The Hockey News breaks down each player's past and future for the Dallas Stars in preparation for the upcoming NHL season.

In advance of the 2024-25 NHL regular season, The Hockey News’ Dallas Stars team website is introducing a series of player projections for the Dallas Stars. Yesterday we left off with Brendan Smith, next up is Casey DeSmith.

Casey DeSmith comes into Dallas replacing a popular backup goaltender in Scott Wedgewood, who held his own behind starter Jake Oettinger when needed. The backup goaltender position hasn't always been a sure thing for the Stars, and before the acquisition of Ben Bishop, Dallas was looking for a quality playoff goaltender of any kind for quite some time. DeSmith comes down from Vancouver, where he also had to fill in for an injured starter for a late stretch of the season. Will he build on his solid year last season and fit in when needed behind Oettinger?

Career: 2.82 GAA, .909% in 163 games played

2023-24 Statistics: 2.89 GAA, .896% in 29 games played

Salary Cap Hit: $1 million through 2026-27

Summary of 2023-24 Season: DeSmith came over from Pittsburgh to Vancouver to back up Thatcher Demko, the Canucks unquestioned number one goaltender for last season. While there were games that DeSmith struggled in, he helped spell Demko for most of the season while Vancouver climbed to the top of the Pacific Division. Later in the season when Demko was injured, DeSmith was called upon to make double digit starts in a row, much like Wedgewood was for Dallas during Oettinger's mid-season injury. DeSmith proved capable of helping the Canucks clinch the Pacific Division title, and only when the games didn't much matter did he give up a start to third string netminder Arturs Silovs to get a much needed break. Demko came back for an extremely brief time, and come the first round of the playoffs, DeSmith was thrust into the starter's crease once again in a hotly contested series against the Nashville Predators. After two appearances and one start, DeSmith also picked up an injury, which paved the way for Silovs to take command of the net in a surprise breakout performance. DeSmith never saw another start as Vancouver was ousted in Game 7 of the second round against Edmonton, who went on to beat Dallas in six games. Silovs performance earned him the backup spot in Vancouver, and DeSmith moved on to Dallas.

Projections for 2024-25 Season: DeSmith's career as a backup goaltender has ranged from 14 starts to last season's career-high of 38. This is good news for the Stars, as finding a healthy amount of starts for Jake Oettinger's season workload is something Dallas has been trying to manage for the last couple years. Oettinger has picked up injuries in several seasons of his successful career, and DeSmith proved that he can carry a team for a period of time if needed. Unlike Scott Wedgewood, DeSmith has playoff experience, should the Stars find themselves in a position to need his services at that time. The main thing that attracted Dallas to him was the $1 million contract number they agreed to, as Wedgewood was asking for a higher salary than that number, which he eventually received from Nashville. Even though it was an overall successful year for Dallas last year, the Stars will hope to see a bit of an uptick in the goaltending numbers from last season. Given the dominance that Oettinger can show, an improvement to close to a .910 save percentage for DeSmith would be nothing short of excellent in the Stars eyes, and anything above it could potentially put Dallas in the conversation for the Jennings Trophy, awarded to the team with the highest combined save percentage at the end of the year.

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