3 Takeaways From Stars’ 2-1 Preseason Win Over Blues

Seeing Arttu Hyry take the opening faceoff was great to see. Seeing him score 16 seconds later, then spend the rest of the night looking like the least expendable player in Victory Green, was an even better feeling.

Twenty regular-season games and four playoff games into his career, Hyry isn’t here to make an impression. He’s here to graduate. These preseason games often act as graduation ceremonies, most recently with Lian Bichsel, and further back with Miro Heiskanen, Wyatt Johnston, and Thomas Harley; draft picks who forced the roster’s hand before the team was ready to give them a spot. Hyry is doing it a touch later, as a 25-year-old nobody drafted. Last night was Hyry’s chance to shine.

The Dallas Stars beat the St. Louis Blues 2-1, but the score is beside the point. Though the score has little to do with the upcoming season, it serves as the final check of the offseason’s developmental timeline. St. Louis held 58.75 percent of the shot attempts and two-thirds of the expected goals at five-on-five. Rémi Poirier and Brandon Halverson stopped 10 of 11. Dallas scored twice on 18 shots.

Overall, it was a great hockey game after a long summer, though it was good the players played this one in St. Louis, because it has been a long, hot summer in Texas, and the players deserve to feel a bit of the hockey weather after tonight’s game.

Hyry Is Not a Prospect Anymore

Cameron Hughes found him with a no-look feed 16 seconds after the puck drop, which Hyry won, and then finished it. The rest of the night was better. He had a 71.43 percent Corsi share, the best mark on either bench, won seven of nine faceoffs, and made a couple of plays off the rush that people have been waiting to see him make. Just an amazing performance all over; what you expect from someone who is playing like an NHLer around prospects.

Faceoffs were never the debate with Arttu. Hyry was talked about last season as a unique faceoff weapon. Last season he went plus-33 on the dot in 20 games, a clip that would have ranked 12th in the NHL on a minutes-adjusted basis. He also scored three goals in that stretch, more than Radek Faksa managed across almost a full season.

When the healthy bodies came back in the spring, head coach Glen Gulutzan kept Hyry in and sat Faksa, Oskar Bäck, and Colin Blackwell. Then he used him more than any of them against the Minnesota Wild in Round 1.

So this is not a talent argument. It’s a roster challenge, and the projected answer still looks wrong. Hyry is waiver-exempt at $875,000. The current plan parks him in Cedar Park until cap space appears, then brings him up. His waiver exemption and the Stars’ cap situation make it all inconvenient for Hyry’s timing. Though fate has a funny way of working; they say the best players are always ready.

Blackwell left Saturday morning’s skate in real pain, with an update due Monday, and if that lingers, Hyry could have a natural chance to prove himself. If it doesn’t, the other door is putting Bäck or Blackwell on waivers, and both were everyday NHLers on a playoff roster.

Even NHL.com’s season preview points out that Hyry is one of the few right-handed shots Dallas can offer in its bottom six, which only helps his case. A coach who gave Hyry April minutes over three veterans is not a coach who wants him opening October in the American Hockey League (AHL). Find the room.

The Next Call-Up Is Already a Short List

If Hyry is off the prospect pile, the pipeline behind him gets a bit scary if the Stars need a player due to injury.

Hughes is the quiet one. Primary assist on the goal, a 66.67 percent Corsi share in under 10 minutes, 30 years old on a two-way deal. That is the exact profile that gets the first recall when somebody tweaks a groin in November.

Justin Ertel looked like he belonged on that ice, skating with more power through the middle than he had in his draft year and supporting the puck in transition instead of watching it leave.

Poirier is the presumptive third goalie, and he was sharp until Dallas broke a zone exit and hung him out on the tying goal at five-on-five. If anything happens in front of him, he has a real case for NHL starts, not just emergency duty.

Cameron Schmidt never made it into the conversation. Flu. Three Detroit tournament games and the opener, all missed. He has another junior year, so the calendar cost is small, but undersized forwards do not get that benefit of the doubt for free, and a blank September tape does not help him. It was just a real bummer. But sometimes life is like that.

One Line Dragged the Rest of Them Across

So after enough praise of this roster, and I really did think they did a heck of a job, let’s look at the things they did not do so well. On paper, the Dallas preseason roster got outplayed in a lot of areas.

Hughes, Hyry, and Matthew Seminoff spent their night dunking on St. Louis, a shade under 99 percent of the expected goals with the three on the ice at five-on-five. Every other Dallas forward line finished underwater. Ertel’s line hovered around 36 percent. The Christian Fitzgerald group sat at 16. The trio with the most prospect pedigree on the sheet, Dylan Hryckowian between Artem Shlaine and Emil Hemming, came in at 13 percent.

That last one matters most, because those are the names a Stars fan is supposed to get excited about for the future. Hemming is the organization’s top prospect. He played 12:37, and I was hoping he would have a bit of that breakthrough on paper that silences all the doubters. One preseason game against a half-minor-league opponent is not a verdict on anybody. But if you tuned in wanting some sort of devil’s advocate, here it is.

Kyle Capobianco is worth flagging for a different reason. He led Dallas in ice time, drew nothing, and took two minor penalties that both handed St. Louis a power play. A quiet night from the guy on the bubble, especially one who has seen NHL play as recently as last season.

The preseason penalty kill was not bad, though: three-for-three, 12 blocked shots to seven, and the goaltending stopped all but one. That’s a fine way for a room full of hopefuls to steal a win. It’s a harder way for any one of them to earn a promotion, because the credit goes to the goalie and the shot blockers. The exception was Hyry, whose line was the only group on the ice that never needed bailing out.

Bichsel graduated last winter. This was Hyry’s ceremony, even if his official graduation might come after a small detour in Cedar Park.