The Stars announced yesterday that they have sent
Jamie Oleksiak to the AHL's Texas Stars. The move was not a surprise, although the upper-body injury suffered by
Trevor Daley may keep the veteran out of the regular season opener and could theoretically have provided an opening for the Stars' 2001 first-round pick to start the year with the big club.
Even with regular starter Daley out, however, the NHL-level starting blueline roster is pretty much set.
Stephane Robidas,
Sergei Gonchar,
Alex Goligoski and
Brenden Dillon are locks to play every night when healthy. Barring an injury to one of these players, that leaves only one starting spot when Daley returns.
Oleksiak had a good preseason for the most part, record two points, a fight and a plus-five rating in six appearances during the preseason. During his rookie season last year, he was an AHL All-Star, posting 33 points and a plus-19 rating in 59 regular season games. However, the 20-year-old defenseman appeared tentative and indecisive in many of his 16 games with the big club, struggling at times both with turnovers and coverages.
A little extra AHL seasoning will not hurt Oleksiak one bit. Even at the AHL level, he was a bit streaky and hit the wall a bit as the year progressed. That is hardly unusual for a young defenseman. Oleksiak plays a position that has a long learning curve and in which patience is a must in development. There are going to be growing pains along the way even for players who someday become top-notch NHL players.
Both
Jordie Benn and
Kevin Connauton have played well in the preseason for new Stars head coach
Lindy Ruff. The older Benn brother, who played 26 games with the club last year for former coach
Glen Gulutzan, would be the current favorite for a third-pairing starting spot.
Veteran
Aaron Rome is still recovering from hip surgery and will open the season on injured reserve. He is a few weeks from being ready to join the active roster. When he is, Rome is likely to be the Stars' seventh defenseman.
In addition to Oleksiak, the Stars made six other roster cuts yesterday. The club also sent defense prospects
Patrik Nemeth and
Jyrki Jokipakka -- both of whom showed some promise in the preseason -- to the AHL's Texas Stars. They also assigned forwards
Austin Smith,
Brett Ritchie and
Matej Stransky to the Austin-based farm club. Veteran minor league defenseman
Maxime Fortunus was released from his NHL PTO and will also report to the AHL team.
Dallas also placed forward
Luke Gazdic on waivers yesterday. He has been claimed by the Edmonton Oilers, according to TSN's Bob McKenzie.
The Stars roster now stands at 29 players, including three goaltenders (
Cristopher Nilstorp will be a roster casualty), eight defensemen and 13 forwards. More cuts are on the way today. Dallas must submit its opening-night roster to the NHL office on Monday.
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