Central Division Summer: Dallas Stars Free Agency
As we look ahead to next year, we’ve already discussed the Blackhawks’ pending free agents this summer. Now, let’s look around the division at the players who need new paper on the Hawks’ rivals. Players from the NHL roster are listed with their full cap hit from their expiring contract; minor league free agents are not.
Dallas Stars
2015-16 Regular Season: 109 points — 50-23-9 — 1st place in the Central
2015-16 Postseason: def. Minnesota in 6 games, eliminated by St. Louis in 7 games
2016-17 Salary Commitments: $57,447,083 to 16 NHL players.
Unrestricted Free Agents
Travis Moen ($1,850,000)
Vernon Fiddler ($1,250,000)
Patrick Eaves ($1,150,000)
Colton Sceviour ($650,000)
Alex Goligoski ($4,600,000)
Jason Demers ($2,210,000)
Kris Russell ($2,600,000)
Jordie Benn ($700,000)
Restricted Free Agents
Valeri Nichushkin ($925,000)
Jamie Oleksiak ($875,000)
Brett Ritchie ($814,666)
Jack Campbell
Taylor Peters
Mattias Backman
Emil Molin
Justin Dowling
Brendan Ranford
Matej Stransky
Troy Vance
Maxime Lagace
The Stars are a goalie and top 4 defenseman away from being being a serious contender. Winning the regular season is one thing. Winning in May & June is another.
Top 4dman away…Well everyone thinks Johns is top 4. Ditto Oduya. Klingberg is a top pair guy. Goligoski is top 4 material. And everybody wanted Kris Russell…so they had 5 top 4 guys…could make the case for Demers as well.
@ Ernie,
Correct, I never felt the Stars were legit. They reminded me of that Avs team from a few yrs back.
Klingberg is a gem on offense! His defense isnt great. His game has alot of Erik Karlsson in it.
However, Goligoski is a now a UFA, Johns is/was far from proven despite the love from Chicago, and Russell and Demers are just guys.
Many experts laughed at the Russell trade because his advanced stats showed many flaws. That being said i like them better then the Hawks next season.
Stars still have to figure out the goaltending mess and also will need to spend some big bucks to extend Benn. While I don’t think they are the Avs from a couple of years ago, I am not sold that they have “graduated” into a perennial contender. They do have a lot of young d talent in the organization so it will be interesting to see if they swing a trade or two to bring in some more experience.
Agree on Klingberg, although I think his defense is better than Karlsson. They really need a best offensive forward award cuz he’s not the best defenseman.
Anyway, I think Klingberg is probably best suited as a 2. Johns, Oduya,Goligoski, Demers are all probably 4’s. Hawks got 1,2,and3. Have a 5 and 6. Missing a 4. 2 of Dallas’ guys are UFA which doesn’t help. They’re hoping ESA Lindell can step up
I’m not so sure that Dallas was not legit this past year. They got through the first series, then lost to St. Louis in 7. They did this without Tyler Seguin in the playoffs, and a big reason St. Louis isn’t still in it is that they pretty much crapped the bed against San Jose.
Pretty scrappy with some speed, and plenty of offense. They surprised a lot of folks and now have some experience under their collective belts.
Antoine Roussel is a punk that needs a punch in the yap.
Stars were w/o their 2nd best Offensive player… and took the Blues to seven…
Different Series if Seguin is healthy!!!
How would the Hawks done versus Blues w/o their 2nd best O guy???
Teravainen and Pokka made Finland’s world cup team
That Goligoski contract is huge. For what it’s worth, I was reading on “The Hockey Writers” site that a suggested payout to Goligoski, if he doesn’t resign with Dallas, is $6M a year over a few years on the open market (that’s based on other contracts given out to players last year who had similar age, Corsi, etc.). Even if he were to give Dallas a slight break on that kind of figure, you wonder if they are willing to lock in that kind of hit.
DAL is better then COL and NAS. Those teams were not as good the yr before then were better and each started 30-10 in the first 40 games. Each team the following yr didn’t surprise anyone and got better games from every team. I expect the same from DAL to not have as good of a record. I think DAL kind of took MIN spot. With MIN and NAS not as good as the were before but still good teams in the hardest division in hockey.
According to Today’s Slapshot, four the the Stars’ nine picks from the 2014 NHL Draft – Patrick Sanvido, Alex Peters, Aaron Haydon and Brent Moran – will not be signed by the team. Hayden and Sanvido both interesting blue line prospects they’re throwing back into the water…