More like Miro: How Heiskanen’s impressive game could be sign of things to come

Miro Heiskanen doubled his career best in points last season, landing seventh in the NHL among defensemen at 73 points (11 goals, 62 assists) in 79 games.

It was such a breakout year that the 24-year-old blueliner said before this season that he would like to push his numbers even higher and contend for the Norris Trophy as best defenseman in the league.

But 27 games into the season, Heiskanen has actually seen a scoring regression, and his overall game has also been less consistent. Coming off a three-point night (2 goals, 1 assist) against Detroit on Monday is a good time to talk about what is going on with the man who might be the Stars’ most important player.

“I think the underlying stats show that he should be scoring more, and I’m glad he got a couple tonight because he is due, and he was wearing it,” Stars coach Pete DeBoer said after Monday’s game. “That is frustrating for him because he wants to contribute that way for us.”

Heiskanen’s first and lone goal before Monday was on Oct. 19., so he doubled his goal production in one night. So, yeah, he has been struggling. In fact, things got even more intense in the Detroit game when Heiskanen loudly rang off metal.

“Maybe...I don’t know,” he said, when asked if that could be a good sign. “The first one didn’t go in and I was thinking hopefully I can put it in at some point in this game. Luckily, it went in.”

The fact he added an empty-netter at the end also was significant. Not only does it boost his numbers, it boosts his confidence.

“I think it’s coming,” Heiskanen said. “Just sometimes you need a couple of good bounces, and it starts going in.”

The entire team has been struggling with scoring from the blue line. Dallas was in the bottom third of the league before it got three defensemen goals on Monday. And even now, their 11 total goals from defensemen is in the bottom half. Thomas Harley leads the way with six, and everyone else is behind their pace from last season, including Heiskanen.

But while the league has moved past the one-third mark of the regular season and Heiskanen has a lot of ground to make up, the coaching staff said they see better times ahead. After some uneven performances during tough stretches in the schedule for Heiskanen, DeBoer said they started to look at his minutes. Since coming in last season, DeBoer has reduced time on ice for almost every player – with great results. Joe Pavelski and Esa Lindell are playing two minutes a game less than two seasons ago, while Jamie Benn, Roope Hintz and Tyler Seguin have each trimmed a minute off his time on ice.

But Heiskanen has actually seen his time on ice go up by about a minute.

“I probably would call it a work in progress,” DeBoer said recently when asked about Heiskanen’s deployment. “We obviously don’t want to overplay him. I think there have been nights early in the season that we have. Some have been situational, chasing games because of our start, you’re behind so you’re trying to get back in. He’s the one guy back there that can drive some offense for you. Late in games, a lot of one-goal games, you want him on the ice.”

And that’s part of the problem with Heiskanen – he cures a lot of the Stars’ ills. So whether it’s playing him on the right side when he’s left-handed, or playing him five minutes more than anyone else, these decisions have helped Dallas forge a 16-8-3 record.

“I think we’ve made a conscious effort to try and back off his penalty killing a little bit and incorporate some other guys,” DeBoer said, explaining why the original plan has had some snags.

“Some of it has been injury - Thomas Harley went out with an injury for a couple of games so we didn’t have that option,” DeBoer added. “I guess long story short, we’re trying to get him down from where he’s been early in the season. We have a plan for it. As long as we’re healthy . . . we’re just not going to do it at the expense of costing us games, so we’re just going to try to walk that line.”

The hope is Heiskanen makes it an easy line to walk.

“It felt good,” he said about his first goal on Monday. “It’s been a while since last time, so it felt really good.”

This story was not subject to the approval of the National Hockey League or Dallas Stars Hockey Club.

Mike Heika is a Senior Staff Writer for DallasStars.com and has covered the Stars since 1994. Follow him on Twitter @MikeHeika.