Stars Name Ben Bishop Player Development Coordinator
The Dallas Stars announced a flurry of minor hockey operations moves today, headlined by carving out an official role for former netminder Ben Bishop in the organization. He’ll serve with the team as a player development coordinator in his first officially outlined front-office job in the NHL. Bishop, who’d last played in the NHL during the 2020 postseason and was forced to retire due to injuries, could not officially take a job with the team while still under an NHL contract with another organization, the Buffalo Sabres, whom Dallas traded the final season of his contract to for financial relief after it became clear Bishop wouldn’t play again.
Bishop played three seasons for the Stars from 2017 to 2020, earning a 74-48-11 record in 143 regular-season appearances with a .923 save percentage, a 2.33 goals-against average, and 14 shutouts. In the postseason, he played 16 games for Dallas, achieving an 8-8 record with a .920 save percentage and a 2.67 goals-against average, shining most brightly in the starting role in the 2019 Stanley Cup Playoffs, eventually losing to the champion St. Louis Blues in seven games in the Second Round. Throughout his career with St. Louis, Ottawa, Tampa Bay, Los Angeles, and Dallas, Bishop amassed a 222-128-36 record in 413 regular-season appearances with a .921 save percentage, a 2.32 goals-against average, and 33 shutouts.
Lian Bichsel Likely To Play With Rogle If Assigned Back To Sweden
While Stars prospect Lian Bichsel has his sights set on trying to crack the NHL roster in training camp after signing his entry-level contract back in May, it appears he’ll have a new team to play for if he goes back to Sweden. Hans Abrahamsson and Tomas Ros of Aftonbladet report that the blueliner wouldn’t return to Leksands of the SHL; instead, he’d suit up in Rogle if loaned back overseas. The 19-year-old was the 18th overall pick in 2022 and played a regular role with Leksands last season, collecting six points in 42 games while also suiting up for his native Switzerland at the World Juniors. Dallas also has the right to send Bichsel to the AHL if they so desire which would give them an opportunity to have more influence on his playing time.
Texas Stars Sign Ben Zloty To AHL Contract
- The Texas Stars have announced the signing of defenseman Ben Zloty to a one-year contract for the 2023-24 AHL season. An undrafted player out of the WHL, Zloty spent the last four years with the Winnipeg Ice, serving as an assistant captain in his final season with the team. In a total of 207 games spent with a single organization, Zloty scored 26 goals and 163 assists for the Ice and also scored three goals and 37 assists in 34 playoff games in his final two years in Winnipeg.
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Jim Nill Has Talked About Eventually Moving Into Senior Front Office Role
- In an interview with Sean Shapiro of D Magazine, Stars GM Jim Nill acknowledged that he has had discussions with owner Tom Gaglardi about eventually moving into a new role and allowing someone else to take over as GM. Nill signed a two-year extension earlier this week that keeps him under contract through 2025-26 and has been on the job in Dallas since 2013. But at 65, there has been a belief for a few years now that he’s in the back half of being in that role but since it appears that he’s open to holding a more senior front office position down the road, he could still have a big impact in Dallas beyond his newly-extended contract.
Dallas Stars Extend GM Jim Nill
The Dallas Stars have announced a two-year contract extension for reigning GM of the Year Jim Nill, who is entering his 11th season at the top of Stars hockey operations. Stars owner Tom Gaglardi issued the following statement regarding the extension:
Jim has proven himself to be one of the best general managers in the NHL. He has meticulously built a team through free agency, trades and the NHL Draft that’s among the best in the League, while also ensuring that the Stars are championship contenders for years to come. He’ll be able to continue his vision of working toward our goal of bringing another Stanley Cup to the state of Texas.
Although some have speculated about when Nill, 65, would retire and leave the Stars to another GM, it seems he has at the very least another two seasons in his current role. Like every GM, Nill has made his fair share of mistakes, but looking at his overall body of work it’s abundantly clear that he’s done an exceptional job building the Stars. Although a Stanley Cup has eluded them, the Stars have gone on multiple deep playoff runs under Nill’s watch, including to the 2019-20 Stanley Cup Final.
Nill could have very easily built a team to compete around their core of Jamie Benn and Tyler Seguin, and then once those players regressed plunged the team into a rebuild. But instead of doing so, he proactively built a new competitive window, a new core of players for the next generation of Stars hockey while the incumbent core players were still at the top of their game.
While a significant amount of credit must also go to the franchise’s scouting staff, Nill’s 2017 draft is the stuff of legend. Armed with two first-rounders and a second-round pick, the Stars drafted Miro Heiskanen, Jake Oettinger, and Jason Robertson. That’s a franchise-defining number-one defenseman, a potentially elite starting goalie, and a game-breaking winger who recently scored 109 points in his age-23 season.
Beyond just 2017, Nill’s draft record is among the best of any GM in the NHL. He drafted a number-one center in Roope Hintz in the second round of the 2015 draft, and a player who looks like a star in the making in Wyatt Johnston with the 23rd pick of the 2021 draft, to name a few notable hits.
Although Nill has made his fair share of moves he’s likely preferred to have not made (the Ryan Suter signing from the summer of 2021 is beginning to look like a mistake) his mistakes are generously outweighed by his success stories. As Dallas Stars radio analyst Bruce LeVine put it, you may not “find a General Manager who is more universally liked and respected” than Nill, who now has two more years to chase down a Stanley Cup in Dallas.
Stars Sign Riley Damiani
The Dallas Stars have signed restricted free agent forward, Riley Damiani, to a one-year, $775K contract according to Cap Friendly (Tweet Link). Although a decrease in pay at the NHL level, Damiani will see his pay go from $70K to $117.5K at the AHL level.
The situation has been much different for Damiani at the AHL level with the Texas Stars, regularly featuring in the team’s top nine. Playing in 151 games thus far with the baby Stars, Damiani has 37 goals and 66 assists, regularly finishing in the top 10 among forwards in points.
Dallas Stars Sign Ty Dellandrea
The Dallas Stars’ most important remaining restricted free agent has a new contract. Today, the team signed forward Ty Dellandrea to a one-year deal worth $900K.
Drafted 13th overall in 2018, Dellandrea’s development has been a slow burn, but he burst onto the scene last season as a full-time player in the strictest sense of the word. One of eight Stars to play in all 82 regular-season games, Dellandrea tallied nine goals and 28 points. Interestingly enough, Dellandrea was not eligible for Calder voting, nor was he considered a rookie – he suited up in 26 games for Dallas two seasons ago in 2020-21, putting him just above the cut-off mark.
Nevertheless, Dellandrea demonstrated high-end two-way upside in a bottom-six role, posting high-end possession numbers and even excelling when used on the penalty kill. Still just 22 years old, there is still plenty of time for his offensive totals to improve. He showed strong scoring flashes in the minors in 2021-22, posting 23 goals and 50 points in 68 games with the AHL’s Texas Stars.
Despite those positive strides, Dellandrea will likely get boxed out of a top-nine role, at least to start next season. The team’s re-signing of Evgenii Dadonov and acquisition of Matt Duchene via free agency gives them one of the best top-nine forward units in the entire league, but it does diminish Dellandrea’s potential for increased ice time. If injuries strike, however, he carries the most upward mobility of any depth forward on the Stars and will get a chance higher up in the lineup.
Nill: Stars Open To Trading For Defensive Help But Hoping Improvement From Youngsters Is An Upgrade
- The Stars haven’t given up on pursuing outside help defensively via the trade route, relays Saad Yousuf of The Athletic (subscription link). However, they are prepared to enter next season with what they have now with the hopes that Thomas Harley and Nils Lundkvist can take a step forward in their development to help bolster the depth of their unit. Dallas has been quiet with their back end this summer with their only NHL-related moves being the trade of Colin Miller to New Jersey, the signing of Gavin Bayreuther, and the re-signing of Joel Hanley.
Dallas Stars Sign Derrick Pouliot
The Dallas Stars announced today that they have signed former Stanley Cup champion defenseman Derrick Pouliot to a one-year, two-way contract. The deal runs through the 2023-24 season and carries a cap hit of $775K at the NHL level while paying him a salary of $325K for his time in the AHL. It is the fifth straight two-way contract that Pouliot has signed since 2018-19 and marks a new beginning for the once highly touted prospect.
Pouliot was drafted eighth overall by the Pittsburgh Penguins back in 2012 and at one point was the top prospect in their system. He dressed in 67 games for the Penguins over parts of three seasons culminating in a Stanley Cup in 2016-17 for the 29-year-old. Pouliot spent last season in the San Jose Sharks organization and dressed in eight games for the big club posting two assists. He spent the bulk of the year with the San Jose Barricuda in the AHL where he had four goals and 21 assists in 37 games.
At 6’0”, Pouliot is a bit undersized, however he is regarded as an excellent passer and a bit of a playmaker. He has been a solid offensive contributor throughout his time in the AHL but has never been able to find his footing in the NHL. Dallas will be his seventh organization in the last nine years and although he has played 221 career NHL games in that time, he has posted just eight goals and 46 assists.
Dallas has a lot of defensemen in front of Pouliot on the depth charts, however depending on how their summer shakes out Pouliot could be one of their first call-ups next season.
Dallas Stars Re-Sign Nicholas Caamano, Scott Reedy
The Dallas Stars have announced contract extensions for two depth forwards: right winger Nicholas Caamano and center Scott Reedy. Each contract is a one-year, two-way pact.
Caamano, set to turn 25 before the start of next season, is a big six-foot-three forward who has shown flashes of offensive potential in the AHL but generally lacked consistency since turning pro from the OHL. The former OHL champion has scored 75 points in 191 career AHL games, while also racking up 194 career penalty minutes.
Caamano’s combination of physicality and bursts of scoring ability helped the AHL’s Texas Stars reach the postseason in 2022-23 and also turned Caamano into a viable option to be called up to Dallas, although he has just three points in 36 career NHL games.
With 227 combined games played at both the NHL and AHL levels, Caamano is set to cross the 260-game threshold this season which would mean he would no longer qualify as a “development player,” per the AHL’s rules.
As a result, this year is of particular importance for Caamano as he’ll need to show he can provide consistent value to his team in order for an NHL club to deem him worth investing a non-development player slot in during future seasons.
Reedy, 24, is a center who was acquired by the Stars from the San Jose Sharks in a midseason trade. He scored 10 points in 18 games for Texas and has 58 points in 111 career AHL games. Reedy is a big center who hasn’t scored a ton at the AHL level but does have a season on record where he scored 18 goals in just 38 games, showcasing some untapped offensive upside.
He and Caamano will in all likelihood be placed in top-nine roles for Texas but should be under consideration for NHL call-ups during the season, assuming they manage to be reasonably productive.