What I Hope the Stars Look Like

Why are you giving up a second round pick to clear cap you aren’t going to use???

Oof...taking a young defenseman that's barely seen NHL time on the left side and immediately throwing him on the top line, on his off-hand side? That's not a recipe for success.

Also doubt you see any of Johnston, Bourque, or Stankoven make the team directly out of camp. If you did, it would probably be Johnston, because Bourque is eligible to play in the AHL while the other 2 are not.

Faksa is in the 0% percentile for Wins Above Replacement, the Stars will not be able to win with him on the team. They're gonna have to give a sweetener to get a team to take him. It was more about opening up a center spot for Bourque and getting Faksa off the team then it was about the cap. I suppose the extra cap space could be used to sign a middle 6 forward, but that would mean that Bourque is either playing 4th line minutes or not on the team at all, or that Petey gets 4th line minutes so neither scenario is ideal. Better to have that extra wiggle room with the cap to provide more flexibility later in the offseason or at the TDL so we don't run into a cap crunch like we did this past year.

It's more about putting Miro on his strong side as there is a lot of evidence that shows he is much better there. You can Miller there but he has the mold of a bottom pair guy. I think Miro would be a good partner for Harley cause he'll be able to use his skating to cover for Harley when he makes a mistake. I feel like Harley has the ability to play on the right side because he has a long reach, is a good skater and passer, and is a generally smart player.

As far as which of the 3, if any, prospects make the team, I think Bourque gets the nod because he is AHL eligible. If he isn't ready they can send him down so he can get his confidence up and get used to professional hockey, and then call him back up if he plays well - just like they've done with Robo, Hintz, and Guri. Whereas if Johnston or Stankoven make it and show that they aren't quite ready, the Stars will have a tough decision to make as to whether they should keep them around in hopes they find their footing and burn a year of their ELC, or send them back to juniors and lose their services for the rest of the year. At least with Bourque he'd be an option all year long. Plus a lot of scouts believe that Bourque may actually be the best of the trio and is the closest to being NHL ready.