What’s next for the Dallas Stars?
After a third straight exit in the Western Conference Final at the hands of the Edmonton Oilers, the Dallas Stars might begin to lose some of their depth up front this summer. They don’t have a lot of cap space, and they have a few names up for a new contract, including Jamie Benn, Matt Duchene and Mikael Granlund.
Tyler Yaremchuk and Frank Seravalli talked about what to expect from the Stars’ offseason on Daily Faceoff Live.
Tyler Yaremchuk: When I loaded up their PuckPedia page, my jaw was on the floor. They only have $4.9 million dollars in cap space, and that’s only with eight forwards on the roster. Granted, all six defensemen and both goalies are signed, but this is a grim board we have. That’s not a lot of money, not a lot of picks, and a handful of key guys on the free agents list
Frank Seravalli: Yeah, and guess what? Their prospect pipeline, because they’ve been trading away so many picks, is now quickly becoming a lot more bare. What you’re seeing essentially is what you’re getting. Wyatt Johnston has obviously well-graduated, Lian Bichsel has well-graduated into the NHL at this point in time, Mavrik Bourque is there, they traded away Logan Stankoven, and they don’t have their top picks.
This is a team that has a young core that’s probably not going anywhere when you consider Hintz and now Rantanen added to that list. A lot of these guys are south of 30 and in the right position to compete, and yet at some point in time you’re still going to have that Seguin contract falls off the books, and you’ll find more cap space, also as the cap increases.
But with the Dallas Stars, what you see is what you get. I think that’s the best way to explain it is look at the disparity between Carolina and Dallas, that made this seismic trade at the trade deadline. They both ended up in the same spot, which is a loss in the Conference Final. And yet, the Carolina Hurricanes appear to be trending up, and the Dallas Stars appear to be trending straight across.
That’s not necessarily a bad thing because it’s a high threshold, but they’ve got a lot of work to do to a) figure out the right side of that blue line, to b) figure out the depth of their forward group moving forward with Benn, and then Matt Duchene needing a raise.
And then beyond that, do we have a coach and/or goalie question now moving forward? Because Jake Oettinger’s been the rock of that team. And then the numbers against Edmonton aren’t pretty. Is it just one team? Is it the moment? Is it the coach? Is it the team in front of him?
There’s a lot to unpack here with Dallas. And I think what you’re left with is another really good team, another really good core that has been to three Conference Finals and one Stanley Cup final together, and haven’t gotten the job done.
Tyler Yaremchuk: Yeah. I was looking because how do you free up cap space? Can you buy someone out? Tyler Seguin as buyout-proof. If they buy him out, they only save about $700,000. You’re not signing up for $9 million in dead cap space to get Seguin off your books. And again, he’s been largely fine.
Lyubushkin and Dumba make a combined $7 million next season. They played a combined one game in this Conference Final. So they could save about $3.5-4 million by buying out those two. Again, unless you’re [trading them], but they don’t have assets to attach, so it’s probably just a non-conversation there.
But the point I’m making here is Jim Nill has some tough decisions to make here in the next couple of months.
You can watch the full episode here…