Brett Ritchie (Credit: Josh Rasmussen/Texas Stars) |
Ritchie scored three goals and an assist in eight games with Dallas this season. Texas fans should savor the time they'll see him here this season because he won't be coming back in 2015-16. The scoring punch Ritchie had in Dallas should add to his confidence in the AHL and make him a big difference maker here.
Jamie Oleksiak, meanwhile, is coming down to get big minutes and stay fresh as the 7th man for Dallas.
Ritche is a huge deal for Texas. He is probably the best player at handling the puck using muscle we have. With Rynnas playing well this might be the best Texas lineup we have seen all season. I think overall they are to small to bet they will dig themselves out of the hole they are in but at least they have a chance.
ReplyDeleteIf I were the Stars I would move a couple of the smaller guys down and pick up a couple big bodies from the ECHL for muscle if nothing else. I just don't see the end of the bench guys being that important for reasons other than eating up ice time considering the situation the Stars are in. Looking over the ECHL stats it looks like we could easily find some 6-2 and bigger guys that have some scoring touch. I think the organization has to face it that the apparent practice of rostering "skill" guys almost exclusively isn't going to earn many wins.
Texas did pretty well last year with a lot of skill, but it was *a lot* of skill. This is a different year. Just worth pointing out that it is technically doable.
DeleteTexas was also a bigger team last year, they weren't a team that played physical but "could" play physical with anyone. Also last years team played a skilled teams game plan, this years team plays a rounded teams game plans.
DeleteCurious about the comment that he won't be here next year -- is it because he's just too good or is this the last year in his contract? Last night at the game the people around me were saying they didn't think he'd ever be back, and would probably stay at the NHL level. Glad to have him back.
ReplyDeleteLike Colton Sceviour, John Klingberg, Antoine Roussel and Alex Chiasson, Ritchie is going to be an NHL player next season and not being sent back down unless things went crazy.
ReplyDelete