Dallas Stars Prospects Eye NHL Roster This Season
The Dallas Stars prospects list has two names stamped with the same projected arrival tag: "this season." Emil Hemming and Trey Taylor aren't years away. NHL.com's 32-in-32 prospect rankings project both to push for the NHL roster in 2026-27. And that makes this Dallas farm system more interesting than its low overall ranking suggests.
Emil Hemming Tops Dallas Stars Prospects
Every major evaluator agrees on the top name. NHL.com, The Hockey News, and Daily Faceoff all slot Hemming as the Stars' No. 1 prospect. He's a 6-foot-1, 205-pound right wing who went 29th overall in the 2024 NHL Draft, and he's 19.
His 2025-26 season is the one to dig into.
Hemming got a five-game look with AHL Texas and went scoreless, which sent him to OHL Barrie for the rest of the year.
There he put up 26 goals and 63 points in 46 games.
That split-season resume tells you two things: the AHL was a real jump for a teenager still filling out.
And he dominated once he dropped back to junior. The Hockey News notes he "began his pro career with AHL Texas this fall. But after five games and no points, he was sent to OHL Barrie."
NHL.com's Stars feature says Hemming is expected to make the full-time step up to the AHL this year. Daily Faceoff goes further, calling him the team's top prospect with "a safe chance he makes the big leagues." The question for camp is whether he's one dominant AHL season away from Dallas or someone who can force the issue faster than expected.
Why Could Trey Taylor Crack the NHL This Season?
Taylor's path is nothing like Hemming's. He's a 24-year-old, 6-foot-2, 190-pound defenseman who wasn't drafted at all.
Dallas signed him as an undrafted free agent on March 24, 2025. And now he ranks No. 5 on NHL.com's prospect list after a full 70-game AHL season with Texas that produced 8 goals and 26 points from the blue line.
The Hockey News calls him a "great skater with two-way potential," while noting he's "still working on honing offensive game." That's the exact profile of a depth defenseman who earns a call-up: mobile, reliable in his own end, light on the scoresheet.
NHL.com projects his arrival as "this season," the same tag Hemming carries.
Here's what stands out. A 24-year-old undrafted free agent cracking the top five of an NHL.com prospect ranking tells you something about the player's development arc and something about the pool around him.
Taylor outperformed his acquisition cost by a wide margin. And those are the finds that quietly fill out a contender's bottom pairing.
How Deep Are the Dallas Stars Prospects?
This is where the optimism gets complicated. EliteProspects ranked the Dallas system 29th in the NHL, near the bottom of the league. A Substack breakdown notes that Pronman carried only five players as showing or having NHL potential: Wyatt Johnston, Lian Bichsel, Cameron Schmidt, Hemming, and Mans Goos. That's a short list.
Who else is in the Dallas prospect pool? Beyond Hemming and Taylor, Cameron Schmidt is the name to know. EliteProspects' own Top 15 for Dallas put Schmidt at No. 1, Hemming at No. 2, and Taylor at No. 7, which shows how much the rankings vary between outlets.
Is the 29th ranking fair? The Hockey News pushes back, arguing the pipeline has more depth than the number suggests. It points out that the final four names in its ranking are mostly 2024 or 2025 picks from the fourth round or later, which speaks to the pool's late-round depth even if there's little star power at the top.
The honest read: this isn't a loaded farm system. It's a thin one with a few specific players who are close to ready. And for a team in its competitive window, that might matter more than raw prospect volume.
What to Watch From Dallas This Fall
The Stars don't need their pool to be elite. They need Hemming to handle the full-time AHL step and Taylor to prove his 70-game season was a baseline, not a peak. Hemming's transition to Texas is the headline storyline. If he produces early, the "this season" NHL projection stops being aspirational and becomes a roster decision. Taylor's road is narrower but real: a skating-first, stay-home defenseman is always one injury from a call-up. Which of these two names forces the conversation first?