Stars assigning top defenseman prospect to AHL

Stars top defense prospect Lian Bichsel will finish 2023-24 in North America, the team confirmed Wednesday. He’s been assigned to AHL Texas and will suit up for them in the Calder Cup Playoffs for his second postseason run of the year. He’d spent the last five months on assignment to Rogle BK, whom he helped advance to the Swedish Hockey League championship series as the ninth seed with a goal, five assists and a +7 rating in 15 games.

The move was expected after Rogle’s season ended with a Game 5 loss to Skelleftea on Monday, dropping the best-of-seven series 4-1 after Rogle swept their previous two series against the top two regular-season teams, Farjestad BK and Vaxjo Lakers HC, to advance to the final. In his first season with Rogle, Bichsel had four points and 28 PIMs in 29 regular-season games.

Bichsel, the 18th overall pick in the 2022 draft, began the season with AHL Texas after signing his entry-level contract in May 2023. But after posting one goal and six assists with a -2 rating in 16 games, the 6-foot-6 Swiss defender activated his European Assignment Clause and was loaned back to Sweden, where he’d spent the previous two seasons with Leksands IF.

He was the sixth defenseman off the board in his draft year but the first with a shutdown projection at the NHL level. The Blue Jackets’ Denton Mateychuk is the only defenseman drafted ahead of Bichsel in 2022 who has yet to make his NHL debut.

Since he played in fewer than 10 NHL games this season, his entry-level slide goes into effect and delays the start of his contract until 2024-25. The Stars still owe him his $95K signing bonus for 2023-24, which will drop his cap hit from its initial $950K to $918.3K over the remainder of the deal. He’ll be eligible for restricted free agency when his deal expires in 2027.

Texas has already advanced in the Calder Cup Playoffs without Bichsel, sweeping their best-of-three first-round series against Manitoba last week. Their best-of-five Central Division Semifinal against Milwaukee begins Thursday, and Stars general manager Jim Nill confirmed Bichsel will make his AHL playoff debut in Game 1 (via the Dallas Morning News’ Lia Assimakopoulos). Nill said the organization prefers to give Bichsel some developmental runway on a “deep run” with Texas but indicated he could be added to the NHL roster if Texas is eliminated before their parent club.