What to make of Dallas Stars injury news: Miro Heiskanen 'week-to-week'

Dallas Stars coach Pete DeBoer gave some important injury updates today.

First, the biggest news was that Miro Heiskanen is listed as “week-to-week” after suffering a lower-body injury in the win against Vegas on Tuesday.

DeBoer said Heiskanen had an MRI on his left leg yesterday and will see a specialist today to get more information. He is scheduled to go to New York tomorrow for further evaluation. He added that Heiskanen is doubtful to play at the 4 Nations Face-Off in a couple weeks, but Team Finland has since made it official that he will not play.

My first reaction is that this is likely on the side of better news. After seeing the apparent extent of the injury many times flooded across my social timelines, I worried more and more. It was really a scary play — again, I do not think this was intentional from Mark Stone.

Later in the day during an interview with The Ticket, DeBoer said Heiskanen was likely going to need surgery, and that the recovery for these types of injuries usually falls either in the 8-12 week or 4-6 month range. He said he is optimistic it is not season ending. Even with that, this sounds less positive than it did this morning. But let’s roll with the week-to-week diagnosis until we hear further.

If Heiskanen is able to return in weeks, the Stars will be okay in his absence. They will obviously miss him, but this team is good enough and deep enough to stay afloat and still win some games.

With that being said, I believe this has only cemented the need for General Manager Jim Nill to add more depth on both sides of the puck at the upcoming trade deadline.

The Stars have been in a position before where one injury has doomed them. Losing a guy like Heiskanen will always be a huge loss, no matter the depth. But they can and should help themselves a lot with some depth they can count on in the biggest moments — not always needing to count on AHL or bubble players to step in.

In the meantime, Dallas recalled defenseman Kyle Capobianco from the Texas Stars (who were 1st in the latest AHL Power Rankings from FloHockey by the way). Capobianco signed a two-year deal with the Stars this summer and had been in the American Hockey League since training camp.

The 27-year-old is more offensive-minded than Lian Bichsel and Alexander Petrovic. He has two goals and 28 points in 35 AHL games this season and has tallied 16 power-play goals in his AHL career. He’s a good puck mover and is the likely candidate to slot in on the second power-play unit — with Thomas Harley quarterbacking PP1, something we have wanted to see, but certainly not under these circumstances.

Capobianco has five goals and 12 points in 73 NHL games with the Arizona Coyotes and Winnipeg Jets.

To blur up the blue line even more, DeBoer also confirmed what we had been suspicious of… that Nils Lundkvist is battling through an injury. Specifically, it is an upper-body injury that the team is still getting more information on.

For the immediate future, this is what we expect the defensive lineup to look like:

• Thomas Harley – Ilya Lyubushkin
• Esa Lindell – Matt Dumba
• Lian Bichsel – Kyle Capobianco

Those pairings can and will vary, especially knowing Bichsel is capable of playing on his off (right) side. If they want him getting top-four minutes, that is the best bet.

The Stars can then either leave Brendan Smith up front or call up a forward and drop him back to defense as depth.

If Dallas does add some help against the Vancouver Canucks or moving forward, I believe Matěj Blümel is the most likely candidate for the job after he earned some trust and had some really good moments (and a goal) during his last call-up.

That means the forwards should look like they have recently:

• Jason Robertson – Wyatt Johnston – Evgenii Dadonov 
• Jamie Benn – Matt Duchene – Mavrik Bourque
• Sam Steel – Roope Hintz – Logan Stankoven
• Brendan Smith / call-up – Oskar Bäck – Colin Blackwell

** DeBoer mentioned he likes having a more spread-out lineup — specifically Hintz, Duchene, and Johnston at center. He said sometimes, the game or individual performance dictate the lineup, which is why he loaded up the top line with Robertson, Hintz, and Johnston mid-game in Vegas. **

The final injury update was actually some good news!

DeBoer said that Mason Marchment is getting “really close” to returning from his facial injury and surgery. The plan is still to get Marchment into the lineup prior to the 4 Nations break. Most likely seems to be during the West Coast road trip next week.

“Anytime you get a point-a-game guy back in your lineup, it’s a little like Christmas in the coaches office. We get excited about unwrapping that,” DeBoer said.

The overall takeaway for me is that Dallas is going through it, but maybe at the right times.

The Stars, like all teams, have had seasons go both ways in terms of injury trouble. They have lost players all season or for huge portions (Tyler Seguin in 2021 and this year, Ben Bishop a number of times), but they have also had some years with great luck.

Neither really matters if you still make the playoffs. That is where health can really change the playing field — see the bubble run in 2020 or the Western Conference Final last spring.

If Dallas can get through this regular season with a decent playoff seed (preferably in the top three of the Central Division), and go into Round 1, Game 1 with close to a fully-healthy lineup, they will take it.

That would mean Seguin returning after hip surgery — his recovery timeline still aims for around then — Marchment back and playing at full speed, and Heiskanen still being Heiskanen and not having lingering issues. Plus, it should include some new names in the lineup who can help this team win a Cup.

As my DLLS co-host Craig Ludwig says all the time, it is only Game 20, or 35, or 50. None of this stuff matters until Game 83. The focus now is to keep finding ways to win games, get better with some added help, and earn a playoff spot.

If the Stars don’t get to play their best hockey with a full lineup until the spring, maybe that is their destiny and the beginning of a magical story. Maybe.