Offseason Review: Dallas Stars

Now that the dust has settled on a wild NHL offseason, let's take a look at how each team did in regards to drafting and free-agent signings. Today, we'll look at the Dallas Stars.

Dallas got the short end of the stick last season, first losing Tyler Seguin for most of the year due to a hip surgery that required him to miss four months, and then getting hit with a Covid outbreak right as the season started, immediately putting them behind the 8-ball and making an already tight schedule even more compact. This following an extremely brief offseason after their team battled their way to a Stanley Cup Final only a few months earlier. It's hard to know exactly where this Stars team is at, and Jim Nill's offseason moves reflect that. The run to the Cup Final was a bit improbable, but the Stars had a very good regular season (minus a rough start) in 2019-2020. It's likely that the shortened and condensed 2021 season was an outlier, and this team still has the ability to get themselves to the post-season and make some noise once they're there, despite just missing the playoffs this time around. With that in mind, let's look at how the Stars handled themselves this offseason.

Free Agency:

The most noise Dallas made this summer was in giving a massive extension to Miro Heiskanen, 8 years at $8.45 million. They also hung on to Blake Comeau for one more year and playoff hero Joel Kiviranta for two more years. The team's core will remain intact for at least one more season.

Beyond that, the biggest name that came to Dallas out of free agency was Ryan Suter, recently bought out by the Minnesota Wild. Suter signed for four years with the Stars, which will take him until he's 40 years old, after which one would think he'll be retiring. While Suter isn't the elite defender he once was, the guy still puts up solid numbers if used in a bottom 4 role. We'll see how a change of scenery affects his game. The Stars also picked up forwards Luke Glendening and Michael Raffl, and defencemen Alex Petrovic, Andreas Borgman, and Jani Hakanpaa. To wrap things up, they signed former Vezina-winner Braden Holtby to a one-year deal. This last signing is a bit of a head-scratcher. The Stars already have Anton Khudobin and Jake Oettinger ready to play as their tandem, with big Ben Bishop still planning to return to the team this season, and GM Jim Nill hoping he's ready for training camp. It's a crowded crease in Dallas, and if Bishop is ready to play, it stands to reason one of the other veteran netminders will be on the move. As of now, however, the Khudobin-Holtby tandem looks to be what the Stars are going with.

Grade: B; The Stars have one too many guys fighting for time in the crease, and it suggests that another move may be coming closer to the start of the season. As it stands right now, the team is similar to what the roster looked like last season, with Jim Nill giving his guys one last shot to go on a run before bigger decisions need to be made.

Draft:

The Stars threw a curveball this year when they traded down in the Draft, swapping 1st-rounders with Detroit and allowing the Red Wings to move up and select Sebastian Cossa at 15th overall. The Stars, now picking 23rd, selected Wyatt Johnston, a 6'1" 2-way forward who plays well in the role of a "net-front presence." Johnston likes to wheel the puck around the offensive zone, seeking out teammates to pass off to, then banging in any loose rebounds that appear in the crease. Johnston is an extremely technical forward who plays best with more versatile linemates.

In executing that trade with Detroit, the Stars added a pick in the second round, allowing them to select back-to-back at 47th and 48th. With these picks, the Stars drafted centre Logan Stankoven and defenceman Artem Grushnikov. Stankoven is an exciting prospect, with great athleticism and play-driving abilities. He wants the puck on his stick as much as possible and is more than willing to drive the play North-South with his skating ability. Grushnikov is an all-around defender who can play both the defensive "stay at home" style, as well as a puck-moving point man. His versatility makes him a good bet to make the NHL playing in any number of roles. At 73rd overall, the Dallas drafted Ayrton Martino, a shifty LW with a mastery of the give-and-go, and at 79th overall, the Stars may have found a steal in Justin Ertel, an extremely fast 6'2" LW who was named captain of his college team last year. He'll be playing at Cornell University this season, which is a fantastic development program that doesn't accept just anyone. This was a good draft for the Stars, with lots of young prospects now moving up the pipeline.

Grade: B+; The Stars traded down from 15th overall, but made the absolute most of what they got for it, selecting five players who all project as high-skill prospects. If Dallas is heading for a rebuild in the coming years, this will certainly speed up the process.

Overall grade: B+; Dallas mostly stood pat this summer, making a few signings but mainly allowing their core the opportunity to push for one more Cup run. How this season goes will determine a lot of Jim Nill's decisions next summer, but for now, the Stars still look like a competitive team heading into 2021-2022.

What do you think of a quieter offseason in Dallas?

Photo credit: Jerome Miron-USA TODAY Sports