Tufte, Harley Rejoin Texas as Stars Take Holiday Break

Riley Tufte (Credit: Andy Nietupski/Texas Stars)

Riley Tufte and Thomas Harley were reassigned to Texas yesterday after quick stints in Dallas. For the moment, neither the NHL or AHL clubs have games to play due to COVID pauses affecting both teams. For the NHL side, it's a league-wide pause. For Texas, tonight's game against Manitoba was previously postponed due to the cross-border travel concerns for the Moose.

The Stars coming schedule is rough in that regard. Texas tries to schedule northern teams to visit in January as an incentive to get the clubs to travel so far. It's scheduled to be 85 degrees here on Christmas but literally one degree in Winnipeg and a balmy 19 in Laval, so you can see the appeal. That scheduling preference is leading to a series of games over the next month that could all go up in smoke thanks to cross-border travel concerns. Manitoba and Texas play again four more times in January and Laval comes to visit Cedar Park in early February. With the All-Star game in Laval having just been canceled, it's not looking up for the chances of all of those games being completed as planned.

At this time though, Texas is allowing its players to travel for the holidays. Even before tonight's game was cancelled, the Stars would have had a lengthy break before their next game, currently scheduled for New Year's Eve against Charlotte. The team has been testing all players each day and completed a final COVID test today before releasing the team for the break.