The Dallas Stars are one of the most well-positioned teams in the NHL, made up of nearly the perfect mix of veteran talent, developing stars, and promising prospects. Behind all that is general manager Jim Nill, who is one of this year’s nominees for the Jim Gregory Award for GM of the year.
Next season is the last one on Nill’s current contract, though, and there is currently no timeline for extension discussions to begin, Dallas Stars radio analyst Bruce LeVine said today. While speaking to reporters this morning, Nill did say he’d “like to be [in Dallas] for a few more years.” Nill has been Dallas’ GM since 2013, his first NHL GM job after nearly two decades of service in the Detroit Red Wings front office. In that time, Nill’s assembled one of the best prospect pools in the league while keeping the team in a position to contend, reaching the Conference Final twice in the last four seasons.
It seems inconceivable that Dallas would opt not to extend him unless the 2023-24 campaign takes an unexpected term, but at 65 years old, it’s hard to imagine Nill sticking around past his next extension.
More from the Central Division today:
- Chicago Blackhawks general manager Kyle Davidson said today he’s open to all options with the team’s second pick in the 2023 NHL Draft, currently slated for 19th overall. Acquired from the Tampa Bay Lightning in last year’s Brandon Hagel trade, it’s one of six picks Chicago holds in the first two rounds of the draft. Already locked into the first overall selection, Chicago could trade up or down from the 19th spot if the right opportunity presents itself.
- Davidson also told reporters he anticipates “no problem” in hitting the salary cap floor next season. Eyebrows raised yesterday after the team signed forward Andreas Athanasiou to a two-year extension well above market value, with some viewing it as a thinly veiled attempt to get Chicago cap compliant. As of today, the team has a projected cap hit of just under $46MM for 2023-24, per CapFriendly, a number that will need to hit $61.7MM by the start of next season. Davidson alluded to taking on bad contracts in exchange for assets as part of his offseason strategy but said the market for those transactions hasn’t been fully fleshed out yet.
AA absolutely earned that contract and I don’t think that it is WELL above average. When you look at some of the horrible contracts around the league this one is quite reasonable I think. He’s pretty much guaranteed now to be here at least until the year 2025 trade deadline. The lame contract they still have is Bowman’s stupid deal for Jones. No getting out from under that.
IMO has the best name in the game as well
Go AA!
Agreed, Athanasiou would be one of the better players on any team in the league. Hawks are fortunate he’s keen to play there.
AA’s contract would be a problem if the Blackhawks were contending. They are not and have the possibility of offloading it either this year or next and retaining half the cap hit (i.e. McCabe). At best he plays well with Bedard and moves to a contender for some draft assets. At worst he keeps them cap compliant and scores a few goals while increasing the draft odds.
As I stated the problem wouldn’t be AA’s contract. The problem will be Jones 10 million dollar a year albatross. 4 million plays right into a league with an 80 million dollar cap. 10 million for a below average player is stupid and we all know who’s fault that is.
this wasn’t directed at you and I agree the Jones contract and trade were stupid to begin with. Jones will help keep them cap compliant for now, but that money will be needed elsewhere in a few years if these prospects start hitting their potential.
There are certainly quite a few teams with terrible contracts they’d be happy for Chicago to take on. Anyone think, for instance, that cash-crunched Tampa might have buyer’s remorse over giving Cirelli an 8×6.5 extension?
Hawks don’t want term along with the bad contract.
Not to mention they have Tampa’s draft picks for the next 10 years already. What’s left to get? Time to move on.
Vancouver has already dumped at least one there, why not another?
Vegas, Washington, and Calgary make sense to me as well.
Good point, Tim.
There is no way the Blackhawks are trading down their 19th pick. They have 4 picks on the second round and need no more. In fact, they want to dump 2 of those picks by any means to make the team better. The concern is the salary cap down the road and all the second round picks due at the same time that Bedard’s contract is due. As for the 19th pick let’s see who is available there on June 28th.
Update: I’m predicting Colby Barlow at 19. The kid is a stud on offense and defense. No team appears to want to trade with the Blackhawks in this years draft. First, it’s deep in talent and teams want to hold on to them. Second, there’s a jealousy factor here that the Blackhawks won the lottery. Either way, the Hawks are sitting in a good position with 10% of the picks in the first 3 rounds!