NHL Season Preview: Dallas Stars

Who's In? RW Toby Peterson (EDM), LW Brad Winchester (EDM) and LW Todd Fedoruk (PHI).

Who's Out? C Eric Lindros (NHLPA), RW Matthew Barnaby (Retired), C Patrik Stefan (Switzerland), D Daryl Sydor (Pitt), D Jon Klemm (LA) and LW Ladislav Nagy (LA).

What's Changed? Not a whole lot, but that might not be a bad thing. After all, we're talking about a team that only finished three points behind Anaheim for the division title, with a tiebreaker dropping them to third behind San Jose. Once they got to the playoffs, goalie and perennial goat Marty Turco turned in the best postseason performance of his career, only to be bested by Vancouver's Roberto Luongo in a nerve-wracking seven-game defeat.

While a number of parts have departed like Nagy, Lindros, Barnaby and Sydor, management wisely decided not to overspend to replace them. Instead, a number of players are going to be expected to grow into new roles and contribute more.

In particular, Loui Eriksson will get a shot at spot on one of the two top lines, while Niklas Grossman will get to fill the vacuum created by Sydor's departure. Having deadline acquisition Mattias Norstrom on the blue line for a full season won't hurt either.

The new faces who have been imported -- Peterson, Winchester and Fedoruk -- help address one of the glaring gaps between Dallas and the defending champs: tougheness. Although truth be told, plenty of us will be happy if Fedoruk can just get through the season without suffering another catastrophic facial injury.

Dallas is still a balanced squad that plays well in all three zones and boasts a potent power play with Sergei Zubov and Philippe Boucher. Their regular season success over the past few seasons is a real tribute to head coach Dave Tippet, one of the most underrated bench bosses in the game.

Who's On The Hook? The one spot where the team's balance failed them all season long was putting the puck in the net, where Dallas finished 22nd overall thanks in part to losing their top two centerman, team captain Brendan Morrow and Mike Modano, to injury for significant stretches of the season. Both need to stay healthy and find a way to score more than the 38 combined goals they posted in 2006-07. If not, get ready for the goat horns.

Where They'll Finish: Expect Dallas to stay just above 100 points, as they jockey with Anaheim for second place in the division behind a Sharks squad that will be one year more experienced and one year hungrier. The playoffs are another question entirely, where staying in the top half of the draw doesn't seem to help much in a deeply stacked Western Conference

Blogs to Watch: Andrew's Dallas Stars Page (as old school as a hockey blog can be) and Razor with an Edge. Other applicants welcome on a rolling admissions basis, but until then, be sure to check out Thursday Morning Cup Check with Todd Maternowski for an entertaining read.

Gratuitous YouTube Embed: Here are the top 10 moments in the 2006-07 season. I'm sure Patrik Stefan will be happy to know that while he might be gone, he's not forgotten: