After one season with the Vancouver Canucks, Casey DeSmith left the team in free agency on July 1st. Given the way Arturs Silovs played in the Stanley Cup Playoffs, it made sense not to re-sign DeSmith, who landed a three-year contract with the Dallas Stars.
On Wednesday, a social media post by the account @NHLNewNumbers revealed that the former Canucks goaltender will return to wearing number 1 during his time with the Dallas Stars. The last time number 1 was worn by a Dallas Star was in 2014-15 by Jhonas Enroth.
DeSmith has worn number 1 for the majority of his NHL career, other than when he was with Vancouver last year. Last season, DeSmith donned number 29, despite number 1 being available. No one has worn number 1 in Vancouver since Roberto Luongo left the organization via trade back in 2014.
The Rochester, New Hampshire native did a pretty solid job for the Vancouver Canucks during his lone season with the organization in 2023-24. In 29 games, DeSmith had a record of 12-9-6 with a 2.85 goals against average, an .896 save percentage and one shutout.
DeSmith will head into Dallas' training camp next month as the team's backup to Jake Oettinger. In the last two seasons, Oettinger has played 62 and 54 games, respectively, for the Stars and by bringing in DeSmith, they can get roughly 30 games out of him which would help alleviate the workload given to their star netminder so he can focus on being 100 healthy for the Stanley Cup Playoffs.
Do you think Casey DeSmith will play more than 30 games for Dallas next season? Let us know what you think in the poll below!
POLL | ||
AOUT 21 | 230 ANSWERS Statement made on former Canucks goaltender Casey DeSmith Do you think Casey DeSmith will play more than 30 games for Dallas next season? | ||
Yes | 69 | 30 % |
No | 161 | 70 % |
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