Hockey is officially back as the Dallas Stars started their preseason, and the NHL preseason in general, with a 2-1 shootout victory over the St. Louis Blues on Saturday night. By the time you read this, preseason hockey will have been played all over North America, which means we are one step closer to games counting in the standings.
Related: Dallas Stars 2025-26 Season Preview: Top-6 Forwards
Today, we continue to preview the 2025-26 season for the Stars, this time with the bottom-six forwards. Let’s dive in.
Johnston Might Be the Best Third-Line Center in the NHL
| Sam Steel | Wyatt Johnston | Mavrik Bourque |
Thanks to the tremendous depth the Stars have in the middle of the ice, which includes Matt Duchene’s ability to continue to elevate his game and keep his second-line center title, the Stars may have the best third-line middleman in the NHL. Wyatt Johnston, compared to his peers at least, remains overqualified in this spot, but it’s where he fits best in this lineup, at least for now.
Johnston is entering his fourth season in the NHL, and everything has been trending upwards since his first game. He has played all 82 games in each of his first three seasons, and his point totals have gone up in every category each season. In 2024-25, Johnston had 33 goals, which was his second straight 30-plus goal season, and added 38 assists for 71 points. His playoff production was down, with four goals in 18 games compared to 10 goals in 19 games the year before. But, for a young budding superstar, there’s nothing not to like about his growth. In addition, if the roster needs a reboot or if Duchene takes a step back, Johnston is more than capable of leading a line in the top six if necessary.
On the right side, the Stars have another young player who has the potential to play higher in the lineup. However, Mavrik Bourque still has a lot to prove as he enters his second full NHL season. In 73 games last season, Bourque had 11 goals and 25 points, but it’s worth noting that nine of those goals and 18 of those points were in the 42 games he played in the 2025 portion of the schedule. There’s been conversation in the media about his ability to potentially play on the left side, which could see him get a chance on the second line. While I like the idea of him over Jamie Benn in that spot in theory, he still needs to play with more consistency where he is currently slotted.
On the left side is the sure and steady Sam Steel. While he will probably never break the 25-goal threshold, although that would be nice, Steel is as consistent as they come in his role. The 27-year-old has scored between six and 10 goals in each of his seven seasons and 20 to 28 points in each of the last five seasons. He is defensively disciplined and is never short on effort.
Faksa’s Return Marks New Identity For Fourth Line
| Oskar Back | Radek Faksa | Colin Blackwell |
We could talk for an hour about why the Stars couldn’t hang with the Edmonton Oilers in the Western Conference Final and why they might have been a little lucky to be there in the first place. Deserving, but lucky at the same time. A big reason was the lack of physicality and edge that they played with as the playoffs went on.
That was addressed with two additions, the first being the reunion with Radek Faksa, who was with the Stars for the first nine seasons of his career. With the St. Louis Blues last season, Faksa threw 115 hits, which would have been good for second on the Stars. However, to show how much Dallas was lacking in that part of the game, Jamie Benn had the second-most hits with 114, and third was Colin Blackwell and Ilya Lyubushkin with 84. While he might not be the smoothest skater in the league, Faksa could be moved up the lineup for a short time to add a spark where he is needed.
Oskar Back (left wing) and Blackwell (right wing) round out the wing positions on this roster. Back is a solid option, but will probably not play any higher than the fourth line. As a rookie last season, Back had four goals and 16 points, and while general manager Jim Nill rewarded him with a two-year extension, the Stars have competition lurking in the shadows, which means Back will need to take another step this season to avoid watching parts of the campaign from the press box.
Similar to Steel, Blackwell is just one of those players who rarely takes a shift off. He plays with an energy and a passion that might not always show up on the scoresheet, but has the ability to swing a game with one big shift. With the Stars’ newfound emphasis on physicality, Blackwell’s ability to throw his body around and play defensively sound, should mean he plays more than the 63 games as he did last season.
Competition For the Bottom-Six
Since physicality has been the accidental theme of this edition of season previews, Nathan Bastian will see a lot of time on this fourth line, and there’s certainly a world where he breaks camp ahead of someone like Back. Bastian had 138 hits in 59 games with the New Jersey Devils last season, and 281 hits in his last two seasons combined. In theory, a line with Bastian, Faksa, and Blackwell would carry a hard-hitting identity the Stars have been lacking for quite some time. While Bastian is a right winger, and so is Blackwell, I could see Faska being moved to the left side and Blackwell into the middle to let Bastian slot into the right wing spot where he is comfortable. They could also put Bastian on the left wing just to find out what works.
Justin Hryckowian, who had eight hits in five games with the big club last season, dropped the gloves with Nathan Walker within the first four minutes of the Stars’ first preseason game on the weekend, throwing his hat in the ring to be one of the first call up should the situation arise.
Gulutzan’s Lines in Training Camp So Far
Like we did for the top-six preview, let’s compare these lines to head coach Glen Gulutzan’s lines so far in training camp.
The lines listed above are from Monday’s practice, and they are not too far off from what we projected here. Jason Robertson with Johnston is something we’ve seen over the last couple of seasons, but with Mikael Granlund and Mason Marchment gone it’s hard to imagine Robertson not at the top of the lineup to start the season. That being said, if Steel can build a chemistry and fit in with the first or second line, that is something Gulutzan would love to have in his back pocket.
The fourth line is exactly the same as we laid out earlier, and Gulutzan is already experimenting with Bastian on the left wing.
