Stars: Who’s In, Who’s Out Once Defense Healthy?

The Dallas Stars are slowly starting to get all of their defensive pieces back from injury, but who gets the most playing time once everyone is healthy?

The Dallas Stars ran into some injury trouble over the course of the past month of action. With injuries to John Klingberg, Jason Demers, and Jordie Benn, the defensive side of the roster began to look kind of bare.

It had already been determined the Klingberg and Benn would miss a couple of weeks of action, but losing Demers was the biggest hit as his Mar. 8 injury is set to keep him out for at least six weeks.

To replace these important players, the Stars inserted a reliable pair of big, young defensemen in Patrik Nemeth and Jamie Oleksiak. The pair has played a total of 50 games this season (31 for Nemeth, 19 for Oleksiak) and are some of the more experienced younger guys on the roster.

At times they have played on a line together, and they have done a rather nice job of filling in for the injured players by using their size and physical nature to make things harder for their opponents.

As for Jason Demers, who needed a more long-term replacement, the Stars decided to bring up Stephen Johns, who came over in the Patrick Sharp trade. Johns, like the last two defensemen mentioned, loves using his body to impact the other team. On Mar. 17 against the Tampa Bay Lightning, just his fourth game in the NHL, he scored a his first goal. The next morning, the Stars inked him to a two-year contract extension, as he was set to become a free agent this summer.

Now, over the past week, the team has started to regain some of their valuable blue liners as the end of the season rapidly approaches.

Klingberg returned to the lineup on Mar. 19 against the New York Islanders while Jordie Benn is set to return on Mar. 22 against the Chicago Blackhawks. With two new faces back on the ice, there’s going to be two players who lose their minutes.

By taking a quick look at the players available, the pair of Nemeth and Oleksiak makes the most sense. They would lose some size, but the Stars seem bought in on the idea that Johns can be a real contributor and the fact that he shoots right, just like Demers, makes him the obvious choice to pair with Johnny Oduya.

The other line will probably vary. Alex Goligoski and Kris Russell have seemed to work well together, but Klingberg played with Goligoski before his injury.

On Twitter, Mark Stepneski (@StarsInsideEdge) stated that the six defensemen practicing on Mar. 21 were Johns, Oduya, Nemeth, Klingberg, Benn and Oleksiak. He later added that Goligoski and Russell had taken maintenance days, meaning they would be back in the lineup. That further solidified the fact that Nemeth and Oleksiak would be scratches in the near future.

If there was ever a player that was most likely to be replaced by either Nemeth or Oleksiak, I would have to say Benn would be the choice. Before his injury, he had a few occasional scratches and I could see the Stars testing line combinations should he take a while to get back into normal form.

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To put things in perspective, the Stars are in a great spot right now, because they have more than enough defensemen ready to go. With the Playoffs coming soon, it’s important to have established lines and the Stars will have no trouble finding players to insert into their lineup.