Not much happening here during this weird offseason.

The core that made it to the SCF is literally intact except for Seguin, who's missing he beginning of the regular season.

If I had to preview something here, it would be that their D-core will once again be elite with Heiskanen truly establishing himself among the very best the NHL has to offer in terms of d-men. As for the offense, I expect big stuff from Hintz and Gurianov, while Kiviranta and Caamano and maybe even Robertson will begin their journey towards becoming regular NHLers.

The x factor for them will be to keep their head out of the water while Seguin recovers. If they can't, making the playoffs will be a challenge. If they can, they should be back to where they were last season, maybe even slightly better with younger players (hopefully) improving.

Here is how the lineup should look like IMO:
Gurianov-Hintz-Radu
Benn-Pavs-Kiviranta
Robertson-Faksa-Caamano
Cogliano-Dickinson-Comeau

Oleksiak-Heiskanen
Lindell-Klingberg
Sekera-Pysyk

Bishop
Khudobin

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I think you're a bit high on KIviranta

The Stars strength is definitely going to lie in their top-4. Sure, Heiskanen, Klingberg, and Lindell see a lot of love, but Oleksiak has stepped into his role as a top-4 LD extremely well & pairs with Heiskanen perfectly. They are going to need to be huge this year with the goaltending situation as well. With Bishop out for roughly the first 4 months of the season, this will be the first time that Khudobin will essentially be the de facto #1 goalie for the entire regular season. And with Oettinger sure to see his first legitimate playing time, our defense is going to need to bow up for the rookie.

Offensively, like you said, the Stars just need to keep their heads above water for the regular season. With the realigned divisions, the Stars should be able to make top-3 relatively comfortably. If they can make the playoffs & get a healthy Seguin back for the Cup run then the Stars could be able to make some noise in postseason. Personally, here's what I expect on night 1:

Benn-Hintz-Gurianov
Kiviranta-Pavelski-Radulov
Cogliano-Faksa-Comeau
Robertson-Dickinson-Caamano

Lindell-Klingberg
Oleksiak-Heiskanen
Sekera-Pysyk

Khudobin
Oettinger

Once the Stars are able to utilize LTIR for Johns, Bishop, and/or Seguin I would honestly love to see them bring Corey Perry back for that 4RW role. He was an affordable, veteran presence that played really well through most of the year & throughout the postseason. It'll be interesting to see how Bowness utilizes the roster in his first full season as the Stars bench boss.

you guys should sign Haula
It would help your PP without Seguin

Wouldn't mind signing someone like Haula or Athanasiou, especially with Seguin being out. If the Stars LTIR all 3, they'll end up with roughly $14M in cap space. Obviously that's only temporary cap space, but it could provide them some flexibility early in the season, should the elect to try and grab a temporary top-6 replacement for #91

For me the lineup should look like:
Kiviranta-Hintz-Gurianov
Robertson-Pavs-Radu
Benn-Faksa-Caamano

(These line combinations could be switched based on performance but ideally rotate them after every game)

Cogliano-Dickinson-Comeau

(Also if they could trade Cogs and sign Haula or maybe even play Dows, Tufte or maybe Dell if he's ready. Comeau would be good to trade when Segs comes back. Some people think that they contribute well to the defense, but if you really watch the Stars play, every time they're on the ice I'm so scared that a goal is going in for the other team, because of experience watching them play. They're 100% replaceable and not useful, also for everybody who wants Perry resigned he also doesn't give too much of a positive impact and is always in the penalty pox and making us chase the game.)

After Segs comes back and if Dell has a fantastic year this is my forward lineup:
Robertson-Segs-Radu
Benn-Faksa-Pavs
Kiviranta-Hintz-Gurianov
Dickinson or Haula-Dell or Dickinson-Caamano, the combos are Dickinson-Dell (if Dell breaks out) or Haula-Dickinson (if they sign Haula) Caamano's always on the right wing.

For defense, it's pretty much the same:
Oleksiak-Heiskanen
Lindell-Klingberg
Sekera-Honka

The only point I have for Honka is that it's now or never to play him, if they don't he'll be 100% a bust, but if they do you never know he could be a gem, playing with Sekera who is a defensive dman could benefit him a lot, but if he has a **** couple of games yeah replace him with Pysyk. Give the kid a chance.

For goaltending couldn't argue more, when Bish is injured we have Otty as a safety blanket for backup and could help him develop more as a future starter. Him and Dobby should split before Bish comes back, because overplaying Dobby isn't smart and Otty has shown signs of progress so he could fit right in, hopefully. When Bish comes back give him 2/3 of the rest of the games if we're clinched for the playoffs, if not split the games and worst case scenario Bish is ****, just continue playing Dobby for the most of the games and if they played him like I said before, he'll have a full gas tank. And then start him in the playoffs with Otty.

Goaltending combos when Bish returns are:

If Bish plays well.
Bish
Dobby

If he's half descent.
Dobby
Bish

And if he plays horrible.
Dobby
Otty

I feel like these threads would be better suited in the Forums section for each respective team.

He's banned form AGM's and people check this forum more i would think

It’s clogging up the main NHL forum section for everyone else though. And how does anyone getting an infraction have anything to do about posting in the correct forums section?

No Bishop until March either. I think them and SJ compete for the 4th spot this year as there is really nothing too special about this team without Seguin and Bishop past Heiskanen and Klingberg. Even Gurianov and Hintz are probably 60 point players. No superstars up front and no steady goalie.

Dobby is better than Jones and Dub combined what are you talking about

He's had two good seasons at 32 and 33, before that he played in the AHL almost every year. He had 2 full NHL seasons before Dallas, both as backups. Now he's going to be a starter for 3 months. Maybe he's just settled in with Dallas but I'm not confident in him for carrying this team with no backup for 3 months. Devan Dubnyk has had 9 good seasons, 4 in a row prior to last year when he was only bad because of an off-ice issue affecting his focus on hockey. He's fought through adversity before and I see no reason he won't do it again. He has also proven he can play close to 70 games effectively. Khudobin just got hot for 2 months and everybody thinks he's the second coming of Christ

First off all Otty can be the backup with no problem, second off all look at SV% in the last couple of years 9.23 and 9.30 Dudnyk on the other hand 9.13 and 8.90 with one of the best defense in the league, Jones had a 8.96 in each season. We aren't in the past. He's not gonna have a better defense. He played 41 and 30 games so he isn't so much of a backup, not saying he's a starter, but better than Dubnyk in recent years.

I'm not defending Martin Jones. There is reason for skepticism for Dubnyk as well but I'm just saying that Dallas doesn't have a desirable goalie situation and neither does SJ. If Dubnyk takes off and Khudobin falters, SJ makes and Dallas misses. It's as simple as that.

I see no reason why we miss, San Jose also does not have any superstars so why can they beat us when they don't have better depth than us.

https://www.capfriendly.com/armchair-gm/team/2135784
My entire opinion on the new Pacific. Check it out if you want but at the very least check out my Dallas and SJ sections

Love the opinion on everything, one little thing tho. I know I'm gonna sound like a delusional bias ass Stars fan (please don't call me that) but I think Otty can have a really solid rookie season and can maybe take a little bit of work off Dobby. I know that I overrate players from my favorite team but that's how being a hockey fan work (at least I'm not as bad as leafs fans).

Nobody's as bad as Leafs fans. JuStIn HoLl iS aN eLiTe NhL dEfEnDeR. I don't know much about Oettinger but I do know he was a highly touted prospect like Samsonov, Hart and Shesterkin and they've done well. Maybe Oettinger can replicate and if he can, SJ really has no chance.