Quoting: DeadGuy63
First line looks good. Second line I would make Benn-dickinson-pavelski. I don't think cogliano-faksa-comeau should be slip up. I don't see gurianov or robertson being ready to start next year but maybe the come up mid season. L'esperance I think could be ready so I would start the fourth line as him-Dowling-Perry. I think lindell and klingberg should stick together on the first pair. If johns is ready to go he is a good upgrade over polak but if he is not ready police should be with miro again. I would play police over oleksiak.
Dickinson is a middle-6 guy. Stars would be much better off throwing a goal-scorer in Pavelski between two big bodied guys that know how to score. If Perry doesn't re-find his game, then drop him to the bottom-6 and slot in Dickinson/Gurianov at his spot on the right side. Dickinson is labeled as a Center, but played a ton of wing over the last 2+ months of the season. He plays really well at all 3 forward spots. He's best used as a solid forechecker that can score in the offensive end. He's not the goal scorer or set up guy that would benefit from extended top-6 minutes.
The Cogs-Faksa-Comeau line likely won'e be split up, but if the Stars are looking to shed a little bit of cap both Comeau and Cogliano are at the top of the trade list for Dallas. Both are good PK guys that could benefit those teams that are having special teams issues.
Dowling is 100% a career AHL guy. There's a reason he's 28 and hasn't seen consistent NHL action. He can't seem to keep up at the NHL level. L'Esperance should absolutely be ahead of Dowling on the depth chart. The Stars aren't going to initially start off with Perry on the 4th line. They brought him in to be a scoring threat outside of their top line. As I alluded to above, he very likely starts the season in the top-6.
In regards to the defense, Lindell and Klingberg would be perfectly fine together, but during the times that Klingberg paired with Heiskanen they played like arguably one of the best pairs in the NHL. Their ability to move the puck combined together would give every team in the league nightmares. On a similar note, Lindell & Johns paired together would produce one of the better defenseive two-way pairs in the league. Johns has been skating as a full participant in on-ice events over the last couple of months. Nill fully expects him to be good to go by the time the season starts.
The play two different sides of the ice, but Oleksiak >>> Polak. It's not even close either. Polak hits people...that's it. And 9 out of 10 times, he takes himself out of the play to make those hits. If you go look at his possession numbers, they are absolutely awful.