New coaching staff could be just what Kiviranta needs to rebound

Joel Kiviranta

Performance evaluation

Kiviranta saw a big step back in 2021-22. The playoff hero of 2020 followed that up in 2021 with a pretty solid season, tallying six goals and five assists in 26 games. However, he was unable to continue to build on that last season, getting just one goal and six assists in 56 games. That's a significant drop. Kiviranta also saw his time on ice fall from 13:56 to 9:31 a game. Part of that was the emergence of players like Jacob Peterson, Marián Studenič and Vladislav Namestnikov, and part of that was the fact Kiviranta was simply not as effective in being a "pain in the butt," as coach Rick Bowness used to say.

Expectations for 2022-23

Kiviranta is in an interesting spot, like a lot of forwards on this team. On one hand, he has a fresh start with a new coaching staff and an opportunity to put last season in the past.
On the other, the competition only gets tougher. The addition of Mason Marchment could mean a player like Jamie Benn slides into the bottom six. What's more, the surge of young players like Ty Dellandrea, Riley Damiani, Wyatt Johnston, Mavrik Bourque and Logan Stankoven could make it even tougher to earn minutes.
Training camp and preseason will be big for Kiviranta and could go a long way in determining where he fits in on the depth chart.
This story was not subject to the approval of the National Hockey League or Dallas Stars Hockey Club.
Mike Heikais a Senior Staff Writer for DallasStars.com and has covered the Stars since 1994. Follow him on Twitter @MikeHeika.