Whats next for Ty Dellandrea after up-and-down season with the Stars?
Ty Dellandrea had a bit of a topsy-turvy season, beginning it in the opening night lineup in the NHL with the Dallas Stars, being demoted to the taxi squad and ultimately finishing the AHL. The Stars would have liked to play Dellandrea more in the AHL this season, but kept him in the NHL because of the rash of injuries to Dallas forwards this season. The result was a sometimes overmatched Dellandrea in the NHL instead of building his game in the AHL. He was trending upward, and I think it gives him some confidence into the offseason and so thats very positive, Stars assistant GM and Texas GM Scott White said. Ideally, would have liked to get him more games down there and to start the year there, but our year was just how it was.  With Blake Comeau and Andrew Cogliano entering the summer as unrestricted free agents with Jason Dickinson possibly being selected by Seattle in the expansion draft, the Stars will be looking for bottom-six talent to round out the lineup. Dellandrea, Nick Caamano or Rhett Gardner all filled that role at times this season, but the Stars could also look to players like Blake Coleman or Alex Wennberg in free agency to fill the void. Tufte has become somewhat of an afterthought because of his lack of offensive production in the AHL (just six goals in 89 games), but the 2016 first-round pick still has a chance to contribute in the NHL in a penalty-killing, bottom-six role. Texas coach Neil Graham said Tufte has to add consistency to his wall play and improvement in feeling out when he has to do things quickly and when he has time to make a play.  [Penalty-killing] was a role his rookie year he started to grab a little bit more in those final 30 games, well call it, Graham said. He came in and really excelled in that area. The PK, youre going to have ups and downs in those percentages, but overall, it was a strength of our group most of the year. I thought Tufte did a great job.  Because of his 6-6, 230-pound frame, Tufte can cover a lot of ice in a few strides, and hes shown effectiveness pressuring the puck up ice to create turnovers and scoring chances while shorthanded. Felhabers struggles: Forward Tye Felhaber has failed to translate his prolific scoring from the OHL to the AHL thus far, and finished this season with four goals and four assists in 31 games. He ended the season on a 20-game goalless streak, and Graham said Felhaber needed to improve his strength and conditioning. You have to learn even in a year like this where theres only 38 games, how do you maintain that strength, how do you maintain that speed? Graham said. Youre always going to have weight fluctuations throughout the year, but its more about making yourself feel good every night. Its something that hes working towards and learning.  Felhaber signed with the Stars as a free agent in 2019 after his 109 points ranked third in the OHL as a 20-year-old. The signing was low-risk for the Stars and Felhaber has one more year left on his entry-level contract. +++  Find more Stars coverage from The Dallas Morning News here.