After signing Duchene, what’s next for the Stars?

The Dallas Stars locked in one of their biggest contributors on Thursday, signing Matt Duchene to a four-year, $18 million contract extension with an annual average value (AAV) of $4.5 million. But what comes next for a Stars group with very little cap space and decisions to be made?L

On Thursday’s episode of Daily Faceoff LIVE, Frank Seravalli and Tyler Yaremchuk discuss Duchene’s extension and what comes next for a Dallas squad looking to make some changes.

Frank Seravalli: The Stars only have $95.3 million on a $95-million cap committed to 18 players. There’s still $1.4 million in dead cap space next year from buyouts. You’ve got to get 21, 22 players, so four more roster spots to fill. That means: buckle up, there’s action coming.

I personally might have gone in a different direction. I know it’s hard to walk away from 82 points in Duchene, but if I’m the Stars, I’m looking at their playoff failures and I’m thinking, they’re just not hard enough to play against. I don’t know if Duchene is moving the needle for them in that direction, even though he has been a clutch goal scorer at times in the postseason.

But now what? They’ve got avenues and off-ramps here to create space. The biggest and most clear way to do it would be to move on from Ilya Lyubushkin and Matt Dumba in some order. That’s a way to clear $5, $6, $7 million in space. Are you trading? Are you buying out? How does it work?

Short of that, you’ve got Mason Marchment up front who is a trade candidate, and then Jason Robertson, as well. I think things have cooled a little bit on the Robertson front, but at $7.75 million, it’s not just what you pay him next season, it’s what the next contract looks like, since he only has one year left. You’ve got to decide on that now. If not, you’re going to want to cash in on the value he has at that number.

You can watch the full segment and the rest of the episode here…