Stars GM Jim Nill offers injury updates for Mikko Rantanen, Roope Hintz and Radek Faksa

With points in 17 of their last 18 games, it’s safe to say the Dallas Stars have been playing pretty good hockey lately. They might be about to get even better.

Speaking Sunday on 96.7 FM/1310 The Ticket (KTCK-AM), team general manager Jim Nill said star forward Mikko Rantanen is skating with the team and will travel for this week’s four-game road trip and might play in a game as early as next week.

“The plan is, hopefully, to get him in maybe one of those games towards the end of the trip,” Nill said.

He mentioned the Stars back-to-back games against the Pittsburgh Penguins and Philadelphia Flyers as the earliest Rantanen might return. That would give him just over two weeks of regular season play to get geared up for the playoffs. He has been out since he suffered a lower-body injury in Finland’s Olympic quarterfinal against Canada.

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Nill also said forward Roope Hintz, who has been out since exiting the team’s March 6 game against the Avalanche, has not skated yet. He added that the team is targeting Hintz’s return for the start of the playoffs or the last week of the regular season in mid-April, depending on his progress once he takes the ice.

As for Radek Faksa?

Nill didn’t offer many details beyond saying he’s dealing with a “unique injury” with “really no history as far as healing time.” Faksa suffered an upper-body injury on Feb. 17 during Czechia’s pool play at the Winter Olympics.

“We’ll wait to see where it goes. But we’re hoping maybe that first round sometime along the way,” Nill added about Faksa.

Despite the absence of those three forwards, Dallas is on the verge of clinching a playoff spot, needing just one point from Sunday’s game against Vegas to become the NHL’s second team to do so.

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