Miro Heiskanen is just a teenager. He's the soft-spoken, baby-faced Finnish 19-year-old whose brown hair falls to the side of his head, away from the hockey mind so many have praised and above the hands and feet that free him to capitalize on his brilliance. He's the prized defenseman who will introduce himself to the NHL this season, the Stars' top prospect in a pool begging for a superstar.

And still, Miro Heiskanen is just a teenager.

Heiskanen's face is void of facial hair, speckled by adolescence. He's tall and lanky, even if his smooth stride masks what he lacks in bulk. He speaks calmly and comfortably, much like how he performs on the ice and at the blue line. After all, it was his elite skating ability and play-making ability that drew the Stars to him in the first place.

They struck gold in the 2017 draft lottery, vaulting up to the No. 3 pick, allowing them to select Heiskanen. He'll make his NHL debut Thursday when the Stars open the regular season against Arizona at the American Airlines Center. The hockey will be familiar. But everything else?

"Almost everything is different than in Finland," Heiskanen said.

Heiskanen is living in the United States for the first time. In addition to the North American style of hockey and the massive expectations, and the grueling travel, and the speedy forwards, and the skilled defensemen, and the elite goaltenders, and the new systems, and the 200-by-85-foot sheet of ice, Heiskanen must deal with the reality of life.

He's on his own in a foreign country, responsible for the monotony and minutiae of everyday life. This does not make Heiskanen unique in hockey circles. Plenty of teenagers begin their careers in the NHL, but fewer do so in their second language, needing to figure out social security taxes and car insurance. Even fewer tackle a position that often takes years to master.

When Heiskanen plays Thursday night, he'll be just the fifth teenager to play for the Stars since the franchise moved to Dallas in 1993. He'll be the first teenaged defenseman for the franchise since Richard Matvichuk in Minnesota in 1992-93.

Recent examples have met varying levels of success. Denis Gurianov played one game two seasons ago but is still finding his way through the AHL. Valeri Nichushkin is back in the NHL this season after a two-year hiatus in the KHL. Now, Heiskanen.

Stars defenseman Esa Lindell can understand what Heiskanen is going through. Lindell is also Finnish and made his NHL debut at 21 years old. He arrived in America with an unsophisticated grasp of English (Lindell said they learned more to spell and write in English during school), unfamiliar with his new culture in Cedar Park, then in Dallas.

"It takes time to figure it out," Lindell said. "I was lucky that there was other Finns to help me, and I will try to help Miro as much as I can."

To acclimate Heiskanen to Dallas, the Stars asked him to arrive early during the summer. After Heiskanen played in Finland's Liiga, plus the World Juniors, the Olympics and the World Championships, the Stars allowed him to skip development camp in June and instead asked that he arrive in Texas in mid-August.

The organization wanted him over early enough to get comfortable, but not excessively early to avoid homesickness.

"Especially for a guy like Miro, Dallas is probably going to be home for a very long time. We said it was really important for him to come super early," Stars player development coordinator Rich Peverley said.

In the last month and a half, Heiskanen found a place in Uptown and a Mercedes to drive. His parents were in the area earlier, but now Heiskanen lives with his girlfriend of about a year and a half. He was set to take the driving test this week.

(Lindell said the driving test was very different than the one back in Finland. In Finland, drivers must undergo about 40 total hours of theoretical and practical instruction, plus pass the driving exam. "When I had the test, I turned four times to the right of the stop sign," Lindell said. "Then the instructor says 'Oh, you can drive.'")

The hope is that easing Heiskanen's transition to adulthood will help the Stars on the ice, as well. After all, the expectations aren't new. He's played in international tournaments for Finland since he was 15 years old. He was universally regarded as a top draft-eligible player, and then as an elite prospect as he finished his time in Liiga.

In the hockey-crazed country, Heiskanen cast a large shadow. He even appeared in a commercial that proclaimed him and Eeli Tolvanen (Nashville) as the future of Finnish hockey.

But Stars general manager Jim Nill and the Stars brass don't want to put more pressure on Heiskanen. Does Heiskanen remind Nill of players he's seen during his nearly 30-year career in management with Ottawa, Detroit and Dallas?

"He does, but I don't like to make those comparisons to be fair to him," Nill said. "I just know that he's a very good player, and he's going to become who he's going to become. He's going to be an elite player."

Heiskanen added: "I just try to do my own thing, don't think about it too much, what everybody's talking about or thinking about."

For Nill, it was the Under-18 World Championships in Slovakia in 2017 when he truly noticed Heiskanen's potential. He saw Heiskanen compile two goals and 10 assists in seven games, the second-leading scorer in the tournament. Nill said he was "on another level."

"He's got the ability to slow the game down," Nill said. "Some guys just have that gift. He's got a gift."

Now, it's up to Stars coach Jim Montgomery to harness Heiskanen's talent. Heiskanen probably will begin the season as a top-four defenseman and on the second power play unit. While Montgomery praised Heiskanen during training camp in Boise and again when the team returned to Dallas, the first-year coach noticed a dip in performance in the later exhibitions.

Heiskanen will have to learn to manage fatigue, Montgomery said. But it's all part of getting the phenom comfortable.

"What I have noticed in watching him play," Peverley said, "was that when he's comfortable, he just flourishes."