Heiskanen left the sport within the third interval after a controversial collision with Vegas captain Mark Stone. The Golden Knights winger, who alleged he tripped over the stick of Dallas heart Roope Hintz, fell into Heiskanen’s left knee and thigh (video through ESPN) and was assessed a minor penalty for tripping. Heiskanen wanted help leaving the ice.
DeBoer mentioned the preliminary harm designation got here after Heiskanen underwent an MRI on Wednesday. They’ll have a firmer thought of his return timeline after a gathering with a specialist on Thursday.
Except for his participation within the 4 Nations event, Heiskanen’s absence is a humongous loss for a thinned-out Dallas protection group within the lead-up to the break. The 25-year-old has taken on elevated significance this season after it misplaced Chris Tanev and Jani Hakanpaa to free company and purchased out Ryan Suter, averaging north of 25 minutes per recreation for the second time in his profession.
Nonetheless, the ever-steady Heiskanen is having a down season offensively. That may partially be attributed to Dallas’ struggling energy play — he has simply seven factors with the person benefit by 50 video games after notching 21 power-play factors in 71 appearances final season. However general, his 0.50 factors per recreation is his lowest tempo in 4 years.
Whereas he nonetheless leads the Dallas blueliners in scoring, possession metrics additionally level to Thomas Harley, not Heiskanen, as the best two-way risk this season. That’s to not say Heiskanen has been regarding defensively by any stretch, however the Stars management 55.5 % of shot makes an attempt with Harley on the ice at even energy in comparison with 53.5 % with Heiskanen.
They’ve spent an honest portion of the season on totally different pairings after routinely serving as companions final season, however Heiskanen’s possession numbers nonetheless enhance when paired with Harley this 12 months.
Nonetheless, Dallas’ weakened blueline depth can be examined with information that Nils Lundkvist can be coping with an upper-body harm after sitting out the final three video games as a presumed wholesome scratch, DeBoer told Assimakopoulos. The staff introduced it has recalled defenseman Kyle Capobianco from AHL Texas in a corresponding transaction, and he’ll make his season debut towards the Canucks on Friday.
Capobianco, 27, signed a two-year, two-way cope with the Stars over the summer season after two years within the Jets group. He cleared waivers to start the season and headed to AHL Texas, the place he’s served as their prime power-play choice and leads staff D in scoring with 28 factors (2 G, 26 A) in 35 video games. His +13 ranking additionally leads Child Stars defenders. Friday will mark his first NHL recreation since suiting up as soon as with Winnipeg within the 2023 postseason.
Initially a third-round choose by the Coyotes in 2015, Capobianco has 12 factors (5 G, 7 A) in 73 profession NHL appearances. Forty-five video games got here with the Yotes within the 2021-22 marketing campaign, his remaining season within the group. He’s traditionally graded out barely beneath common defensively in his NHL minutes and can seemingly see much more restricted even-strength utilization than Heiskanen, though he could possibly be in line to take a piece of his power-play minutes with Lundkvist additionally sidelined.
