Ranking the Dallas Stars Roster from No. 23 to No. 1

Training camp starts next week, let's take a look at how things stack up before we get there.

The best ideas are stolen, right?

So before the NHL training camps start next week in Dallas and Detroit, I’m stealing an idea from my pal Bob Sturm that does annually for the Dallas Cowboys roster, which he happened to steal from another substack, “The Leap,” which which covers the Green Bay Packers.

2025 Cowboys roster ranking, 10-1

So for the Dallas Stars and Detroit Red Wings, we will rank the rosters before training camp. I’ve reached out to my media friends in both markets for their ballots, which they can reveal or not based on their decisions, tabulated them and also picked a random paid subscriber here at Shap Shots to be the voice of the readers.

Each panelist was asked the same question, “Rank the Stars roster from 23 to 1, with 1 being the best player.”

I intentionally didn’t give a list of names for panelist to rank, because I wanted each panelist to work from what the roster is in their mind, meaning we ended up with 26 players ranked.

The panel was as follows:

Lia Assimakopoulos, Stars beat writer, Dallas Morning News

Taylor Baird, Managing Editor at Defending Big D and NHL.com correspondent

David Castillo, publisher/writer at Stars Stack

Sam Nestler, Stars beat writer, DLLS

Owen Newkirk, host of the DLLS Stars Podcast

Sean Shapiro, myself

Gavin Spittle, host of the Spits & Suds podcast

Bob Sturm, publisher/writer at Sturm Stack

Robert Tiffin, Stars beat writer at Stars Thoughts

And our reader representative was Timothy, who was chosen at random from our readers who expressed interest in helping with a project.

Two players received votes and didn’t reach the top-23, Arttu Hyry, Justin Hryckowian, and Emil Hemming. Consider them our honorable mentions for this project.

23. Vladislav Kolyachonok, LHD

Average ranking: 23.22

Highest rank: 22

Lowest rank: NR

My rank: 23

Acquired in a trade this summer with the Pittsburgh Penguins, which sent Matt Dumba the other way, Vladislav Kolyachonok is a 24-year-old defender who’s been more of a 4-A player in his time in North America. Kolyachonok is a mobile defenseman, but isn’t overly dynamic. He’s likely going to start the season as the No. 8 defender.

22. Alexander Petrovic, RHD

Average ranking: 21.55

Highest rank: 20

Lowest rank: NR

My rank: 22

Petrovic’s past couple seasons look like an error was made on his Elite Prospects profile. How does a player spend that much time in the AHL, in back-to-back seasons, and then end up playing that much in the NHL playoffs?

In the past 24 months, Petrovic has played just six NHL regular season games, but 24 in the NHL playoffs. He’s organizational depth, might start the season on the Dallas roster, but could also end up playing, again, for the Texas Stars. Petrovic’s NHL role will likely be more dependent on how some others seize opportunity that we will talk about soon.