Texas Stars 2025 ATO Preview: The Three Most Likely to Don Victory Green This Spring

Still with his BU pads, goalie Jake Oettinger made his professional debut on an ATO at the end of the 2018-19 season. (Credit: Andy Nietupski/Texas Stars)

It’s that time of year again in the American Hockey League. As European, major junior and collegiate seasons wind down, the amateur tryout engines revs up. Tons of names you know have been ATO additions to the AHL over the years including Jake Oettinger, Jason Robertson and Mavrik Bourque with Texas and even Mason Marchment with the Marlies back in 2016.

To be pedantically clear, there are two ways that these drafted players can join late in the season. The first is amateur tryouts for players who have not signed an entry-level contract with the parent club. The other is simple reassignment for players who have signed a deal. The difference is more technical than anything else, so it’s not worth distinguishing in most cases.

Additionally, the Stars are always on the market for undrafted ATOs at this time of year. We don’t know who the Stars are targeting, but it’s always a good bet that a player or two from a college in the Great Lakes region will find themselves with an ATO deal for as long as GM Scott White is behind the wheel.

Let’s get the first set out of the way together: the Barrie Boys. Defenseman Tristan Bertucci and forwards Brad Gardiner and Emil Hemming are all on the same Barrie Colts (OHL) squad. The Colts are second in their conference and have already locked up their division. If all goes to plan, they will make it at least to the conference finals, which ended in 2024 on May 6th (with former Stars coach Derek Laxdal’s Oshawa Generals beating Justin Ertel and the North Bay Battalion 6-1). If Texas is still playing then and Barrie bows out, at least Bertucci if not all three could come down, but at that point, none would be likely to play. Bertucci is the only one I could see making it into a playoff game based on how well he played in the single game he skated in last year.

Defenseman Tristan Bertucci in his lone game with Texas last year.
(Credit: Ross Bonander/Texas Stars)

Another set to get out of the way all at once is the collegiate crew that has yet to finish its eligibility. That would be a pair of players just finishing their second year of university: defenseman George Fegaras at Cornell and defenseman Aram Minnetian at Boston College. These two cannot join Texas unless they play to give up the rest of their college eligibility and go pro next year. 

Usually we don’t see European players come over to Texas after their seasons end so I wouldn’t bet on goalie Arno Tiefensee.

That boils us down to the three who have a chance.

Angus MacDonnell

Forward Angus MacDonnell (2023 draft, 189th overall) is fresh off signing his ELC with Dallas and figures to be an addition to Texas as soon as his season in the OHL is wrapped up. His Brampton Steelheads are ranked 5th currently in their conference with about a week to go before the regular season ends. The Steelheads are certainly no slouches but there is a clear dividing line in the standings between 4th place and 5th place. Everyone above them is over 0.650 in points percentage while Brampton is a “lowly” 0.571. It’s not entirely clear who they will play in Round 1 with such a tight grouping of teams at the same point percentage above them, but all series in the OHL are seven games. If Brampton does not advance, MacDonnell would make his way down and could even play some games before the playoffs.

Ayrton Martino

Winger Ayrton Martino (2021 draft, 73rd overall) is finishing up his fourth year at Clarkson Unviersity, which is in Potsdam, NY, in case you didn’t know. Martino has had steady growth over his time at Clarkson, exploding to over a point per game this final season (23-22=45 in 34 GP) and leading the team in points by a margin of 14. His Golden Knights squad ranks 19th in the pairwise college hockey rankings. Unlike college football, there is no subjectivity to the rankings here. The only realistic way that Clarkson can make the tourney and extend their season deep into April is by winning the ECAC championship. I claim no special exceptional knowledge of college hockey, let alone the ECAC, but only Quinnipiac is ranked above Clarkson among ECAC teams, so the Golden Knights have a puncher’s chance to make the tournament. Either way, they’ll start the tournament tonight with the first game of a best-in-three quarterfinal against Harvard in Potsdam.

Jack Bar

Defenseman Jack Bar (2021 draft, 138th overall) will be squaring up against the aforementioned Martino and his Golden Knights this evening with Harvard. In opposition to Martino’s growth over his four years, Bar has mostly stayed in the same rough zone in his collegiate career, and it sounds doubtful that he will earn an ELC from Dallas. He is one of Harvard’s three captains for this season, so he has those intangible leadership aspects that teams long for in prospects. It is possible that he signs an ATO and then an AHL SPC, if something sparks. Dallas, as all teams are, is cautious about coming up against the contract limit of 50 and wants to make sure that every one of those deals has a good chance to turn into an NHL player. Dallas maintains around 45 contracts to ensure flexibility for trades. Bar could take an AHL SPC and turn that into an NHL ELC. Matt Murray is a good recent example of that. Bar could also not be signed by Dallas and end up elsewhere professionally.