Dallas Stars head coach Pete DeBoer has named both Roope Hintz and Jani Hakanpaa like day-to-day life with injuries leading up to the Western Conference Finals, according to Lia Assimakopoulous of the Dallas Morning News (Twitter link). Hintz suffered an upper-body injury during Game 4 of the Second Round, since missing Dallas’ last two games, while Hakanpaa has missed the team’s final 26 games with a lower-body injury. .
Dallas managed to overcome the Colorado Avalanche in Hintz’s absence, although there’s no doubt he’s sorely missed. Hintz has six points in 11 postseason appearances while leading a strong line of Jason Robertson and Wyatt Johnston. Hintz reached the 30-goal mark for the third consecutive season this year, scoring 30 goals and 65 points in 80 games. He has emerged as a central pillar of the Stars lineup over the past three seasons, and could be a critical piece in Dallas’ run to the Stanley Cup Finals.
Hintz’s injury has left room for Radek Faksawhile Hakanpaa has opened a place for Nils Lundkvist and Alejandro Petrovic to compete for a role. Hintz will immediately slot into the lineup when he’s ready to return, while Hakanpaa’s status could be more up in the air after such a long absence.
Other NHL notes:
- Minnesota Wild Prospect Dmitri Ovchinikov has signed a one-year deal with Sibir Novosibirsk of the KHL, according to Kyle Cush, I’m from The Score (Twitter link). Ovchinikov has spent parts of the last three seasons with the Toronto Marlies of the AHL, although each season has been limited: he totaled 12 points in 32 games of his AHL career. He will now return to the KHL, where he played, he already participated in 103 games in his career and scored 17 points. Ovchinikov was part of a Trade Deadline exchange that sent Connor Dewar to the Toronto Maple Leafs, but remained on loan to the Marlies for the remainder of the season.
- The ECHL has announced that Senior Vice President of Hockey Operations Joe Ernst will leave the league at the end of the postseason. The news will bring an end to Ernst’s storied ECHL career, which spans 33 of the league’s 36 years of existence. He originally served 16 seasons as a referee before being promoted to vice president of hockey operations in 2011 and to his current position in 2018. Ernst’s role in the league is so deep that he is not only in the ECHL Hall of Fame, including in 2011, but is also part of the ECHL Hall of Fame Committee. He is leaving to take a senior management position at Zawyer Sports and Entertainment, which owns and operates four different ECHL clubs: Jacksonville Icemen, Savannah Ghost Pirates, the upcoming Tahoe Knight Monsters and Allen Americans.
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