Earlier Tuesday, Lia Assimakopoulos of The Dallas Morning News passed alongside a notice from Dallas Stars head coach Pete DeBoer, indicating defenseman Miro Heiskanen would return Tuesday evening if every little thing at observe went effectively within the morning.
Just a few hours later, the Stars announced they’d activated Heiskanen from their long-term injured reserve, not directly confirming he’d be within the lineup towards the Winnipeg Jets Tuesday night.
Heiskanen has been out of the lineup since Jan. 28 after struggling a lower-body damage towards the Vegas Golden Knights. Through the recreation, after being tripped up by Dallas ahead Roope Hintz, Vegas captain Mark Stone collided headfirst with Heiskanen’s knee, necessitating his teammates to assist him off the ice.
Just a few days later, on Feb. 4, Heiskanen underwent profitable knee surgical procedure for the damage. Nonetheless, DeBoer expressed optimism that Heiskanen would return earlier than the tip of the common season. Dallas waited a month to position Heiskanen on LTIR, utilizing the salary-cap financial savings to amass fellow countryman Mikko Rantanen from the Carolina Hurricanes.
Because of Rantanen, the Stars survived a hotly contested opening-round matchup towards the Colorado Avalanche, defeating their Central Division rivals in seven video games with out Heiskanen or star ahead Jason Robertson. Robertson returned for the Stars in Sport 1 of their Spherical 2 collection towards the Jets, and so they’ll have a largely wholesome lineup Tuesday evening for the primary time this postseason.
Though his offensive output was depressed this yr, Heiskanen has been a premier participant for the Stars, notably within the Stanley Cup playoffs. Throughout their run to the Remaining within the 2019-20 postseason, Heiskanen scored six objectives and 26 factors in 27 video games. All through their back-to-back Western Convention Finals runs in 2023 and 2024, Heiskanen scored seven objectives and 28 factors in 38 contests, averaging 28 minutes of ice time.
