Stars winger Mason Marchment has been activated from injured reserve Sunday, per a team announcement. The team opened roster space by reassigning forward Kyle McDonald and defenseman Christian Kyrou to AHL Texas, leaving them with an open spot.
Marchment, 29, will draw into the lineup this evening for the first time in over a month. The power forward needed surgery after taking a puck to the face against the Wild on Dec. 27, keeping him out of Dallas’ last 17 games.
The Ontario native was having an extraordinarily productive campaign before his injury. He had 12 goals and 15 assists for 27 points through the season’s first 33 games, still placing him fifth on the team in points per game with 0.82. He’s on track for his best offensive season as a Star and his finest showing since his breakout 2021-22 campaign with the Panthers, when he notched a +29 rating and 47 points in 54 games and finished 18th in Selke Trophy voting.
Marchment is now in the third season of the four-year, $18MM deal he inked with Dallas in free agency in 2022. He has 111 points in 182 games as a Star, ranking ninth on the team in scoring since his arrival and ranking third in hits (240).
A career-high 15.0% shooting rate explains some of Marchment’s re-emergence as a bonafide top-six piece, but he’s also recorded figures in the 14% range twice in his six-year NHL career. His possession impacts this season have also been standouts, ranking second on the team behind Mavrik Bourque with a 55.5 CF% at even strength.
He’s another weapon in a Stars offense that’s figured things out in recent weeks, ranking fifth in the league with 3.29 goals per game in Marchment’s absence. His return to the lineup should coincide with Mikael Granlund’s Dallas debut after they acquired him from the Sharks yesterday, supercharging their already strong offensive depth.
McDonald and Kyrou were recalled yesterday as the Stars entered long-term injured reserve for the first time this season. Neither was ever expected to play, with their cap hits solely being added to the active roster to optimize their LTIR capture when they moved Tyler Seguin there and added Nils Lundkvist after news broke that the latter would miss the remainder of the season with an upper-body injury.