With Harley and Scheel to Dallas, Texas Calls Four from Idaho to Bolster Ranks

(Credit: Andy Nietupski/Texas Stars)

(UPDATE: Riley Tufte has now also been reassigned to the taxi squad.)

Defenseman Thomas Harley and goalie Adam Scheel joined forward Ty Dellandra, Riley Damani and Rhett Gardner on the Dallas taxi squad this weekend. With five players up in Dallas for the foreseeable future, Texas recalled two and signed two more to get themselves ready for upcoming games. Texas has not played with December 18th and is next scheduled to play against Manitoba this Friday.

Texas added forward Yauheni Aksiantsiuk and goalie Matt Jurusik. Both were already on contract. Aksiantsiuk is on an entry-level deal with Dallas while Jurusik signed a two-way deal with Texas last week. On tryouts, the Stars picked up forward Will Merchant, who has played for Texas before and is a long-time Steelhead, and defenseman Evan Wardley, who has been with Idaho and Wheeling in the ECHL over the past three seasons. Merchant previously played a single game with Texas in 2017, a 7-2 loss to Milwaukee.

If the Stars are to play this weekend, it will be a drastically different lineup from their December set. However, all teams are experiencing similar turmoil. Further good news came this morning for the organization as ten players in Dallas left COVID protocol. Dallas is next scheduled to play on Thursday at home against the Panthers.