Dallas Stars Extend Nicholas Caamano
Now that all but two NHL clubs have begun their offseasons, more and more teams are getting their summer work done early. Earlier today the Predators extended their mid-season trade acquisition, Jeremy Lauzon, and now their central division rival, the Dallas Stars, have also announced an extension, theirs for depth winger Nicholas Caamano. The extension is a one-year, two-way contract.
The exact financial terms of the contract have not yet been revealed but Caamano, who was set to be a restricted free agent, was due for a qualifying offer of $787,500, so it’s likely that the number for this contract is around there.
Caamano, 23, was drafted in the fifth round in 2016 and has developed nicely since that point. He’s a big winger standing at six-foot-three, 200 pounds, and plays a bit faster than his size would indicate. While there’s not a ton of offense to his game, and he had only one point in 24 NHL games last season to go along with 14 points in 47 AHL games this year, his style is definitely one that plays better in a bottom-six role regardless of if he’s playing in Dallas or Cedar Park. That is why, despite the lack of production in his time as a professional, the Stars deemed him worth keeping around for next season.
Caamano did flash some offensive upside in his final two seasons of junior hockey, where he had 121 points in 131 games. Also, his 23 points in 36 games at the AHL level in 2019-20 indicates that he might have just a little bit more scoring ability than he’s shown so far. NHL teams are always looking for players who are Caamano’s size and can score, so signing this one-year extension offers Caamano an (admittedly long-shot) opportunity to prove he can become what so many teams desire and give more to his team than just his grit and physicality.
Nill: Stars To Look For Right-Defense Help
- Stars GM Jim Nill told Saad Yousef of The Athletic (subscription link) that the team plans to address their right-defense situation this summer. John Klingberg is a pending UFA that will need to be re-signed or replaced while Jani Hakanpaa is their other right-shot option. Nill is a proponent of having three lefties and three righties on the back end so don’t be surprised if Dallas is on the lookout for another right-shot rearguard even if they’re able to keep Klingberg in the fold.
Buffalo Sabres Acquire Ben Bishop
3:30 pm: The teams have made the trade official, with the Sabres acquiring Bishop along with Dallas’ 2022 seventh-round draft selection in exchange for future considerations.
1:25 pm: With Ben Bishop not expected to play again after several serious injuries, the Dallas Stars have found a way to move his contract. Kevin Weekes of ESPN reports that the Buffalo Sabres are close to acquiring his contract. No details on the return have been released so far.
Bishop has one year left on his contract and carries a cap hit of $4.92MM.
A move like this could help the Sabres get to the salary cap floor, while also helping the Stars get out of long-term injured reserve. While LTIR provides some flexibility, it also can result in negative penalties, as seen this season for the Stars, who will face a bonus overage of $675K.
Bishop is due a salary of $3.5MM this season, meaning the Sabres won’t even have to cover one of the more expensive years of the deal. The contract also includes a 10-team no-trade clause, though that likely isn’t much of an impediment given he isn’t expected to play again.
For the Sabres, who have just over $41MM in salary commitments for next season before any offseason trading, reaching the salary cap floor could be a legitimate challenge. Only Victor Olofsson sits as a restricted free agent expecting much of a raise, meaning general manager Kevyn Adams will need to be busy in the trade market and free agency.
The 35-year-old Bishop is a good start, though it is disappointing for Sabres fans that they’re not getting the goaltender from a few years ago. At one point, Bishop was among the very best in the world, finishing as a Vezina finalist three times and ending his career with an incredible .921 save percentage. That puts him among the very best of all-time, and as recently as 2018-19 he was the league leader with a .934.
Buffalo meanwhile will be looking for a real answer in net this summer, as Craig Anderson, Dustin Tokarski, Aaron Dell, Michael Houser, and Malcolm Subban are all pending unrestricted free agents.
The Dallas Morning News’ Matthew DeFranks was the first to report the return.
Pete DeBoer Candidate In Stars Coaching Search
- Elliotte Friedman of Sportsnet has walked back his comments a bit about Pete DeBoer, noting that he may have gone a little too far in saying that he expects the coach to join the Dallas Stars. DeBoer is a candidate in the Stars coaching search but general manager Jim Nill told Matthew DeFranks of the Dallas Morning News that they have only just started narrowing their list. With so many qualified candidates, coaching searches across the league could take a little longer than normal this year.
Marc Savard Not Clear Frontrunner In Coaching Search
- After getting fired by the New York Islanders today, Jim Hiller is on the radar of the Dallas Stars and Detroit Red Wings (among other clubs) for their head coaching vacancies, reports ESPN’s Kevin Weekes. It would be a return to the Red Wings organization for Hiller, who got his first NHL job there as an assistant in 2014-15 after five seasons as the head coach of the WHL’s Tri-City Americans. He’s been with the Islanders since 2019-20 and has overseen their two back-to-back runs to the Eastern Conference Final in 2020 and 2021.
- The Athletic’s Saad Yousuf today downplayed the link between the Dallas Stars and Marc Savard for their open spot behind the bench. While Yousuf didn’t rule out Savard as a candidate in the team’s search, he says that nothing from the team has indicated him as a frontrunner.
Dallas Stars Sign Alexander Petrovic
5:30 PM: The Dallas Stars have now officially announced the signing.
4:00 PM: While the Dallas Stars are currently searching for the franchise’s next head coach, that hasn’t stopped their front office from conducting some offseason business as well. With big negotiations for Jason Robertson and Jake Oettinger set to come, the team has decided to take care of some smaller business first. Earlier today, the team signed pending restricted free agent Denis Gurianov, and now CapFriendly reports that the team is re-signing an important AHL defenseman: Alexander Petrovic.
Per CapFriendly, the team has signed Petrovic to a one-year, two-way deal carrying a $750k salary at the NHL level and a $350k AHL salary, which represents a $25k raise from what the Stars paid Petrovic at the AHL level last year. Petrovic, 30, is a veteran of 263 NHL games, and while he has never quite lived up to some of the potential he flashed as a Florida Panther, he has become a reliable AHL defenseman. Petrovic got into 71 games for the Stars’ AHL affiliate, the Texas Stars, and notched 19 points. His defensive game was his calling card and the Stars found his leadership and experience value as well, represented by the fact that he served as one of the team’s alternate captains.
While we don’t know if we’ll see Petrovic skate in another NHL game, we do know that the stability his prominent role in Texas provides will likely give him the best chance to return to the NHL in the future. There’s always room for solid defensemen on NHL rosters, so this signing provides Petrovic with an opportunity for next year to prove that he belongs back in the league he’s spent much of his career playing in.
Dallas Stars Sign Denis Gurianov
The Dallas Stars have reached a one-year extension with Denis Gurianov, giving him quite the birthday present as he turns 25. The deal will carry a salary of $2.9MM, which would have been Gurianov’s qualifying offer this summer.
A one-year deal avoids any arbitration dealings with the young forward, something he likely wasn’t looking forward to anyway after a bit of a disappointing year. After reaching the 20-goal mark in 2019-20 and still posting 12 in 55 games last season, Gurianov finished this year with just 11 tallies in 73 games. The big winger managed just 144 shots on the year, a huge step backward in terms of per-game rate. His ice time was also decreased to just over 14 minutes a night and he saw more defensive deployment as the coaching staff gave the top line as many offensive zone starts as possible.
Still, a $2.9MM contract is nothing to sneeze at, and it will set Gurianov up with plenty of options next summer. Scheduled for unrestricted free agency in the summer of 2024, he could go through arbitration a year from now and get to the open market as quickly as possible. Like Jack Roslovic, another 25-year-old who signed today, hitting the market at 27 could mean a substantial payday if Gurianov can put up strong numbers over the next two years.
A one-year deal also gives the Stars more time to see if Gurianov is really a fit long-term and if the team is in the right competitive window to make that kind of commitment. There is basically no risk involved here, even if it could result in a few more dollars down the road if he proves worthy of it.
As the playoffs draw closer to an end, teams around the league are obviously starting to get down to business with their pending free agents. Roslovic and Gurianov have now provided some templates for teams dealing with arbitration-eligible RFAs, and perhaps indicated that there won’t be as many long-term or multi-year deals as expected.
The Stars of course have two extremely important RFAs that are not arbitration-eligible in Jason Robertson and Jake Oettinger, who may be looking at much bigger numbers.
Photo courtesy of USA Today Sports Images
Wyatt Johnston Named OHL Most Outstanding Player
Despite a disappointing playoff exit, a coaching departure, and some key names hitting free agency, there are still things for the Dallas Stars to look forward to. One of those things is Wyatt Johnston, the team’s 2021 first-round pick and superstar for the Windsor Spitfires. Today, Johnston was named the OHL’s Most Outstanding Player, taking home the Red Tilson Trophy, after leading the league in scoring.
Johnston, 19, was the 23rd overall pick in 2021, and like so many other prospects had missed the entire 2020-21 season because of the OHL shutdown. His training in the year off must have been spectacular, as he went from scoring 30 points in 53 games during his rookie season to 124 points in 68 games this year. It didn’t stop at the end of the regular season either; Johnston leads the OHL in playoff scoring with 37 points in 21 games and has his Spitfires up 2-1 in the league final.
Incredibly, that breakout season did not include an invitation to Team Canada’s World Junior team, something that will likely be rectified if given the chance when the event is rescheduled this summer. Of course, Johnston may also have bigger plans on his mind when August rolls around.
Like many other star draft picks, there will be a big decision for the Stars when next season starts. Johnston cannot be loaned to the AHL on a full-time basis because of his age (he only turned 19 a few weeks ago), meaning it’s either the NHL or the OHL in 2022-23. With his Windsor head coach Marc Savard getting linked to Dallas’ coaching search, perhaps the former is a real possibility for the young forward.
It’s hard to fathom what he could do if he returned for another year, seeing as the OHL already couldn’t contain him this season. Already signed to his entry-level contract, he’ll be able to play in nine games before burning the first year of the deal.
Dallas Stars Sign Matej Blumel
The Dallas Stars have inked Matej Blumel to a two-year entry-level contract, giving the Czech forward his first chance in North American pro hockey.
Originally selected 100th overall in 2019 by the Edmonton Oilers out of the USHL, Blumel became an unrestricted free agent when he failed to sign a contract with the team in the years since. After returning to the Czech pro leagues, the young forward took several steps in his development, eventually becoming a reliable offensive option for Pardubice HC.
Over the last two years, he has racked up 56 points in 98 games for his club team, but it was his outstanding performance at the World Championship that really made him stand out. In ten games for Czechia, he racked up four goals and eight points to help them to the bronze medal, obviously catching the eye of at least one team.
Because he is already 22, Blumel was limited to a two-year deal, meaning he’ll be a restricted free agent in the summer of 2024. Where he fits into the Stars depth chart remains to be seen, but his extensive experience at the pro level and previous time playing in North America with the USHL should help him transition more easily.
Jim Nill Discusses Robertson And Oettinger’s Next Contracts
Recently, Dallas Stars GM Jim Nill discussed with the media the upcoming negotiations he has on the table with impending RFAs Jason Robertson and Jake Oettinger (link):
“We’ll have to see what they’re looking for. The cap’s been a flat cap. They might look at it, their representatives might look at it different that the cap’s going to go up. Is it going to jump another 6, 7, 8% over the next four or five years? Are they better to go short term? Those are things that we’re going to have to walk through to see what works.”
Nill’s comments appear to suggest that on one hand, if the players’ representatives see the current flat salary cap as something that won’t go up reliably, they could take a safe approach, resulting in a long-term contract. On the other hand, if either player sees the salary cap rising significantly or reliably coming out of the flat cap, then a bridge-deal leaving them with UFA status as the cap begins to expand could be another smart option.
A long-term deal at a reasonably higher AAV could be an option either way, as it would guarantee something both sides want regardless of the cap situation. If that were the case, it could put Dallas in a tricky cap situation during the flat-cap years, but could be a favorable deal thereafter, and regardless, it locks up a franchise cornerstone player for the long haul. For the player, if the salary cap did expand, they would still have the benefit of a guaranteed long-term contract which could pay them, based on the result of the negotiation, more than they may have made during their RFA seasons.
To state the obvious, Robertson and Oettinger are not everyday RFAs for Dallas. A first-round pick in 2017, Oettinger made an immediate impact for Dallas in his debut for the Stars last season, following it up with another standout performance in 2021-22. The 2022 playoffs were Oettinger’s true introduction to the NHL though, as he almost single-handedly eliminated the Calgary Flames in the first round, playing to an incredible 1.81 goals-against average and .954 save-percentage in seven games. The start to Oettinger’s career sounds remarkably similar to that of Matt Murray, who had a strong, but quiet debut for the Pittsburgh Penguins in 2015-16 before bursting onto the scene in the 2016 playoffs, dominating for the Penguins en route to a Stanley Cup. Murray would follow it up with a strong showing in his first full season in the 2016-17 regular season and playoffs before signing a three-year, $11.25MM contract with Pittsburgh. If Oettinger were to take a bridge deal while waiting out the flat cap, one could expect it to look similar to this. Best yet for Oettinger is after Murray failed to replicate his early success during the life of that contract, he still was able to sign a four-year, $25MM deal after being dealt to the Ottawa Senators, signing before the 2020-21 season.
Impressive as Oettinger’s breakout was, Jason Robertson arguably stole the show. Dallas’ second-round pick in 2017, Robertson debuted for three games in 2019-20 before a strong rookie season in 2020-21, where he tallied 17 goals and 28 assists in 51 games. Already established as a key piece for Dallas, Robertson became a superstar in 2021-22, scoring 41 goals to go with 38 assists in just 74 games, adding another four points in seven playoff contests before hitting the RFA market. Like Oettinger, Robertson has put himself in a strong position going forward, but must decide how to approach the negotiations, considering the state of the salary cap.
As the above-mentioned article suggests, Robertson could go for the shorter bridge deal, potentially leading to a cap hit of $7MM, but could find himself with a cap hit as high as $9MM should he agree to a long-term deal. New York Islanders’ forward Mat Barzal signed a three-year bridge deal worth $7MM prior to the 2020-21 season. Though Robertson’s 2021-22 season was stronger than Barzal’s 2019-20, Barzal did have three years of success, including an 85-point rookie season, as well as significant playoff experience, as compared to Robertson’s two full seasons of overall similar quality to Barzal.
Looking at a long-term contract, there isn’t much precedent for a contract in the $9MM AAV range for players coming off of their entry-level contract. Kyle Connor signed a seven-year contract with an AAV just shy of $7.15MM after back-to-back 57 and 66 point seasons and Nick Suzuki signed an eight-year contract with an AAV of $7.875MM after 41 points in 71 games in his rookie season and another 41 points in a lesser 56 games in the COVID-shortened 2020-21 season. Notably, Suzuki also produced an outstanding 23 points in 32 playoff games over those two seasons. Going the other way, Mitch Marner signed for six-years at just over $10.9MM per season after 94 points in 82 games the season prior; this season, Robertson was on pace for 87 points over 82 games. Unlike Robertson, Marner began his career with 61 and 69 point seasons. With no perfect comparison to Robertson, taking the history of these three comparable players shows that a long-term deal for Robertson in the $9MM AAV range is certainly within reason.
After an impressive playoff performance, Nill will have plenty on his plate this offseason to help a Stars organization complete with a mix of veteran and young talent take the next step and ultimately transition it from the veteran core to the young core. The first of these steps will be a big one, necessitated by these two big RFA contracts.