I will be rating each team on three different areas which of course are goalies, defensemen and forward. The ratings are from 1 to 10. The rating consists of his personal ability and his importance to the team. This means that a player who scores way more points might get the same rating as someone who does not. There are two categories that i will rate: Every position as whole and then every single player. I will also put in the lines that i think/hope they will play next season. Then last i will give a grade to the whole team.
Dallas Stars
Goalies
Kari Lehtonen: Top 5 in starts for goalies in the entire league. That tells aal there is to know about his importance to Dallas. He has been great for them and he will not be the one to blame if Dallas fails to make the playoffs again this year. Rating: 9
Andrew Raycroft: Decent backup who will probably play less than 20 games if Lehtonen stays fit. Recorded even two shutouts in the 19 games he participated in during last season. Rating: 7
Lehtonen is a top goalie and Raycroft good backup. Dallas can rely on both if needed and so they should do well. Lehtonen still has many years left so hopefully he will prove to be a loyal servant of the Dallas Stars. Rating: 9
Defensemen
Sheldon Souray: Sheldon spent last year in the AHL, but he still has one of the best power play blue liners in the sport. I have a very high opinion on him, but i did not get to see his games last year so hopefully he has remained as the man i know. Rating: 8
Stephane Robidas: Played very high minutes last season and probably will keep on doing so. A really good player. Should still be a top 4 defender, even though he is getting older. Rating: 9
Adam Pardy: Was acquired from Flames. He will struggle to make the opening night squad and is a bottom line defenseman at best. Rating: 7
Nicklas Grossman: Top4 defenseman in Dallas. Should from the second pair with Daley or Goligoski. Hopefully with Daley... Rating: 8
Alex Goligoski: Recorded 15 points in 23 games after joining the Stars which is incredibly well for a defender. Finished as 15 best scoring defender with 46 points leaving behind players like Duncan Keith, Zdeno Chara and Drew Doughty. A world class player by that standard. Rating: 10
Mark Fistric: Good player who still has some issues to work on. Other candidate to play with the AHL affiliate. I hope he could just play a full season and show that he is a really good player. Rating: 7
Trevor Daley: Will probably play in the second pair in defense. Good player and really important to the defensive core. Ratng: 8
I really like the defensive core that Dallas has. No "bad" players only evenly sure players with, in my opinion, one of the best defenseman in the game. Rating: 9
Forwards
Tom Wandell: Bottom 6 player. Not outstanding in any aspect, but not bad either. Perhaps a "promotion" coming after the departure of Richards, though i can not see him as a top 6 forward... Rating: 7
Michael Ryder: Ryder was a truly impressive, but also a needed acquisition. After the departure of Langenbrunner thay really lacked a top 6 right winger. Even now if they want two good lines they will have to misplace Eriksson, Benn or Morrow. Anyways i really like Ryder and he brings scoring ability to the Stars squad. Rating: 9
Mike Ribeiro: Perhaps the successor of Richards. Ribeiro is a really good player, but not nearly as good as Richards... Though that is an unfair assessment due to the fact that there is a very small group of players who are on the same level of Richards. Rating: 9
Toby Petersen: Much like Wandell, Petersen is a decent bottom 6 forward who is not bad put has not been able to add much points to his tally. Rating: 7
Steve Ott: A good player, but with the ability Dallas has on their left wing he does not stand much of a chance to play that position on top lines. Good on physical aspects and unlike Petersen and Wandell he is able to add some points as well. Rating: 8
Brenden Morrow: The captain of Dallas stars, also the only player in the entire squad who scored over 30 goals. He amassed 33 goals which puts him in top 20 goal scores on the past season. A really good player in that standard. I could also imagine him being a good "locker room player" so his importance to the team can not be stressed enough. Rating: 10
Eric Godard: An aggressive player, but like so any others of the kind not good at scoring or gathering points. Good at what he does though. Rating: 8
Vernon Fiddler: He is the player acquired to replace Richards departure. Of course Dallas is not expecting him to be the number one center or score massive amounts of points, but i do not think he is suited to be a top 6 forward. Might bring a physical presence, but not too much danger otherwise. Rating: 7
Loui Erikkson: The swede had a really impressive season with the stars and was awarded with a position in the all-star game to go with a Lady Bing trophy nomination, though he did not take the award home. Still a very impressive player. Rating: 9
Radek Dvorak: Brings some skating ability and might be a good penalty killer, but is not the superstar right winger that Dallas lacks. Is getting quite old, but will probably prove to be a good acqusition by the stars. Rating: 7
Jake Dowell: Dowell is a decent center who recorded a career high season in almost every statistic last year. 21 points in 79 games should put him in the contest of the third line center spot. Rating: 7
Adam Burish: A good grinder with impressive physical aspects. Got a career high in goals with 8 last season which is not bad for a grinding bottom line winger. Rating: 8
Jamie Benn: I firmly believe he has potential to be really good. He improve his output from 41 to 56 even though he played 13 games less than on his rookie season. Really promising young player. Rating: 9
Krystofer Barch: Barch is a hard hitting fighter and so he plays little minutes in fact he only averaged 5:13 minutes a game when team leading Richards averaged over 21 minutes and even bottom line center Petersen averaged over 0 minutes. Rating: 7
Dallas would desperately need a top 6 capable center since only Ribeiro in their squad is one. That bring me to the conclusion that Dallas only has one really good line and sadly that is not enough. Hopefully they will get the ownership things settled and get back on track as a potentially winning franchise since this year they are not one. Rating: 8
Lines
Eriksson-Ribeiro-Morrow
Benn-Fiddler-Ryder
Ott-Petersen-Dvorak
Godard-Wandell-Burish
Gologoski-Robidas
Grossman-Daley
Souray-Fistric
Lehtonen
Dallas is a good team in defensive aspect, but if they want to be an offensive threat they will have to overload the two first lines and that is not a good thing on a really long season. There are glimmer of hope, but sadly they can not be leaned on. Rating: 8
Key factors:
+Good defensive core
+Good goaltender
-No depth on center
-lacks offensive ability
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