Shooting Stars: An Average Offseason.

The Dallas Stars failed to qualify for the 2021 Stanley Cup Playoffs just one season after going on a run to the Stanley Cup Final. The team faced an injury bug during the regular season, and was also dealing with COVID-19, and its restrictions. Tyler Seguin and Alexander Radulov missed time, and these two players are a big part of the Stars’ offense. The Stars didn’t have to do much this offseason to improve, but some moves had me wondering why they were made.

The team made a few moves before the rosters froze for the 2021 Expansion Draft. Tanner Kero and Rhett Gardner, two young players, were re-signed to new two-year, two-way deals. The Stars re-signed veteran forward Blake Comeau, to a new one-year, $1 million contract. The team had the hard decision of who to protect and who to leave unprotected for the Seattle Kraken Expansion Draft. The Stars lost big, physical defenseman Jamie Oleksiak to the Kraken.

The first big new of the Stars’ offseason came when the team announced they had signed restricted free agent defenseman Miro Heiskanen to a new deal. The eight-year extension is for $67.6 million with a $8.45 million cap hit per season. The Heiskanen deal seemed to have started a trend among NHL general managers giving young, good defensemen long-term contracts with a high cap hit. This contract seems like a steal for the Stars though since Heiskanen has evolved into a top-pair, all around defenseman. The defenseman can skate, move the puck and plays a solid game in his own zone. In the past three seasons, he had 28 goals, 67 assists, 95 points and averaged 23:50 of ice time per game. His numbers slipped a bit last season, but the Stars were missing some key players, and I fully expect the youngster to bounce back this season.

Full disclosure, as a Philadelphia Flyers fan, I often wonder what the team would look like if they had drafted Heiskanen over Nolan Patrick who was traded by the Flyers in the offseason. I know at the time, the Flyers need wasn’t on the blue line, but that doesn’t stop me from wondering how this kid would have fit in on the Flyers blue line.

With the Heiskanen signing, there was going to be a cap casualty or two. In this case Stars’ GM, Jim Nill, traded Jason Dickinson to the Vancouver Canucks for a 2021 third-round draft pick. Dickinson was a restricted free agent due to get a significant raise. He played third line minutes, but last season saw an increase in his minutes due to the Stars’ injuries. He was a versatile player, who could play up-and-down the lineup.

Nill and the Stars were busy during free agency replacing depth players that moved on. There were three players who signed a one-year, two-way contract in Andreas Borgman, Alexander Petrovic and Colton Point. These players will likely be organizational depth. Nill added versatile, veteran forward Luke Glendening on a two-year, $3 million contract, and he will likely compete for a third or fourth line roster spot. Winger Michael Raffl signed a one-year, $1.1 million deal. Raffl is a veteran forward who can contribute on the penalty kill and provide a bit of offense to the bottom six. The only issue with Raffl is his injuries, but when healthy he’s a solid bottom six player.

Defenseman Jani Hakanpaa signed a three-year, $4.5 million contract with a $1.5 million cap hit. Hakanpaa will likely be a sixth or seventh defenseman for the Stars. One of the Stars big name free agent signings was defenseman Ryan Suter, who was bought out by the Minnesota Wild, making him a free agent. The 36-year-old saw a decline in his production last season, but still played top pairing minutes. Suter signed a four-year, $14.6 million contract with a $3.65 million cap hit per season. It could be a steal if he bounces back and doesn’t continue on his decline.

The other signing by Nill in the offseason was goalie Braden Holtby, who signed a one-year, $2 million deal. This signing was a bit puzzling to me since the Stars have three other goalies on the current roster in Jake Oettinger, Anton Khudobin, and Ben Bishop. Would Oettinger start in the minors for playing time with Khudobin and Holtby tending the net? If that’s the case, where does Ben Bishop fit in? Is Holtby goaltending depth in case Khubodin should get hurt or doesn’t perform to expectations? I get that this was a low risk, high reward type of signing, but it’s one that doesn’t make sense to me at all.

The Stars did lose defenseman Stephen Johns to retirement due to lingering concussion symptoms. The biggest loss in free agency was probably Andrew Cogliano and his veteran leadership. The team also lost Mark Pysyk, Justin Dowling, Sami Vatanen and Taylor Fedun in free agency.

Nill made sure to get restricted free agent Joel Kiviranta a new two-year, $2.1 million deal that came with a $1.05 million cap hit. He has only played in 37 regular season games the past two seasons. Kiviranta had his breakout during the Stars’ 2020 run to the Stanley Cup Final. In 14 games, he had five goals, one assist, six points and one game-winning goal while playing bottom six minutes. The 25-year-old can find the back of the net and provides decent depth production. It should be interesting to see if Kiviranta can have a breakout in the regular season this year.

I give Nill a C for his offseason moves. Sure, he extended key restricted free agents like Heiskanen and Kiviranta. The Stars also brought in some veteran guys via free agency, but I think the top guys will have to do most of the scoring again this season. The two deals that made me give Nill a C were the Suter and Holtby deals. The Suter deal is a risky one, for sure, because he is 36, and had a down season last year. The Holtby deal just didn’t make sense to me at all since the Stars already have three NHL goalies on its roster.