Hintz on the wing is interesting, I really liked him as 2C in the playoffs with his speed down the middle. They might be in the market for a RD if Polak is in the top 4...

Good looking team, the bottom 3 defenseman kind of suck, but I wouldn’t be shocked if the Stars make it out of the west this year

Hmm interesting omission in Dickinson.

I think that you can safely assume that the Stars will re-sign Dickinson.

Why does Polak keep getting signed? He really isn't a top 4 defenseman at this point

Hintz-Seguin-Radulov
Benn-Pavelski-Perry
Gurianov-Faksa-Dickinson
Cogliano-L'Esperance-Comeau

Hintz plays really well at Center, due to his vision, but his speed is best utilized as a winger. He's got a lot more open ice on the wings than he does at center. Perry wasn't brought in to be a 4th line winger right off the bat. Dallas will use him in a top-6 capacity to see if he can re-find his scoring touch after and injury filled season. If Perry is back to normal, and playing at a 20-goal pace, he'll stay in the top-6. If not, he'll drop in to the bottom-6. Either way, he won't start the season down in the bottom-6.

You're also forgetting Gurianov on this roster. He has nothing left to prove in the AHL. He will be on the opening night roster, and unless he goes through a severe slump he'll remain there all season. He has the strong possibility of being the "Roope Hintz" of this season, meaning he'll start in the bottom-6, but could see legitimate top-6 minutes by the end of February or beginning of March.

L'Esperance fills the same big body, two-way center role that Faksa currently fills. He slots in much better than Dowling between Cogliano and Comeau.

Lindell-Klingberg
Heiskanen-Johns
Oleksiak-Sekera

Most in the Stars organization, including Nill, are expecting Johns to be ready to go by the start of the season. He's been a full participant in on-ice activities this offseason, and doesn't look to have any lingering issues with his headaches.

Polak should not be in our top-6 at all. He has the worst possession numbers on the Stars roster. The only thing he does is hit people, and almost every time he goes for a hit he tends to take himself out of the play. He should be the 7th defenseman on the Stars roster, and honestly an argument could be made that Fedun is a better option.

Oleksiak will finally see consistent playing time with Dallas. He's the 3rd best LD that Dallas has right now (of players expected to make the roster). Sekera slots in to the 3RD spot, because he's a better option than Polak and Fedun, assuming he can stay healthy.

He's not a top-6 defenseman at this point. He's a sub-$1M defenseman that should be playing a 7th Defenseman role, or even more realistically, an AHL role.

Hintz playmaking says he should be playing Center. His speed says he should be playing on the wing. He's really solid at either position. Throwing him on Seguin's wing (which is what should happen) would create some nightmare matchups for opposing defenses.

And if Polak is in our top-4 again, I'm going to pray for Miro, and then I'm going to jump off a cliff. He shouldn't be in the top-6, much less the top-4.

Agreed Hintz is going to be a very good piece for years to come opening up a lot of ice for his line mates. Stars may need to find a way to get a cheap 2nd pairing D man via trade. Johns will help but I'd imagine it'll be a difficult adjustment period for him since he hasn't played in a long time. I'm sure they're looking at more insurance options.

If I'm Dallas and Johns isn't ready to go, I seriously take a look at putting Gavin Bayreuther in our top-4. Miro played the right side during the majority of his career in Finland, and is really comfortable on his off-hand side. I'd throw him and Bayreuther together. Bayreuther has been a phenomenal puck-moving defenseman in the AHL, and would compliment Heiskanen's skill set extremely well.

That's a nice low risk option, and if it doesn't work, then consider making a move. It's interesting I saw Bayreuther play a few times in the AHL and he didn't really seem like an exciting player but he did seem to play a strong, consistent game (Consistent as you could be in such a disorganized league like the AHL)

He's definitely not the kind of defenseman that's going to make flashy plays. He makes all the small plays correctly. He's plays a smart, positionally-sound game. He plays a lot like Miro (just obviously not as good), but he's certainly not going to put up the points that Miro is. As long as he doesn't leave Miro on his own for most of the shift (like Polak did), Heiskanen can carry that pairing.

I don't know why teams sign players like Polak. He is to the stars what Roszival was to the blackhawks years ago.

I stated it somewhere above, but I'll mention it again; Polak is a 7th Defenseman AT BEST. Realistically, he's an AHL guy at this point in his career. For the life of me, I can't understand why he got re-signed and why he got $1.75M. Currently in our organization:

Fedun > Polak
Bayreuther > Polak
Djuse > Polak
Heatherington > Polak
Hanley > Polak

He's outside of the top-10 right now in regards to our current defensemen.

I agree I think teams seem to like the seniority and experience certain guys have even if their play hinders the team. I think soon enough teams will realize experience doesn't mean anything (Blues beating Bruins), and start finding ways to put their young stars with more talent.

I think "veteran leadership" is one of the most overrated aspects of a player. Don't get me wrong, it's good to have that leadership on the roster, but if that's the primary reason you bring someone on then look elsewhere. Paying $1.75M for "veteran leadership" isn't worth it, when there are guys that are NHL ready that are now stuck out of the lineup.

Well why do you have guys like Seguin, Benn and Klingberg on the roster for if you still sign guys like Polak for leadership? It's not like he has a letter on his sweater. It makes no sense. It's the most overrated trait in a player in my opinion.

Read the description.

I did. My point was that you didn't have to make it potential; you could have just put him there in your team construction to begin with. Then you wouldn't have had to waste time and space explaining how what you actually expect the team to ultimately look like is different from what you're posting.