Hockey is officially back when the Dallas stars started their preseason, and the NHL preview season in general, with a 2-1 shootout victory on the St. Louis Blues on Saturday evening. By the time you read this, the present season will be played hockey throughout North America, which means that we are a step closer to games that count in the rankings.
Related: Dallas Stars 2025-26 Season Preview: Top-6 Forwards
Today we continue to look at an example of the 2025-26 season for the stars, this time with the Bottom-Six Vooruit. Let’s dive into it.
Johnston is perhaps the best third line center in the NHL
| Sam -steel | Wyatt Johnston | Mavrik Bourque |
Thanks to the enormous depth, the stars in the middle of the ice, including the ability of Matt Duchene to continue to elevate his game and retain his second line title, the stars perhaps have the best third-line intermediary in the NHL. Wyatt Johnston, at least compared to his colleagues, remains overwalated at this location, but it is where he fits best in this line -up, at least for the time being.
Johnston enters his fourth season in the NHL and everything has been trending since his first game. He has played all 82 games in each of his first three seasons and his pointed totals have risen in each category every season. In 2024-25, Johnston had 33 goalsThat was his second straight 30-plus target season and added 38 assists for 71 points. His playoff production had fallen, with four goals in 18 games compared to 10 goals in 19 games the year before. But for a young starting superstar there is nothing to not like its growth. Moreover, if the grid needs a reboot or if Duchene takes a step back, Johnston is more than able to lead a line in the top six if necessary.
On the right, the stars have another young player who has the potential to play higher in the Line -up. However, Mavrik Bourque still has a lot to prove if he enters his second full NHL season. In 73 games last season, Bourque had 11 goals and 25 pointsBut it is worth noting that nine of those goals and 18 of those points were in the 42 games he played in the 2025 part of the schedule. There has been a conversation in the media about his ability to possibly play on the left, so that he could get a chance on the second line. Although I like his idea about Jamie Benn in that place in theory, he still has to play with more consistency where he is currently being closed.
On the left it is certain and steady sam -steel. Although he will probably never break the threshold of 25 goals, although that would be fun, steel is just as consistent as they come into his role. The 27-year-old scored between six and 10 goals in each of his seven seasons and 20 to 28 points in each of the last five seasons. He is defensively disciplined and never has a shortage of effort.
Faksa’s Return marks a new identity for the fourth rule
| Oskar back | RADEK FAX | Colin Blackwell |
We were able to talk for an hour about why the stars could not handle the Edmonton Oilers in the Western Conference -Final and why they might have been lucky to be there in the first place. Earning, but at the same time happy. A big reason was the lack of physicality and lead with which they played while the play -offs continued.
That was tackled with two additions, the first was the reunion with Radek Faksa, who was the first nine seasons of his career at the stars. With the St. Louis Blues last season, Faksa threw 115 hits, which would have been good for the second on the stars. However, to show how much Dallas was missing in that part of the game, Jamie Benn had the second most hits with 114, and third was Colin Blackwell and Ilya Lyubushkin with 84. Although he might not be the most flexible skater in the competition, Faksa could be jointly moved for a short time.
Oskar Back (left wing) and Blackwell (right wing) complete the wing positions on this grid. Back is a solid option, but will probably not play higher than the fourth rule. As Rookie last season, Back had four goals and 16 points, and while General Manager Jim Nill rewarded him with an extension of two years, the stars are lurking the competition in the shade, which means that this season has to take a step to avoid parts of the campaign from the press box.
Just like Steel, Blackwell is only one of those players who rarely takes a shift. He plays with an energy and a passion that may not always appear on the score sheet, but has the opportunity to swing a game with one big shift. With the new emphasis of the stars on physicality, Blackwell’s ability to throw his body and play defensive sound should mean that he plays more than the 63 games as he did last season.
Competition for the Bottom-Six
Since physicality has been the accidental theme of this edition of seasonal examples, Nathan Bastian will see a lot of time on this fourth rule, and there is certainly a world where he breaks the camp for someone back. Bastian had 138 hits in 59 games with the New Jersey Devils last season, and combined 281 hits in his last two seasons. In theory, a line with Bastian, Faksa and Blackwell would wear a hard identity that the stars have been missing for some time. Although Bastian is a right wing, and Blackwell is also, I saw that Faska was moved to the left and Blackwell was in the middle in the middle to leave Bastian in the right wing where he is comfortable. They can also put Bastian on the left wing to find out what works.
Justin Hryckowian, who had eight hits last season in five games with the Big Club, dropped the gloves with Nathan Walker within the first four minutes of the first previous season of the stars at the weekend and threw his hat in the ring as one of the first call if the situation arose.
Gulutzan’s lines so far in training camp
As we did for the Top-Zes Preview, we let these lines compare with head coach Glen Gulutzan’s lines so far in the training camp.
The lines mentioned above are from Monday’s practice, and they are not far from what we have projected here. Jason Robertson with Johnston is something we have seen in recent seasons, but with Mikael Granlund and Mason Marchment it is difficult to imagine that Robertson is not at the top of the line -up to start the season. That said, if steel can build a chemistry and fits in the first or second line, that is something that Gulutzan would like to have in his back pocket.
The fourth rule is exactly the same if we have previously built and Gulutzan is already experimenting with Bastian on the left wing.
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