Stars Season Preview

[Enforcer]

Well the roster is now legal.

Lines

Sedin-Cullen-Schaefer
Hecht-Dubinsky-Maltby
Smithson-Malhotra-Jones
Guthrie-Petersen-Petrovicky

Timonen-Hannan
Visnovsky-Pothier
Sutton-Huskins

Legace
Leighton

Team Strengths:

-The 6 defenders I've got are pretty strong. All veterans, which is more important than people think. Timonen, Visnovsky and Pothier will put lots of points on the board.
-Daniel Sedin's offensive ability. Not finding enough in return on the trade market means Sedin stays in Dallas. This year he has a legitimate scoring center on his line. There's no reason he can't score 40.
-Manny Legace in goal. He may be getting up there, but he's still a good goaltender.
-Prospects who could play: Brunnstrom could be the top 6 forward this team needs by midseason. Jesse Winchester is getting a chance with Spezza and Heatley in the preseason. David Jones should be on the Avs for the whole season. Watch out for Steve Zalewski (SJ), he could sneak in and make an impact similar to Torrey Mitchell.

On D, everybody knows about Jonathan Ericsson, but he may have to wait for some injuries. Corey Potter could be the Rangers 7th Dman and Jack Hillen will hopefully stick with the Isles (they're gonna be bad, so why not play him).

Leighton may be 27, but he will be backing up Cam Ward this year.


Team Weaknesses:
-The forwards as a group. Some strikeouts in the free agent market left my team thinner up front than I would have liked. A bad injury or two and things could get ugly in a hurry.
-Backup goaltender. Leighton might have a good year in Carolina, but he's only a 67 now. If Legace gets hurt, gulp.

Last year, the team was only 12 points (6 wins) from a playoff spot, which was pretty remarkable with the players I was using. I could steal the 8th spot.

[nyrcrisfer]

Well I have to admit, at one point it didn't look like the Stars were ever going to get under the cap and be able to ice a whole team. But they've moved a bunch of depth players around and are finally under. And they made it without dumping their best/most expensive players, so that's a good job.

As for the season, the Stars have a pretty strong D and Legace isn't bad in goal. It seems like the Stars might have some trouble scoring though. Sedin and Cullen will produce but it might be tough to find goals after that. At some point this season the offense will need to be improved if big D is going to make a playoff run.

[Angelino]

If the Stars can find some chemistry they could surprise. Another couple of forwards up front would not hurt.