All eyes on Dallas as feud emerges in dressing room and trade chatter surfaces

On Monday night, forward Denis Gurianov was a healthy scratch when the Dallas Stars took on and lost to the Ottawa Senators. When head coach Peter DeBoer spoke with Matthew DeFranks of the Dallas Morning News ahead of the contest, he explained that Gurianov is “not a young player anymore” and will be held to the consistency standard that other veterans are expected to maintain to stay in the lineup. Before Tuesday’s action against the Boston Bruins, Gurianov didn’t have a point through his first five games.

Sportsnet’s Jeff Marek and Elliotte Friedman spoke about the situation in Dallas and commented that DeBoer cannot be the problem here : Gurianov has played under three different coaches since he was selected by the Stars in 2015, which prompted Marek to wonder if the Stars have Valeri Nichushkin in the back of their minds. “They cannot let this be Nichushkin 2.0.”

You may remember how Nichushkin, who was selected in the first round, 10th overall by Dallas in 2013, left the Stars in 2016 to go back home to Russia as rumours emerged of a disagreement on contract terms and the forward’s frustration towards the coaching staff and his ice time. He did however return in 2018, signing a two-year, $5.9 million deal with the Stars, though he had a disappointing campaign and was placed on unconditional waivers and subsequently bought out from the remaining year of his contract in June 2019. More than once, Nichushkin blamed his relationship with the coaching staff…

The Stars surely don’t want history to repeat itself with Gurianov. Team insider Saad Youduf of The Athletic provided some advice to Gurianov:

“[U]nless Gurianov earns the trust of his coaches, teammates and organization and actually leaves those things in the distant past, this carousel will continue to spin.”

On Tuesday night against the Bruins, Gurianov generated two shots, delivered one hit and played just over 12 minutes of ice time, but did not record a single point in a 3-1 loss.

Many believe he can produce and just needs to be given the chance. However, if a change of scenery is what is needed to get that going, fans already see how trade rumours will surface from this if Gurianov and the Stars are unhappy with where this is heading. And that means speculations are going to get louder.

(By the way, now Nichushkin is doing great with the Colorado Avalanche - just saying.)