Texas Head Coach Derek Laxdal Sees "Deep" Team as Camp Opens

(Credit: Andy Nietupski/Texas Stars)

The Texas Stars opened training camp this morning in Cedar Park with a roster of 26, composed of NHL, AHL and tryout players. Texas Stars head coach Derek Laxdal said the main word he would use to describe the team this year would be depth, and he means it at all positions.

Goaltending looks to be a strong suit with Bow and Oettinger expected as one and two even though both are still in Dallas. Defense is going to be deep with Laxdal calling it a "mature" backend with a lot of leadership. Having players like Hanley, Bayreuther, Heatherington and Scarlett all in the conversation along with some newcomers like Emil Djuse and Joe Cecconi means Texas should have one of the deepest and stoutest backends they've had in a while.

At forward, the Stars feature a "nice mixture" of veterans and rookies with players like Tye Felhaber, Jason Robertson, Rhett Gardner and Riley Tufte all joining the mix with vets like Michael Mersch.

Most of these players have been in training camp with Dallas for two weeks at this point, so practices are pretty short. The team scrimmaged in the second half of today's opening session. They'll set up systems a bit more tomorrow in anticipation of the Thursday game against San Antonio. Of course, as with any season, Laxdal is giving the message to the guys on contract to Idaho that they need to make an impression now so that they are in the conversation when callups are needed.

The Stars practice again tomorrow morning at 10 AM.