Dallas Stars: Top 10 Prospects Entering 2018

The Dallas Stars’ pipeline has a few notable prospects in it, who can help the team re-establish themselves as a contender and help open the Stanley Cup window. Here are the ten best future Stars.

The Dallas Stars‘ pipeline is not one of the best, but there are multiple prospects who can help the team in the future. The Stars actually do have one great pipeline, and that’s goaltenders. Still, the skaters the team has are also excellent and can help the team become a contender once more.

Here, the prospects are ranked on three factors: NHL readiness, the likelihood said prospect plays consistently with the Stars and ceiling. If one factor is more important than the others, it’s ceiling. To qualify, prospects must not have played their official rookie season (18 games or more). That means that though they’re young, players like Julius Honka and Jason Dickinson do not appear here.

Let’s start with those excellent goaltenders.

1. Jake Oettinger, G [19] (1-26, 2017)

Stats (Boston University, NCAA): 38 gp, 2.45 GAA, .915 SV%.

Jake Oettinger is the best goaltending prospect in the Dallas Stars system and one of the very few goaltenders drafted in the first round. He did so because of an excellent freshman season at Boston University, a powerhouse in the NCAA.

His ceiling remains where it was when he was first drafted – an elite goaltender, one who could be in the Vezina conversations in a few years

He took a major step back in his Sophomore season but remained one of the best goaltenders in the NCAA. While challengers are coming for his spot as the best goaltender in the Stars’ future, it will take more than one bad season to knock him off his custom-made throne.

Oettinger this season was tied for 24th in the NCAA in save percentage and 27th in goals-against average. His ceiling remains where it was when he was first drafted – an elite goaltender, one who could be in the Vezina conversations in a few years. He’s still years away from making an impact at the NHL level, but he will play consistently with the Stars and again, has a higher ceiling than anybody else in the Stars’ excellent goaltending pipeline.

2. Colton Point, G [20] (5-128, 2016)

Stats (Colgate University, NCAA): 33 gp, 1.74 GAA, .944 SV%.

Colton Point is the main challenger to Oettinger’s status as the Dallas Star’s number one future goaltender and had a much better NCAA season than his possible future battery-mate. He was tied for first in the NCAA in save percentage and was 2nd in goals-against average. The problem is, he did it at a year older than Oettinger and in a worse collegiate conference.

He was tied for first in the NCAA in save percentage and was 2nd in goals-against average.

Still, the fifth-round pick used to select Point is looking better and better, and his NHL readiness is more present than Oettinger’s. If there’s an emergency next season and both Ben Bishop and Anton Khudobin are injured, Point could do well as a third-string goaltender, but that’s a lot of pressure on a rookie in the AHL. That’s pressure the best goaltenders live up to, however.

Point’s ceiling isn’t as high as Oettinger’s, but he’s got perhaps the same likelihood of playing for the Dallas Stars, even if it’s in a different role. Having too many goaltenders has never been a problem for an NHL team, especially when both will likely be exempt from the next expansion draft. If he and Oettinger become a 1A/1B scenario for the Stars, isn’t that a great thing?