Checking in on Lian Bichsel's season in the SHL

A look at the Stars prospect with video, data, and some thoughts from Stars GM Jim Nill.

The NHL playoffs start tonight for the Dallas Stars.

We’ll have lots from that, I promise.

Tonight I’ll have a piece following the game and I should have numerous things throughout the postseason for subscribers at Shap Shots.

But, today, while we kill some time, I wanted to dive into a different Stars-related topic.

Let’s talk about Lian Bichsel.

Bichsel, the Stars first-round pick in 2022, started this season with the Texas Stars and played 16 AHL games before activating the European-assignment clause in his contract and heading to Rögle in the Swedish Hockey League.

It was a move the Stars publicly co-signed, but within the organization I heard murmurs and slight frustration behind closed doors when Bichsel made that decision to leave the AHL. The Stars didn’t press, but they had been hoping that Bichsel would change his mind. He did not.

Bichsel also elected not to play for Switzerland at the under-20 world championships, a move that didn’t sit particularly well with the Swiss Ice Hockey Federation, but was apparently seen as proof to Rögle that he was committed to the SHL team.

And Rögle has been one of the SHL’s best stories. The team went from potentially falling into the relegation territory to reaching the playoffs through the play-in as the No. 9 seed and then ripped of 10 straight wins to sweep out the No. 1 and No. 2 teams in the SHL before reaching the championship series.

Rögle lost its first game of the playoffs in Game 1 of the final against Skellefteå, falling 1-0, with Game 2 of the finals about to start as I’m writing this.

The Texas Stars playoff series start this week, and while it was originally thought Bichsel would be back with Texas late in the regular season, he may now miss the Calder Cup Playoffs completely after a long SHL postseason run.

Bichsel is also a unicorn for many Stars fans.

He’s big and skates well, he represents the addition on the backend that the Stars don’t currently have — the dream of combining both Nils Lundkivst and Jani Hakanpää’s strengths into one player. Some have even wondered aloud whether he’d be NHL playoff ready right now.

So, did my own research. I watched film, dug into Bichsel’s numbers and asked Stars GM Jim Nill directly about the defender. Here’s what I’ve found: