On today’s edition of Stars’ News & Rumors, Dallas will finally play their Kraft Hockeyville preseason game, prospects impressing at development camp, and the full Stars schedule for the prospect tournament taking place this week!
Kraft Hockeyville 2020 Game Finally Scheduled
Kraft Hockeyville is an organization that awards one city both in the US and Canada, the opportunity to host an NHL preseason game. These games have been played across multiple cities since it was founded in 2006. In 2020, the winner was none other than the city of El Paso, Texas. Unfortunately, due to the COVID-19 restrictions at the time, this event was postponed. Finally, on October 3, 2021, the game will take place.
The Dallas Stars will host the Arizona Coyotes in a preseason game at the El Paso County Events Center in El Paso, Texas. El Paso will also receive $150,000 in rink upgrades from Kraft Heinz and $10,000 worth of new equipment from the NHLPA Goals & Dreams fund.
“Our organization is proud to represent the great state of Texas in this preseason matchup. The selection of El Paso is a testament to the hard work of numerous individuals and organizations to help sustain and grow the game of hockey in our state. We are thankful to our partners at the NHL, NHLPA, Kraft Heinz, and the Arizona Coyotes for helping make possible this one-of-a-kind game.”
Dallas Stars President and CEO Brad Alberts
Top Prospects Harley, Damiani, Dellandra, & Tufte Impressing in Preseason
The Stars wrapped up their 2021 development camp on Sunday, and some familiar names were among the most impressive. Top prospect Thomas Harley displayed his skill and potential, flying all over the ice and looking to be a step ahead of the rest of the competition. Riley Damiani is in a similar position, as he continues to impress and show that he is ready to make his NHL debut this season. Other players that have made noise are forwards Ty Dellandrea and Riley Tufte. Dellandrea played 26 NHL games last season while Tufte has yet to make his NHL debut. Tufte impressed even further with two goals in the Stars first game of the prospect tournament on Thursday night against the Detroit Red Wings.
It will be tough for any of these players to make the lineup this season as Dallas has a load of depth with players returning from injury and some key additions in free agency. It is vital for these players to continue to impress through the prospect tournament and into training camp.
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Stars 2021 NHL Prospect Tournament
The Stars are among the five teams to take part in the 2021 prospect tournament this week in Traverse City, Michigan. It will be the first time this tournament has taken place since 2019 due to COVID-19. Dallas will play four games from Thursday, September 16 through Monday, September 20, in what will be the first step for a lot of prospects to show what they are capable of.
These five teams (the Stars, Red Wings, Toronto Maple Leafs, Columbus Blue Jackets, and St. Louis Blues) see this tournament as a huge step in the process of returning to normalcy. All games can be streamed live on the Red Wings website.
“It’s really the kickoff of the season. Everyone is back in the rink, there are games to watch, and it’s a return to a sense of normalcy of what we hope will be a long season.”
Dallas Stars GM Jim Nill (from How NHL prospect tournaments went from small-town solution to leaguewide must, The Athletic, 9/15/21.)
“Those players, they’re a team for a week, but some of them are going to be a team (in the NHL) five years from now, four years from now. You start to build chemistry, they start to build relationships, they start to be proud to be from that organization.”
NHL Exectuive Ken Holland (from How NHL prospect tournaments went from small-town solution to leaguewide must, The Athletic, 9/15/21.)
Dallas Stars 2021 NHL Prospect Tournament Schedule
- September 16 vs Detroit Red Wings: (Red Wings 5, Stars 4)
- September 17 vs Columbus Blue Jackets
- September 19 vs Toronto Maple Leafs
- September 20 vs St. Louis Blues