How to properly watch the Dallas Stars prospect games

Stars season starts tonight.

Well, sort of.

The Stars prospects will play two games this weekend at Comerica Center in Frisco against the Detroit Red Wings prospects. The games won’t mean anything for the standings, and unlike past editions of this showcase which were held in Traverse City, Michigan, there is no longer any hardware on the line.

But they’ll be games, intense games, and this event really kicks my life into overdrive as someone who has covered this franchise in some shape or form for close to 13 years.

I’ve also attended each prospect showcase the Stars have played in, in person, since 2015, and by my rough math I’ve watched more than 100 games at these events (it used to be an event with eight teams and 16 total games over four days, hence the number).

So for DLLS readers, who I’m hoping are planning on checking out the two games this weekend — which are free and open to the public — I wanted to give a couple tips for how to properly watch/scout these games.

• There will be some sloppy moments. This is particularly true for the first game (and the first period) on Saturday. These are the first games these players have played in months, there are NHL executives in the building, the adrenaline is pumping and it becomes chaotic. You need to account for that in your evaluation. 
• Players have sliding scales for success. There are some players playing their first shifts of “pro” hockey, while there are others who have spent a season, maybe more, in the AHL. The players with AHL experience, should look better. The kid out of junior, it’s OK if he looks like the kid out of junior. It’s when the players over perform their slot that you can start to get excited. 
• No one wins an NHL job in prospect games. It can be the springboard for an opportunity in NHL training camp, but by simply outperforming other prospects a player isn’t going to win a job on the NHL roster.
• Goalie evaluation at this tournament is close to useless. Sure there are some data points and things that you’ll notice, but really it’s crapshoot pre-preseason hockey. I’ve seen goalies who became great (Jake Oettinger) struggle in Traverse City, and no-name goalies, on tryout invites, go out and steal games. So take all goaltending observations with a grain of salt.

When you set those base expectations for how to watch these games, it allows you to find the beauty in the chaos. For example, in the not-distant past I’ve watched Mavrik Bourque and Logan Stankoven struggle in this setting, while Wyatt Johnston looked a class above in the same games.

Johnston understand chaos theory and how to find a fit, which is fitting — pun intended, I guess — for how he was able to find his way in the NHL a bit quicker than the other two, becoming more of a cerebral tactician than a toolsy prospect.

Lian Bichsel was dangerous at this tournament, physically imposing his game on others. Not as good a Colton Parayko once was, who I saw in this tournament with the St. Louis Blues, but it was a good indicator of how, against his peers, Bichsel was ready for the next challenge.

So enjoy the games, they are fun and chaotic, the final result won’t matter, but it’s a chance to watch players laying the foundation for what could come in the future.