Hockey Prophets

Player Notes


Random Quote From The Archive

Vladislav RomanovSKA-1946 St Petersburg vs Dynamo Moscow (MHL2/2/2024Another conversion of a great Demidov feed. He has fast hands.

 

Number of Players

Number of Notes

Number of Games Noted

1,447 9,392 323

Top Prospects: The NHL System Rankings

#17: Dallas Stars

Embed from Getty Images


Number of Ranked Prospects: 27

Number of Forwards in the Top 50: 1

Number of Defensemen in the Top 50: 2

Average Rank of Top 10 Prospects in Pool: 90th

Top Forward Prospect in The System: Mavrik Bourque (30th)

Top Defenseman Prospect in The System: Lian Bichsel (25th)

System Score: 3.5

 


The Dallas Stars have managed to build a championship quality team while maintaining a consistent assortment of draft picks each year. The Stars have held first-round picks in six of the last seven drafts, and three of those picks were players who have since become NHL contributors (Ty Dellandrea, Thomas Harley and Wyatt Johnson). Johnson had a breakout year for Dallas in 2023-2024 when he scored 32 goals and 33 assists in the regular season, then added 10 goals and 6 assists in 19 playoff games. Harley also took a big step forward last season to become a full-time starter and contribute 47 points from back end. Dellandrea has seen more mixed results, and given the depth of the system and to help make room for the imminent arrival of a couple of prospects, the Stars traded Dellandrea to the San Jose Sharks last June. Beyond the first round picks, Logan Stankoven (selected 47th overall in 2021) saw his first professional play last year and despite playing in just 24 regular season games he lined up for 19 playoff games, and found a way to chip in 8 points.   

The remaining first round picks and several other early-round selections are currently filling the Dallas prospect pipeline. Although there is not a lot of depth in the pool beyond the top prospects (there are only 27 ranked players in the Dallas system), the Stars' have a nice collection of talent at the top of the pool, including two players who look poised to be NHL players as early as this season.

 

The Top of The Pool:

Mavrik Bourque has been waiting for his chance to make his mark in the NHL for years. He was drafted 30th overall in 2020 draft (he was ranked 16th in that draft by the Hockey Prophets), and he has been busy proving his worth ever since. In 2022, after battling injuries in his draft and post-draft seasons (and the long pause in games for Covid), Bourque became a professional player in the Dallas system, playing AHL hockey for the Texas Stars. To say that he has been successful as a professional would be a big disservice to what he actually accomplished. In 141 games over his two AHL seasons, Bourque scored 46 goals with 78 assists, and last season he led the league in scoring and was named AHL Most Valuable Player. Although he in just 5'10, he has a granite frame at 191 pounds, and his body awareness and control allows him to gain excellent leverage against taller players. He is fast, strong and highly skilled, but his greatest attribute is his vision and hockey sense. Bourque can make plays happen with his feet and his hands, and with his non-stop movement he should become a fan favorite and 50-point scorer on a Stars team filled with fan favorites. There is nothing left for Bourque to prove at any level of hockey except the NHL. 

The top defenseman in the Stars pipeline is the huge Swiss blueliner Lian Bichsel. He was drafted 18th overall in 2022, and has played most of his career for Swedish team Leksands before coming to North America at the end of last season. The 6'6, 233-pound blueliner is a mass of muscle and strength who uses his size as a weapon. Bichsel will position his body to take away time and space. He leans heavily onto his opponents in board battles, sapping them of energy and easily restricting movement. Without great skating ability, he uses efficient lines and his huge frame to take away attacking lanes, and he is not at all shy about playing a physical game. He may not become an offensive force, but he will absolutely make opponents wary of driving the puck in his direction.

For more of a transition defender, the Stars have Tristan Bertucci, the 6'2, 179-pound blueliner that they selected 61st overall in 2023 (Hockey Prophets ranked him 36th) from the OHL's Flint Firebirds. Bertucci has the size, but he also has the hands and passing ability to make long, safe passes to break out of the zone or start a counterattacking rush. He has above average speed and good mobility. The main holdback for Bertucci is the depth of the Stars NHL squad on defense. He will play out this season in the OHL for the Barrie Colts, and afterward almost certainly see a year or more in the AHL before he gets his NHL chance, but he has the talent to be a good NHL defender when that time comes. 

Emil Hemming has a great shot, and he likes to use it whenever he gets the chance. Hemming was drafted 29th overall in the 2024 draft from Finland's top men's league, where he played 40 games for TPS Turku with 7 goals and 4 assists. He, too, is playing for the Barrie Colts this year, where he already has two goals and three assists in his first five games. Hemming plays a hard-working game, and skates well enough to be comfortable at the upper levels of hockey, but it will be his shot that gets him the to the NHL.

 

Return to the Team System Rankings

 

Below is the full list of the Dallas Stars' ranked prospects.

Top Forwards 

Top Forward Prospects By Team
Team RankRankNamePositionAgeHeightWeightDraft SelectionPre-Draft RankingA/P Score
130Bourque, MavrikCenter225'101653024-2.00
267Hemming, EmilRight Wing186'120529320.13
393Roulette, ConnorLeft Wing215'1116011162-1.19
4103Martino, AyrtonRight Wing215'101707348-1.56
5201Ertel, JustinLeft Wing216'2187793000.00
6311Gardiner, BradCenter196'1184791040.37
7330Arcuri, FrancescoCenter216'0187175129-0.44
8408Stranges, AntonioLeft Wing225'10170123730.20
9511MacDonell, AngusCenter195'101721891530.08
10527Seminoff, MatthewRight Wing205'1118317979-0.40
11529Sjoberg, AlbertCenter216'0174207950.00
12619Samuelsson, WilliamCenter186'01762223000.35
13813Oksentyuk, YevgeniLeft Wing235'715716290-1.19
14850Ljungman, DanielCenter226'01651541090.71
15874Bradshaw, SebastianCenter196'31962213001.10
16981Porco, NickLeft Wing236'01751421060.39

 

Top Defensemen

Top DefensemenProspects By Team
Team RankRankNamePositionAgeHeightWeightDraft SelectionPre-Draft RankingA/P Score
125Bichsel, LianDefenseman206'522518310.31
240Bertucci, TristanDefenseman196'11756181-1.87
369Kyrou, ChristianDefenseman215'101725073-1.71
4113Minnetian, AramDefenseman195'1119512566-0.37
5161Fegaras, GeorgeDefenseman206'11858391-0.17
6184Muhonen, NiilopekkaDefenseman196'4185158910.35
7207White, GavinDefenseman226'0180115300-1.04
8232Bar, JackDefenseman226'2194138750.23
9284Holmes, JacobDefenseman216'12051431540.76
10315Zloty, BenjaminDefenseman235'10175250300-0.42
11480Sjolund, SamuelDefenseman236'1172111300-0.04