Trading 7 New Jersey Devils To Playoff Teams For A Special Run
By Nick Villano
Nico Hischier to Dallas Stars
The Dallas Stars are a team that looks like a title contender on paper, but they haven’t made it past the second round of the NHL Playoffs since 2008. In fact, since the Tyler Seguin trade that was supposed to bring back the glory years for Texas hockey, they only made the playoffs in three out of six years.
This year, the Dallas Stars are one of the eight teams that get to skip the play-in games. So, they are going straight to the traditional playoffs, but we still don’t know if they will play in reseeding format, so there’s no way to go for matchups. One interesting tidbit is the four teams that guy byes in the Western Conference will face off. The winner of that mini tournament will get the top seed in the conference, so there is something to play for.
Nico Hischier is one of the better two-way centers in the league, and he’s just 21 years old. The Stars could use some help down the middle. They have Seguin to play the number-one center role, but outside of him, it’s grim. Roope Hintz is currently the second-line center. The 23 year old has 33 points this season. Radek Faska mans the third line while Justin Dowling currently holds down the fourth line.
Hischier would be perfect to jump into the second line, pushing everyone else down one. This would immediately give the Stars one of the best top sixes in the conference. This would likely put Alexander Radulov and Joe Pavelski on his wing. Then, Corey Perry, Jamie Benn, and Seguin would be the top line. Hischier could immediately make the Stars a scary team for all other Western Conference teams.