Dallas Stars News: Insider Provides Troubling Update on Miro Heiskanen

The Dallas Stars have themselves a huge first-round matchup coming up against the Colorado Avalanche. But from the latest report, it sounds like they'll have to get through it without the services of top defenseman Miro Heiskanen.

Just a couple of days ago, Stars GM Jim Nill suggested that they "hope" the key D-man would be available at some point in the first round, but insider Chris Johnston, on TSN's Insider Trading, is not hearing that from his sources:

I think it's not much more than 'hope' at this time. It does sound like, from sources close to the situation, that it's very possible that Heiskanen is not available at all during the first round for the Dallas Stars.

The 25-year-old has been out since the end of January and underwent knee surgery on February 4th, and although he began skating near the end of March, there's still a ways to go. Recovery from this type of injury was said at the time of his procedure to be anywhere from three to four months. The three-month mark won't hit until the beginning of May—essentially, after the first round of the playoffs.

Johnston left open that small bit of 'hope' that Nill alluded to, saying "When it comes to the playoffs, sometimes those injury timelines get shrunk and guys find a way to get back in the lineup. But right now, it's far from a certainty that we'll see Heiskanen in that first-round series."

The 7th-year blueliner, who has been a top-10 Norris Trophy candidate for the past couple of seasons, had 25 points in 50 games this year, while blocking 85 shots, and averaging a robust 25:10 of ice time per game.