Why acquiring Mikael Granlund, Cody Ceci made sense for the Stars
While the Vancouver Canucks might’ve garnered all the headlines over the weekend, the Dallas Stars were also pretty busy.
On Saturday, the Stars went out and traded for forward Mikael Granlund and defenseman Cody Ceci, acquiring them from the San Jose Sharks for Dallas’ 2025 first-rounder and Winnipeg’s 2025 fourth-rounder.
The deal helps give the Stars a little more stability at both ends of the rink as they strive to have another deep run this coming postseason. With Tyler Seguin on long-term injured reserve, Granlund can provide some secondary scoring for a team with a rising young core. Whereas Ceci brings plenty of veteran experience, including having just been part of the Edmonton Oilers team that made it all the way to Game 7 of the Stanley Cup Final.
The Stars might not have made the big blockbuster move to make them immediate Cup contenders, but the trade has seemingly given them an opportunity to head into the final months of the regular season with some confidence.
On Monday’s edition of Daily Faceoff LIVE, Stars analyst Brian Rea joined Frank Seravalli and Tyler Yaremchuk to discuss why the additions of Granlund and Ceci make sense for the Stars.
Brian Rea: The Miro Heiskanen situation absolutely changes everything for this team. So, to go get Mikael Granlund, you already had a hole with Seguin in your top six. He plays in all situations. Maybe not the same type of player as Tyler Seguin, but he’s 20 minutes a night. It’s penalty kill time. It’s power-play time, and he plays down the middle. On paper, you’re checking off a lot of boxes left behind with that Tyler Seguin vacancy.
I know the analytics community doesn’t love Cody Ceci, but I think you look at a player that plays almost 20 minutes a night and is hitting about 3.5 minutes on the penalty kill. When Miro Heiskanen goes down, you’re losing a 20 minute-a-night player. You lose someone who is quarterbacking your No. 1 power play…you’re not going to replace Miro Heiskanen, but on paper, there were very specific roles that needed to be checked off.
You can watch the full segment and entire episode here…