Thanks to their 3-1 win over the Winnipeg Jets on Tuesday night, the Dallas Stars took a commanding 3-1 series lead in their second-round playoff series and are just one win away from their third consecutive Western Conference Final appearance. For most of the first two rounds, their big trade-deadline addition, Mikko Rantanen, has been carrying the offense.
But for as great — and dominant — as Rantanen has been, he is not the only midseason addition who is making a big impact for the Stars this postseason.
Veteran forward Mikael Granlund, acquired in a trade with the San Jose Sharks, is also having a great postseason.
He played his best game of the playoffs in Tuesday’s win, providing all of the offense by recording a hat trick.
With his three goals on Tuesday, Granlund is now up to four goals and seven total points in 11 playoff games, while bringing his Dallas totals (including regular season) to 28 total points (11 goals, 17 assists) in 42 games.
It’s not quite the same level as what Rantanen or some of the Stars’ other top players have done, but it is still a huge impact from a secondary scoring perspective.
It should also be considered a very pleasant surprise for the Stars.
Dallas paid a significant price to acquire him, sending a first- and third-round pick to the Sharks for Granlund and defenseman Cody Ceci. Not only is Granlund a pending free agent after this season, but there was some legitimate concern that some of his scoring production in San Jose was a bit of a mirage.
Even though he had led the Sharks in scoring in each of the past two seasons, there were some serious red flags with his play. For one, he was getting the most minutes and biggest offensive role for a bad team that had few scoring options. Somebody had to get the points for the Sharks. Granlund had shown significant signs of slowing down in his career before arriving in San Jose, and there was good reason to believe he was just feasting on favorable offensive situations.
He also was not much of an impact player defensively.
In short: There were some potential flaws, and given the price the Stars paid, it could have been an acquisition that quickly went sideways for them.
But with his performance on Tuesday — and since arriving in Dallas — he has silenced a lot of the doubters. He may not be a top-line player, but the Stars do not need him to be. They have those — plenty of them. They just needed another veteran forward to be able to provide some secondary and complementary scoring. He is giving them that, and on Tuesday, he was the difference in a pivotal game in a series against the NHL’s Presidents’ Trophy-winning team.
There is still a long way to go in the playoffs, but it is easy to say the Stars were the big winners of the NHL trade deadline. Their two biggest additions are winning games all by themselves.
