Dallas Stars rookie Wyatt Johnston has been massively underrated

Dallas Stars reporter Brien Rea joined Daily Faceoff Live with Nick Alberga and Mike McKenna. They chatted all things Stars and Kraken, but most importantly, they touched on the topic of Stars rookie Wyatt Johnston and how he has been massively underrated all season. The Calder Trophy Finalists was released with Matty Beniers, Owen Power and Stuart Skinner being named, but many in the industry believe Johnston deserved a nod.

Nick Alberga: Wyatt Johnston has been one of my favourite players in the league, and I still think he’s overlooked in terms of the rookie conservation. He’s just everywhere all the time. 

Brien Rea: Well, Pete DeBoer would agree with you about him being overlooked in that rookie conversation after his comments in the post-game. I look at that second game, and I was chatting with a few people about the difference between game one and game two; for me, it’s the pace of play, and I know every NHL team wants to play a fast game. But you look at the type of team Seattle is and you look at what type of team Minnesota is, those are two different levels of pace that those teams play with. So I think as this series goes along, that Seattle forechecks and how fast that team can skate top to bottom. In game one, it sank its teeth into Dallas in its own zone; in game two, I thought Dallas did a better job of their breakouts and avoiding that forecheck. I just think if Dallas can continue that over the course of this series, it will play out well for them. I thought the first 10 minutes of game two was a bit frantic, but not because Dallas was running around or out of sorts but because they were just trying to pick up their pace of play so that Seattle’s forecheck couldn’t sink their teeth into them and ultimately they settled in and won the game.

You can watch the full episode here…