After all the hype, hope, and speculation, the Stars wound up as sellers at this year’s trade deadline. Adios Patrick Eaves, Jordie Benn, Johnny Oduya, and Lauri Korpikoski. Each player will leave a hole in the Stars’ lineup, is one perspective, but I tend towards another. With each departure, the Dallas Stars have created opportunities within their lineup.
Two players, in particular, seem to have been impacted by the Stars’ actions. Both are prospects, young and unproven, and both have bounced rather wildly from boom to bust and back again. The physical gifts of Jamie Oleksiak and Brett Ritchie are impossible to miss, but to-date, neither has really caught full sail at the NHL level.