Stars mix and match to find their most balanced defensive group

Prior to the Stars’ 3-1 preseason loss to the Avalanche on Monday night, it had been quite some time since Dallas iced a defensive group as balanced as the one at American Airlines Center.

Three righties. Three lefties. Three power-play guys. Two penalty killers. All dispersed onto different pairs.

Miro Heiskanen was on his natural left side with Jani Hakanpää on his right. Defensive-minded Esa Lindell skated alongside offensive driver Nils Lundkvist. Ryan Suter was paired with Colin Miller.

The combination of handedness and skillsets made Monday’s defensive lineup a balanced one. People can argue about whether that balanced philosophy (put a puck-mover with a stay-at-home defenseman) fits within modern hockey. But people cannot argue that it’s something that hasn’t been seen in Dallas in recent years.

“I feel like we have a good tight group on the back end, so you can just put whoever out there with anybody and it seems to be working pretty good,” Hakanpää said. “It’s a good thing to have and it’s going to be a big advantage moving forward here.”

Moving pairs around might be the best outcome for the Stars, if they want to lean into Heiskanen’s status as one of the best defensemen in the league.

Currently, none of the right-handers are equipped to play the sizable minutes that Heiskanen should play.

“Playing with Miro is playing with Miro,” Hakanpää said. “He’s one of the top defensemen in the league. … Miro, he’ll probably end up playing a little more o-zone with somebody else.”

Hakanpää couldn’t do it consistently last season when Heiskanen was sidelined by mononucleosis. Miller was a depth signing to fill a bottom pairing, and not play special teams. Lundkvist could be that guy someday (even later this season), but jumping from the fourth right-handed defenseman on the Rangers depth chart to top-pair minutes is quite a leap.

Suter and Lindell each have vast experience logging big minutes in the NHL, but playing with either one would cause not only Heiskanen to play on his off side, but also one of the right-handers that then becomes paired with another righty.

A solution? Play Heiskanen a ton at even-strength, and mix his partners based on the situation.

An offensive-zone draw when you’re chasing a goal? Sounds like a duty for Heiskanen and Lundkvist. Need to shut down a game in the closing minutes? Maybe that’s a job for Heiskanen and Lindell. Though his playoff series against Calgary was poor, Suter still served as a capable partner for Heiskanen throughout much of the regular season.

While Stars coach Pete DeBoer said the coaching staff is still acclimating to the defensemen, situational deployment is something that Dallas may employ.

“For sure, there’ll be some of that,” DeBoer said. “We’re still getting to know each other. [Assistant coach Alain Nasreddine] is still getting to know the group. It’s Ryan Suter’s first game tonight, I thought he had a real good, solid game for us. As we get to know the group, we’ll get more comfortable making those calls.”

Heiskanen hasn’t played on the left in a regular-season game since before the pandemic. Back then, in March 2020, his defensive partner was Stephen Johns. Since then, Heiskanen played with Jamie Oleksiak and Suter. His last regular right-handed partner was Roman Polak during Heiskanen’s rookie season in 2018-19.

Heiskanen’s now been on the left side in consecutive exhibition games.

“I’m not one to pump our own tires,” Suter said, “but our D are good, too.”

On Twitter: @MDeFranks