Mailbag: Other stacks to read, storylines, and some lineup talk

Let's answer your questions on a Tuesday in July.

Happy Tuesday.

I wanted to start with a bit of a thank you to the readers here. It’s naturally been a bit of a slow time for a niche hockey website — that’s what the middle of July is for — and many of you still continue to support this venture.

That, to me, is the best part of this job. After having a bit of hard journalism reality dumped on me by a large corporate company, this space rekindled some of my love for the field that could have been lost.

It’s really cool when readers in this space are passing along story ideas, emailing in their thoughts, and have now found this as a place, I believe, where we can dive into some of the weird and wonderful sides of the sport.

So keep all of that coming, we are ramping up soon for a big season here at Shap Shots, and I’m very excited about what we can do to make it better serve you, the reader.

For today, let’s hop into the mailbag of your questions and see what we’ve got.

Are there any national storylines you're excited to watch unfold this season that you think aren't getting the attention they should? (From Dylan)

It’s way too obvious, but the Florida Panthers pushing for a three-peat isn’t going to be talked about enough. I think too many times we look back at dynasties, when it’s rather fun to be watching a potential one happen in front of us.

It’s not an NHL storyline, but I’m most fascinated to watch what happens this season in college hockey with an influx of CHLers leaving their major junior teams early to play in the NCAA, most notably Gavin McKenna at Penn State.

Michigan State is only 90 minutes from my house, Michigan is a bit closer, I’m fascinated to watch the Big 10 up close this year with how many players have made the switch.

At the NHL level, I’m looking forward to seeing how teams figure out their goaltending in and around the Olympic break. Again, this is my nerdy goalie brain, but I think this year is a fascinating challenge for optimizing performance from the position.

Any good substacks for Blues coverage you'd recommend? (From Josh M.)

For St. Louis Blues coverage, I will point you to the work Matt DeFranks does at the The St. Louis Post-Dispatch. Matt is one of the best beat writers in this business (he’s also a good friend), and if the Blues are your focus, you should follow him.

Within substack, hockey-wise, I’m a big fan of reading Jack Han’s work, I think Jack brings a smart view of the game with some inside knowledge from working on an NHL staff before.

Mike McMahon does an incredible job on college hockey in his space, while I also read everything that Robert Tiffin writes. Of course, I always enjoy the hockey perspectives from my pal Bob Sturm.

Those are some of the more established names on the platform — and I know I’m missing some — but I did want to take time to give some attention to the work that GabArr does on goaltending.

As a goalie nerd, I think he looks at the position in a really smart way and does a nice job properly blending narrative and reality.

Of course, I forgot someone or didn’t have time to list them. And as usual, if you have any further recommendations drop them in the comments.

Thoughts/feelings/concerns about Thomas Harley extension and is there just no rumor/gossip/discussion about it because it’s a done deal just waiting for the Robo resolution or what? (from Ash)

It’s not a done deal, there’s also not any murmurings/gossip because both sides are being pretty quiet on this deal.

Jim Nill naturally keeps everything tight as possible, it’s one of the reasons the Mikko Rantanen deal was able to stay as relatively quiet as it was. And Harley’s camp, at this point, is willing to lie and wait and see how things progress.

Harley and his agency, I know, are also pretty confident he’s going to continue to perform at a level that will lead to higher potential earnings. His addition to the Canada 4 Nations roster helped that case, and he’s got an outside shot of being on Team Canada for the Olympics, which would only raise his overall profile.

It’s in that weird spot where any discussion there is really set to simmer, not the back burner, but still not the most important thing on the Stars to-do list right now.

Thoughts on our left wings to start this season? Maybe Hintz or Duchene to move there given the lack of depth at the position. Not ideal to have Benn on the second line at this stage in his career (from Ben)

I agree it’s not an ideal spot to have Jamie Benn as your second-line left wing at this point in his career.

I could also se the Stars shuffling things about with Roope Hintz, but that would hurt their center depth down the middle and I think that’s more important.

The player that I would like to see get a shot on the left side, and if he’s willing to do it, is Mavrik Bourque. We talked about this at length on the DLLS Stars podcast yesterday, and I kind of laid out my thinking — Bourque is a cerebral player that gets to the right spots, I also like the idea of offhand wingers, I personally think it creates more space.

It’s not a sure thing, Bourque has been more of a center and right wing in his career, but I think both the player and the team could benefit from the experiment.

Will we see/do you want to see Wyatt on lines with better players this season? I feel like it might mean being top heavy but Wyatt with Duchene or Rantanen could really make him even more productive (From Ben Perera)

I do think Wyatt Johnston and Mikko Rantanen together would be an ideal combo. Johnston likes to receive the puck from the right and he likes to work off give-and-gos that way, and honestly he and Rantanen seem perfect to play with each other.

I guess the biggest question for the Stars on this front, though, is how do you want to use Johnston? Do you want him to be a No. 3 center that wins all matchups, or more of a top-six player?

Personally I don’t mind the idea of Johnston being your third-line center, because I believe he can drive his own line and I want to see him establish that a bit more. I also think because of the nature of Hintz’ durability and Duchene’s age, they’ll be times he naturally moves onto one of the top two lines rather frequently.

He’s a great utility piece (in the good way) and maybe the best season for Johnston includes him being able to prove that up and down the lineup, which might also earn him a job with Canada at the Olympics in a bottom-six role.

The Stars aren’t going to be better on paper this year because of how LTIR allowed them to benefit with Granlund and others. Are they setup to be better in practice? If not, what do you think they need? (From BadHatBarry)

That’s a great question, because on paper they took a step back — no one is disputing that.

The reason the Stars are so intriguing to me this season, in addition to my normal interest, is the adjustments that will be made to the system to amend for some of the Western Conference final shortcomings.

Pete DeBoer was a good coach, DeBoer also didn’t adjust and was more of a strict boss — he told assistants what he wanted to run, and wasn’t big on people pushing back on his ideas.

Sometimes you need that, especially if the ideas are working.

But sometimes you need a coach like Glen Gulutzan, who is going to be more hands off with the areas his assistants manage, he’s going to allow Alain Nasredine to run the defense his way, he’s going to give Neil Graham some more autonomy.

This is a cop out, but I’m looking forward to watching the first month of the season for Dallas with a blank slate, learn what they are and aren’t, and then have a better idea of what they need to improve.