Reviewing Dallas Stars depth chart after free agency moves
So … is this really it from the Stars when it comes to the summer moves they make?
Don’t get me wrong, I’m in the majority of Stars fans and media who love the Mason Marchment signing. It’s exactly the type of free agency move you’d like your team to make to take the next step in overall progression. It’s filling the obvious hole in the Top 6 while moving some pieces further in the depth chart to create better match-ups, thus overall improving your chances of winning hockey games.
What do I mean by this? Jamie Benn and possibly even Denis Gurianov were Top 6 players before the Marchment arrival. Now it looks more like one of them is a 3rd line winger who can exploit other teams’ defensemen weaknesses in more suitable match-ups. That’s the trickle down effect I like the most about this signing.
Marchment also brings the element of brute force into the first two lines and scoring touch, the things Stars were desperately lacking up front, especially the last couple of years. He’s still only 27 years old and paying 4.5 million against the cap for a player who played only 91 NHL games may seem a bit risky but it’s a gamble you’d like your team to make when swinging for the fences. He may not repeat the scoring percentage from the high-flying Panthers team but it’s also possible that his career trajectory would make this deal a total bargain in a couple of years.
In the latter stages of Day 1 of free agency, the Stars also signed 29-year old right handed defenseman, Colin Miller worth 1.85 million in AAV for 2 years. That’s a moderate price to pay for a veteran player while also filling the hole in your lineup created by the inactivity on the John Klingberg front. It’s also a bit of an underwhelming solution to your problem on the right side of D – signing an injury-prone player most suitable for a 3rd pairing at this point of his career.
So, I must repeat the question from the beginning of this piece. Is this really it? Note that I count Riley Barber signing solely for the AHL team purposes.
It has been weeks that people around the Stars (not only me) have been advocating for some salary-shedding moves to create space to acquire more influential players to solve your issues, especially on the defense front. Forget about John Klingberg, do it just for the salary cap space purpose. To have some flexibility on the cap front, it doesn’t get any easier to shed last year of Anton Khudobin’s contract for a moderate price.
Kyle Dubas moved Petr Mrázek to Chicago who had a year longer and half-a-million bigger contract than Khudobin while only sliding 13 places in the draft, creating 3.8 million in cap space in the process.
I’d honestly expect Jim Nill and company not to be done. Yeah, the John Klingberg door is probably closed at this point but it doesn’t mean you should be inactive going into the season with the roster you currently have on your hands.
Here’s the current depth chart for the Stars if there are no other moves apart from re-signing your RFAs, starting with forwards:
This is definitely a forward group that you can build on but there are also some contracts you’d like to move in order to let the younger generation take over. Yes, you can definitely move Radek Faksa – but only if you know Ty Dellandrea and Wyatt Johnston are ready to take over the center position for years to come.
You probably don’t want to force that and while I may not agree with it, I see the reason why the Stars weren’t so eager to create cap space by moving Faksa away. They also love him for some reason and obviously aren’t ready to part ways.
I had listed Jacob Peterson as a winger alongside Tyler Seguin and Mason Marchment because I feel this could be a pretty interesting second line. Peterson showed at the Worlds that he’s ready to usurp Top 6 position and even probably some power-play time that could come with it.
I hope that by the end of the training camp in September or early October, Wyatt Johnston is a staple in your opening night roster, effectively taking either that 3C spot Radek Faksa currently has on the depth chart. Johnston is defensively pretty sound when you consider his production in the OHL. If he and Dellandrea take the expected step forward, there’s really nothing that should keep Radek Faksa in the lineup over those 2 young players, who can both play on the penalty kill, as well.
Possible Benn-Johnston-Gurianov trio could be pretty interesting as your non-typical third line and it could reap benefits toward Stars, had they shown the courage to create such a formation. Last year in the AHL, Studenic and Dellandrea showed great chemistry and paired with veteran Glendening could be your ideal energetic 4th line with Joel Kiviranta or Riley Tufte waiting to get their chance.
The wild card could be Riley Damiani, who should be ready for the big league at this point and is a better overall option to pick than Riley Tufte. I think Mavrik Bourque and also Antonio Stranges will require seasoning in the AHL while Logan Stankoven will return to the WHL to fight for the Memorial Cup, most probably.
Let’s move on to the defensive side of things, now.
Unfortunately, we still have to list Miro Heiskanen as a right-sided defenseman, because there are simply no other options at this stage. Now the great debate of who to pair with whom can begin. We can use the 5v5 metrics from last season to determine the best possible pairings from the current group of players.
Thomas Harley is a great example of a player who deserves more chances, it’s such a shame he probably won’t be paired with John Klingberg because that was SO FUN, just looking at the visualization. They allowed almost 3.0 xGA but created more than 4.0 xGF per 60 minutes. Colin Miller is the closest comparable to Klingberg so I would be pretty interested in what could come up from that pairing.
Then it’s really in the Stars coaching staff heads if they pair Esa Lindell with Heiskanen or Hakanpaa and have the odd man out play with Ryan Suter. I’d personally rather roll Lindell with Heiskanen as your (albeit not ideal) first pair and have Suter and Hakanpaa play around 15 minutes per night on your third pair. Suter may not be happy about that deployment, but that’s not what we will consider during this exercise. Having a slow 37-year-old player on the first pair alongside bonafide all-star Miro Heiskanen is something coaches should not be happy about either.
While this group of defenseman is not the worst, it’s only mediocre and that’s why I feel there’s more to give from the management perspective. Ideally you’d make a hockey trade to supplement your cupboard on the right side while giving up something from the left side, essentially letting Miro Heiskanen play on his natural side. We’ll see if something will come to fruition on that.
I’ll just throw it out there that just like Radek Faksa, Esa Lindell could be an enticing option for some general managers and possibly your ideal trade chip, because Thomas Harley is great value for money at this point and Ryan Suter is basically not movable.
Ryan Suter and Esa Lindell have NMCs and given the ownership affinity to both of them, this is really not a viable scenario, realistically.
In the crease, things are pretty clear with Jake Oettinger as your young bonafide number one – something we should not take for granted. The fact that Stars could possibly have the level of goaltending Oettinger can provide for 10+ years to come is such a fresh change I honestly still cannot wrap my head around. Let’s just all hope he stays healthy to deliver on the promise.
If the Stars aren’t able to move Khudobin’s contract this summer and he comes back healthy, the only positive is they could have a great battle for the number two slot behind Oettinger. In the current NHL you ought to have 3 NHL capable goalies and the Stars currently have that. The only question mark is the price you pay for that. Wedgewood's contract is optimal, whereas Khudobin one is not.
Well, there you have it. Barring any major moves, this is your 2022-23 Dallas Stars roster and it really leaves something more to desire. I repeated for many times now that this is only the transitional year where you have to offer younger players like Dellandrea, Johnston, Damiani and Harley more space to become useful contributors when the Stars are again ready to fully contend.
It won’t take long but it also won’t happen in a day. This is Stars Hockey after all, so expect unexpected. But I’d really focus more on the longer run while some albatross contracts are closer to expiry, because the current management group just isn’t keen on moving from them.
Inspired work brother!