Jason Robertson is week to week for the Dallas Stars with a lower-body injury and will not play when they begin their Western Conference First Round series against the Colorado Avalanche on Saturday (8:30 p.m. ET; Victory+, MAX, truTV, TNT, ALT, SN360, SN, TVAS).
The forward left a 5-1 loss to the Nashville Predators on Wednesday after a hit from forward Michael McCarron in the second period.
"I think next man up, it's this time of year," Stars coach Pete DeBoer said on Friday. "We're not going to be the only team either starting without somebody or losing someone at some point. That's playoffs. You've just got to keep moving forward."
Robertson finished the regular season second on the Stars in points (80) and assists (45) and led them with 35 goals, playing all 82 games.
The Stars (50-26-6), who finished second in the Central Division, will have home-ice advantage against the Avalanche, who finished third. DeBoer did not rule Robertson out for the entire best-of-7 series. Game 2 will be in Dallas on Monday, with Games 3 and 4 in Colorado on Wednesday and Saturday, April 26.
"If the series goes more than a week, then yeah," DeBoer said of Robertson's potential return.
In Robertson's absence, Mikael Granlund moved up to the top line with Roope Hintz and Evgenii Dadonov at practice on Friday.
"That's what makes us so good is our depth," forward Wyatt Johnston said. "You can't replace some of the guys that we've missed, and [Robertson is] not a guy that you can replace. But we have so many players who can help fill that role and help pitch in with making plays and scoring the way 'Robo' does. It allows other guys to step up and allows us all to take on a little bit more and pull our weight maybe a little more to try to fill in those gaps when guys are out."
Forward Tyler Seguin returned Wednesday after missing 58 games following hip surgery, but defenseman Miro Heiskanen has not played since Jan. 28 because of a knee injury
"Our team's been good all year, last few years really with our depth," Seguin said. "That's what the playoffs is about. It's about different guys stepping up at different times and whoever is in the lineup making a difference. You need 25, 30 players, maybe even more, when you go on deep runs. It takes a couple of months and everyone is going to be ready."
Dallas, which advanced to the Western Conference Final in each of the past two seasons, defeated Colorado in six games in the second round last season. Robertson had seven assists in that series.
"[Robertson] sticks the puck in the net for us or creates offense for us," DeBoer said. "I think we have more creativity in our depth than maybe last year. Last year, we probably had more heaviness, specialty, face-offs, PK. I'm thinking of [Radek Faksa] and guys like that. This year we have more scoring depth. You've got [Evgenii] Dadonov that's got 20 goals and he's been [on the] third, fourth line. There's no good injuries to right guys, but we probably, if you're talking about an injury to a key, key player, we're probably better able to absorb that in that position than probably some others."
Selected by Dallas in the second round (No. 39) of the 2017 NHL Draft, Robertson has 394 points (168 goals, 226 assists) in 374 regular-season games and 38 points (14 goals, 24 assists) in 45 playoff games.
"When [Robertson] is in, we have three first lines and our fourth line is more like a third," said forward Matt Duchene, who led the Stars in scoring with 82 points (30 goals, 52 assists). "Our fourth line, there's been a lot of time down the stretch they've been our most dominant offensive line in terms of puck possession, stuff like that. You have a guy go down, you plug one of those guys into the top nine and away you go. We're not worried about that. ... If [Robertson] is not there, we have an opportunity to fill in with great guys and continue moving forward."
NHL.com independent correspondent Taylor Baird contributed to this report
