Stars activate key defenseman from LTIR

Earlier Tuesday, Lia Assimakopoulos of The Dallas Morning News passed along a note from Dallas Stars head coach Pete DeBoer, indicating defenseman Miro Heiskanen would return Tuesday night if everything at practice went well in the morning. 

A few hours later, the Stars announced they’d activated Heiskanen from their long-term injured reserve, indirectly confirming he’d be in the lineup against the Winnipeg Jets Tuesday evening.

Heiskanen has been out of the lineup since Jan. 28 after suffering a lower-body injury against the Vegas Golden Knights. During the game, after being tripped up by Dallas forward Roope Hintz, Vegas captain Mark Stone collided headfirst with Heiskanen’s knee, necessitating his teammates to help him off the ice.

A few days later, on Feb. 4, Heiskanen underwent successful knee surgery for the injury. Still, DeBoer expressed optimism that Heiskanen would return before the end of the regular season. Dallas waited a month to place Heiskanen on LTIR, using the salary-cap savings to acquire fellow countryman Mikko Rantanen from the Carolina Hurricanes.

Thanks to Rantanen, the Stars survived a hotly contested opening-round matchup against the Colorado Avalanche, defeating their Central Division rivals in seven games without Heiskanen or star forward Jason Robertson. Robertson returned for the Stars in Game 1 of their Round 2 series against the Jets, and they’ll have a mostly healthy lineup Tuesday night for the first time this postseason.

Although his offensive output was depressed this year, Heiskanen has been a premier player for the Stars, particularly in the Stanley Cup playoffs. During their run to the Final in the 2019-20 postseason, Heiskanen scored six goals and 26 points in 27 games. Throughout their back-to-back Western Conference Finals runs in 2023 and 2024, Heiskanen scored seven goals and 28 points in 38 contests, averaging 28 minutes of ice time.