On Friday, the Dallas Stars added Emilio Pettersen and Matej Blumel to their roster with one-year, two-way contracts. In 72 games played last season, the 24-year-old Blumel scored 31 goals and added 31 assists for 62 points, while playing for the Texas Stars, the AHL affiliate of Dallas. With two goals and two assists, he was the club’s leading scorer. He has 130 games played in two AHL seasons, scoring 50 goals and assisting on 56 others for 106 points.
After three seasons with Czech league club Pardubice HC, where he scored 33 goals and added 28 assists for 61 points, the Edmonton Oilers drafted Blumel in the fourth round of the 2019 NHL Entry Draft. In 2023–24, Pettersen, who was 24 years old at the time, split his time between the AHL Stars and the Calgary Wranglers. He played in 66 games for both teams, making 11 goals and 27 assists for a total of 38 points. For the past four years, he has played in the American Hockey League (AHL). In 2022–23, he had a breakout season with the Wranglers, recording 44 points (19 goals, 25 assists) in 61 games.
Through 215 games in the AHL with the Stars, Wranglers, and Stockton Heat, Pettersen has accumulated 122 points on the strength of 49 goals and 73 assists. In terms of the NHL team, last year’s 52-21-9 record put the Stars atop the Central Division. They advanced to the Stanley Cup Playoffs by sweeping the first two rounds—the Vegas Golden Knights and the Colorado Avalanche—before being eliminated in six games by the Edmonton Oilers.
