"It's pretty unbelievable," said L'Esperance. "I am just soaking everything in."
L'Esperance, who is in his first full pro season, co-leads the AHL in goal scoring with 27 goals in 49 games with the Texas Stars of the AHL. The right-handed shooting center, who is listed at 6-2, 210 pounds, signed with Dallas as a free agent on July 1 after a four-year career at Michigan Tech and a nice run with Texas, who signed him to an amateur tryout last March.
L'Esperance has been a consistent producer in Texas this season and plays a solid, all-around game.
"He's had a great year. He's earned it to be up here," said Stars coach Jim Montgomery. "He's got 27 goals, leads the American Hockey League. That's a hard league on a nightly basis with travel and so many back-to-back games and three-in-threes. He's a hard player. He's really good below the tops of the circles offensively, very responsible, and a very hard-working young man."
L'Esperance will center the fourth line tonight with Roope Hintz and Valeri Nichushkin on his wings and get time on the second power play unit as well. Montgomery hopes to get L'Esperance 12-14 minutes of ice time tonight to show what he can do.
As for the rest of the lineup, Anton Khudobin will make his fifth straight start in goal. Ben Bishop remains out with an upper-body injury. Bishop skated after this morning's team skate. Montgomery said he expects Bishop to return next week during the Stars' three-game homestand.
Defenseman John Klingberg, who did not play the final 14 minutes of Thursday's game in Tampa Bay after blocking a shot, did not skate this morning. Montgomery said it was just rest for Klingberg, and he was expecting to use the same defense as last game, but if there needs to be a change that Connor Carrick would play.
At forward, Blake Comeau will miss a second straight game with an upper-body injury. Montgomery will reunite Jamie Benn, Tyler Seguin, and Alexander Radulov on the top line. Jason Dickinson will center Andrew Cogliano and Jason Spezza and Radek Faksa will center Mattias Janmark and Brett Ritchie.
The Stars (29-23-5) wrap up a stretch of five straight games on the road, where they are 1-2-1 in the first four. The Stars are currently in the first wild-card spot in the West and percentage points behind St. Louis for third place in the Central Division.
