weight: ~200+ lbs

Position: Defenseman

Shoots: Left-handed

Scouting Ranks

ISS: 23rd in April, now outside the top 30

NHL CS: Eighth among European skaters

Hockey Prospectus: 21st

Future Considerations: 24th

The Scouting Report: 20th

Today’s profile is over a player who the Dallas Stars could be taking a look at near the end of the first round. The first-round pick that they received from the Boston Bruins is locked in somewhere between No. 27 and No. 30.

While it’s certainly possible that the Stars could package their two first-round picks and move up into the top five, it’s probably better in the long run to stay put and take two in the first round.

The subject of today’s profile is defenseman Madison Bowey, a major proponent on the blue line of the Kelowna Rockets.

Profile

Age: 18 (Born April 22, 1995)

Height: 6’1”

Weight: ~195 lbs

Position: Defenseman

Shoots: Right-handed

Scouting Ranks

ISS: 22nd

NHL CS: 32nd among North American skaters

Hockey Prospectus: 23rd

Future Considerations

The NHL Draft is just under a month away now, and things are just now starting to get interesting around the league. The Colorado Avalanche raised some eyebrows with the news on Monday that the Avs are thinking about dealing that No. 1 pick.

While that news is certainly interesting, the pick is going to be traded unless the Avs get an absolute coup in return, and it doesn’t have much effect on what the Stars will do. And before anyone thinks about it, the Stars should definitely not be the ones to trade for that pick.

With the Boston Bruins securing a berth in the conference finals, Dallas is assured of the Bruins' first-round pick, which will be somewhere between No. 27 and No. 30.

The extra pick is really nice, but the focus is still on the Stars’ pick at No. 10. Today, we’ll take a look at a center who should be drafted somewhere in that area of the draft, Sean Monahan.

Profile

Age: 18 (Born Oct. 12, 1994)

Height: 6’2”

Weight: ~190 lbs

Position: Center

Shoots: Left-handed

Scouting Ranks

ISS: 9th

NHL CS: 5th among North American skaters

Hockey Prospectus: 7th

Future Considerations: 8th

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)