Stars get a day full of news

Three news stories of note came down about the Stars today, the biggest one being the return of three injured players. Trevor Daley and Alex Goligoski will be returning for tomorrow’s big game against the San Jose Sharks, the start of a five game road trip for the Stars. Brenden Morrow is likely to return.

Goligoski hasn’t played since a November 11 game against the Pittsburgh Penguins, when he broke his thumb on a blocked shot. Morrow has been out since Nov. 21 and Daley hasn’t seen the ice since Nov. 26. The biggest return might be from Goligoski as he’ll be immediately be thrust back into the point on the power-play. The Stars have been terrible with the man-advantage since he was injured, going 2 of 27 in 11 games.

Also coming down today was Mark Fistric’s punishment of his hit on New York Islanders forward Nino Niederreiter. Fistric was suspended for three games as Shanahan deemed that Fistric charged on the hit. Fistric can be seen leaving his feet and getting his shoulder right into Niederreiter’s face. Nino suffered a concussion and will be out for an undetermined amount of time.

The suspension wasn’t that surprising, but it lacks consistency. Tomas Vincour took an identical hit from Luke Schenn of the Toronto Maple Leafs in their game on November 25. Schenn left his feet as well, though not as much as Fistric and elbowed Vincour right in the mouth. Vincour didn’t suffer a concussion, though he did leave the game for a while before returning. Schenn didn’t receive a suspension from the league office.

Fistric will miss games against the Sharks, LA Kings and New York Rangers. His comeback game? Against the New York Islanders of course. Adam Pardy should see more time with Fistric out of the lineup.

The final (12:30 CT) piece of news that came down for the Stars (per @andrewdsp) was that they traded little used forward Krys Barch and a 6th round pick to the Florida Panthers for Jake Hauswirth and a 5th round pick. Barch wasn’t getting any playing time here and the roster depth as well as the recent play of Eric Nystrom and Tomas Vincour have made him expendable. This year would have been Barch’s 6th year with the Stars., a time when he has mostly been the Stars designated fight guy.

Hauswirth, 23-years-old,  is a minor leaguer in the Panthers system and has yet to see time in the NHL. He’s a 6’5″, 215 lb forward so he’s definitely got some size to him. He went undrafted and first signed on to play with the Washinton Capitals minor league system. He was traded earlier this year to Florida and now makes his way to the Stars system. He’ll be somewhere in the Stars minor league teams, probably on the Idaho Steelheads as he stays in the ECHL.

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