Welcome to DLLS Dallas Stars weekly! Every Monday, I will recap news, rumors, notes, and articles from the previous week.

Let’s get into it.

A whole bunch of roster move confusion

On Sunday, as I got ready to take the future in-laws to the State Fair, all of our first times attending, the Stars made a few roster moves. Normally, there are not a ton of surprises on these lists. Early on, it’s usually a large group of junior and NCAA players going back to their respective leagues, a few AHL guys getting sent down, and an early PTO release. Later, there are maybe one or two players you begin to watch for on cut days.

This weekend, those players, for me at least, were Justin Hryckowian, Adam Erne, Vladislav Kolyachonok, and Arttu Hyry. For more on my thoughts about the three forwards, check out this Stars notebook from Saturday. Kolyachonok was placed on waivers, cleared, and has been sent to Texas, as expected.

What I did not expect was to see both Hryckowian and Hyry being sent to the AHL.

At the very least, I believed one of those two — it seemed to be leaning toward Hryckowian — would have made the opening-night roster. Well, they still can make the opening-night lineup.

These moves could have been for a plethora of reasons. Dallas could be planning a call-up with a heavier salary in order to get as close to the salary cap as possible. That would allow them to put injured Jamie Benn on LTIR and get the most cap relief because of it, especially after the injury to Oskar Bäck. The closer you are to the cap when you use LTIR, the more space you get.

They could also sign 30-year-old Erne off his PTO. Erne has looked good, and signing him to a $1 million contract, let’s say, would both fill a roster spot with a trusted veteran and get the team close to that cap again.

The Stars could have also wanted another player from the waiver wire, only carry the 21-22 roster players until they need reinforcements, or have 10 other plans in mind. I reached out to team sources to no avail, but we were given some insight with the further roster moves made on Monday.

These moves confirm the LTIR route, as Harrison Scott and Trey Taylor will be sent back down after the final roster release, Benn will be placed on LTIR, and then they will likely call up Hryckowian or sign Erne. Maybe both. Placing Bäck on IR means he will miss at least seven days from the date of the injury. Bäck began practice on Friday, he will not be available for at least opening night in Winnipeg.

In the coming days, we will see the two AHLers sent back, Lian Bichsel will return, and the NHL club will either sign Erne, call up Hryckowian/Hyry, or both.

Until then, congratulations to Scott and Taylor, who were listed on an NHL opening-night roster and will make about $5,000 more per day until they are sent down. Which will either be Tuesday or Wednesday.

The notable name absent from this list is Alex Petrovic. Petrovic looks to be an NHL player this year, and good for him.

If you missed our show Monday, we dove into all of this right off the top.

“They cut me out of the show”

“No, no, no, Sam Waterston!”

I am going to make this quick because we already talked about it. But Amazon and the NHL opted to remove the content filmed around Wyatt Johnston, Thomas Harley, and also part of Mikko Rantanen. There has been some explanation so far, but essentially it seems to just boil down to uninteresting content.

Johnston and Harley around cameras? Yeah, I get that. But I still think it’s a bonehead move by the NHL. There will still be some content from Rantanen’s trade to Dallas, I believe.

New (Dave) Art for Jake Oettinger

Jake Oettinger has a new, and very different, mask to start the 2025-26 season. I like it, so does Sean Shapiro. Luds likes to keep things simple.

What do you think?

Here is a more detailed look in some AMAZING photos from Amanda — @ShatteredLensTX.

And some details on how Dave Art gets his mask work done.

You want to go where??

Front Office Sports broke a story last week about the future home of the Dallas Stars.

There is not much further information available yet, but the organization have stated they are keeping all options open when it comes to their new arena after the lease at the American Airlines Center ends in 2031. The Mavericks are already out, so will the Stars add on to the AAC? Or will they build a much bigger arena and surrounding fun in Plano, Arlington, Frisco, or elsewhere?

Robert Tiffin joined the show with Luds, Sean, and myself hosting. It was a dang good time, and we talked a lot about how much money Thomas Harley and Jason Robertson will get on their next contracts!