Why did the Stars sign Magnus Hellberg?

Let's take a look at what the Stars are adding with their new No. 3 goaltender.

The Dallas Stars signed Magnus Hellberg yesterday to a one-year, two-way contract.

I’ve covered Hellberg quite a bit, he was with the Detroit Red Wings during the 2022-23 season, and I had a couple readers ask why the Stars made the signing.

So let’s explain and go over what Hellberg brings to the Stars organization.

From a goalie perspective, the Stars have desperately been lacking a true No. 3 goalie for the past two seasons.

Anton Khudobin’s swan song with the organization during the 2022-23 season was more of a whimper and the Stars coaches never really trusted Matt Murray as a viable NHL option. It meant that when injury or fatigue came into play for Jake Oettinger or Scott Wedgewood, the Stars were effectively carrying one NHL goalie in the mind of the coaching staff.

Heading into this season, the Stars signed Casey DeSmith to backup Oettinger, but still lacked a viable No. 3 that you could trust in an NHL game.

Remi Poirer took some steps last season with the Texas Stars, but isn’t a viable NHL option at this point.

Poirer is solid down low, his skating is great, but any shot higher than 16 inches off the ice starts to cause trouble for the goalie.

Here is his AHL performance and save percentage on various locations from last season, courtesy of my pals over at InStat.

Hellberg wasn’t much better than Poirer in the AHL last season, but the 33-year-old has NHL experience and at a monstrous 6-foot-6 can play a more calm, composed style in net. That style tends to translate easier from the AHL to the NHL, Hellberg also isn’t a rhythm goalie — he’s someone who can perform at roughly the same level whether he’s played a game in the past week or not.

Hellberg has flaws, there is a reason he’s been an NHL/AHL tweener at his size, but if the puck hits him he typically holds rebounds well. Because of his size, he’s able to play deeper in his crease, which is becoming increasingly more important in today’s NHL/AHL.

From a data perspective, here is Hellberg’s performance on all shots faced last season, this includes data from games in both the NHL and AHL.

One thing the data won’t show, is the coaches trust to use Hellberg in a game if/when Oettinger or DeSmith get injured. The Stars internally had been looking for goalie options that would make the coaching staff comfortable in case of an emergency, and that’s what Hellberg provides.

He’s also a pretty good personality, if you want any further reading on him, here’s a piece I wrote about Hellberg’s journey during the 2022-23 season.

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