Monday, September 28, 2009

Stars Have 24 Active Players

The Dallas Stars cut defenseman Andrew Hutchinson from their line-up on Sunday, trimming their active roster down to 24 players, including Andrew Peters, who is now on the Injured Reserve. The Stars claim to have another active player on their roster, but I'll be damned if I could find him. So, for now, I'm going with this line-up, as that extra "hidden" player likely doesn't carry a lot of value to the team at this point in time.

It's been quite some time since the last team update for the Stars, so this is well overdue.

ForwardsDefenseGoaltenders
Mike RibeiroMatt NiskanenMarty Turco
Loui ErikssonStephane RobidasAlex Auld
Brad RichardsTrevor Daley
Steve OttKarlis Skrastins
Mike ModanoJeff Woywitka
James NealNiklas Grossman
Fabian BrunnstromMark Fistric
Jere Lehtinen

Brian Sutherby

Brendan Morrow

Toby Petersen

Krys Barch

Warren Peters

Jamie Benn

Luke Gadzic


The Stars didn't make a great deal of additions to their everyday line-up. The inclusion of Alex Auld to the system give the Stars a brand new look from the back-up goaltending angle, while Jamie Benn (pictured) is looking to give the offense a spark and hopefully get a Calder Trophy out of this campaign.

Injuries were a big part of last year's team and it looks like Brendan Morrow is back to (or close to) 100%, while Jere Lehtinen struggles to get back to 100%, but should be getting closer.

Also, notably missing from the Stars line-up is Sergei Zubov, who ended up going back home to Europe in the summer, after a very tumultuous season of injuries.

Salary CapThe Dallas Stars are nowhere near cap troubles this season, with a very cap friendly list of players on their roster. Even with the injured Warren Peters in their line-up, they only have a cap hit of $47.4 million for 24 players. This isn't to say they don't have a lot of talent, it's just the Stars didn't go out and spend a lot of money in the summer to make up for the loss of Zubov or upgrade their forward ranks too substantially.

If the Stars can stay healthy for the better part of the season, they'll be a pretty tough team to play against. They have plenty of playmaking centres on the team that can dish out the puck to some talented wingers, so they should be okay when it comes to scoring goals. Marty Turco is going to need to bounce back from a terrible year, but he's the kind of guy that should be able to do it. The Stars' season, in all honesty, really does rely on Turco's play and how far he can carry them.

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