Mason Marchment Fined For Embellishment
The NHL has fined Dallas Stars forward Mason Marchment $2,000 for diving/embellishment following an incident on December 8 against the Ottawa Senators, when Derick Brassard was issued a hooking penalty. The first such incident only results in a warning, meaning this was the second time Marchment had been caught this season.
The original incident was a game against the Colorado Avalanche on November 26.
While a $2,000 fine certainly won’t affect Marchment’s financial standing very much, it should be noted that these punishments escalate and can result in fines for the head coach. If a team is involved in four incidents in a single season, the coach will start having to pay his own penalties. The escalation looks like this:
| Citation # | Player Fine(s) | Head Coach Fine(s)* |
| 1 | Warning | N/A |
| 2 | $2,000 | N/A |
| 3 | $3,000 | N/A |
| 4 | $4,000 | N/A |
| 5 | $5,000 | $2,000 |
| 6 | $5,000 | $3,000 |
| 7 | $5,000 | $4,000 |
| 8 | $5,000 | $5,000 |
*For head coaches, each fine issued to a player on his club counts toward the total.
Costing your coach money certainly isn’t a place most players want to be in, even if you have the security of a multi-year deal.
Dallas Stars Acquire Oskari Laaksonen
We have a trade to announce. The Dallas Stars have acquired defensive prospect Oskari Laaksonen from the Buffalo Sabres in exchange for another blueliner, Joseph Cecconi. Both teams have officially announced the deal.
Laaksonen, 23, was a third-round pick of the Sabres at the 2017 draft, getting selected 89th overall. He spent three full seasons as a regular defenseman for Ilves Tampere in the Finnish Liiga, before splitting 2020-21 between the Lahti Pelicans and the Rochester Americans.
In Rochester Laaksonen started off very well, scoring 17 points in his first 28 games. In his first full season, which was last year, he had a healthy 34 points in 71 games, good for second-most among Rochester defensemen. He scored those points, though, in somewhat of a sheltered role, and this season Laaksonen has just two points in ten games played.
Close to the end of last season, it seemed the cracks were starting to show in Laaksonen’s standing in Rochester. In a story covering the blueliner’s situation from last spring, the Times Herald’s Bill Hoppe noted that the Americans were sending a “not-so-subtle” message to Laaksonen that he needed to make his game more balanced in order to remain in their plans.
Despite his solid production, Laaksonen sat out the first eight games of the Americans’ Calder Cup playoff run, and after a particularly painful 6-5 triple-overtime loss to the Laval Rocket, Americans coach Seth Appert had the following to say about Laaksonen’s game:
His defensive game has to continue to improve, his commitment to defending and playing with the physical style. He’s never going to be a physical defenseman, but in North America, you have to physically engage to defend.
Those comments indicate that Laaksonen was heading into this year on thin ice in Rochester, and after 23 games (he played in just ten of them) it seems that the team decided Laaksonen needed a change of scenery.
He’ll head to the AHL’s Texas Stars in return for Cecconi, a 25-year-old native of Youngstown, New York, which is just over 30 miles away from Buffalo.
Cecconi was a fifth-round choice of the Stars at the 2015 draft. He had a four-year collegiate career at the University of Michigan before he made the leap to the pro game. For the past four years, Cecconi has been a regular contributor in Texas, mostly in a bottom-pairing capacity.
In his comments on Laaksonen, Appert noted a need to “physically engage” in order to survive on a North American blueline. In acquiring Cecconi, Sabres management has provided their AHL bench boss with a defenseman who is far better suited to play the sort of violent, physical game that the AHL can be known for. Cecconi stands six-foot-three, 215 pounds, and registered 52 penalty minutes last year.
In addition to his physical strengths, Cecconi plays on the second unit of Texas’ AHL-best penalty kill, which is running at an 88.2% rate. By trading for him, not only has Rochester gotten the more physical defenseman they seem to have desired, but they also have attempted to address their weak penalty kill, which is currently killing penalties at just a 70.6% rate.
While this is a deal that is unlikely to be of major consequence to both the Stars and the Sabres, it should make a meaningful difference for both clubs’ AHL affiliates as well as the involved players.
Dallas Stars Recall Riley Tufte
The Dallas Stars have recalled a former top prospect, bringing up Riley Tufte from the minor leagues ahead of their game against the Pittsburgh Penguins.
Tufte, 24, was the 25th overall pick in 2016, but has played just ten games in the NHL to this point. The 6’6″ forward was never able to develop much of an offensive game at the college level (though he did win two national championships) and looked completely outmatched when he turned pro in 2019-20. But slowly, things have started to turn. Tufte has 16 points in 21 games for the Texas Stars of the AHL this season, including 12 in his last 11 appearances. That offensive production is still complemented by his physical play, leading to some interesting bottom-six potential.
He did get ten games with Dallas last year, leading to his first (and only) NHL goal, but there hasn’t been any indication to this point that Tufte could hold down a full-time spot. Perhaps now, into his fourth year of professional hockey, he’ll be ready to contribute on a regular basis.
As we’ve seen before, players his size tend to take a little longer to develop. If Tufte is going to be anything for the Stars, now might be the perfect time to show it.
Evening Notes: Stars, Letang, Samsonov
The Dallas Stars are off to a strong start under new head coach Pete DeBoer, and they’re looking to get stronger. Per TSN’s Darren Dreger on tonight’s edition of Insider Trading, the Stars are still looking to add a top-six forward, preferably to play with Tyler Seguin and Mason Marchment.
They’ve had a rotating cast playing on the wing with those two, and although Seguin and Marchment have played well, they’d obviously like some added depth and to get a player that boasts chemistry with them. Jamie Benn is having a resurgence in limited minutes, scoring 26 points in 23 games, and they’d prefer to keep his ice time down below 15-16 minutes. If nothing comes to fruition, the strong performances of youngsters Ty Dellandrea and Wyatt Johnston should still safeguard their depth scoring.
- Pittsburgh Penguins defenseman Kris Letang has been in and out of the lineup recently, and he’s missing another contest tonight. Letang is absent from their game against the Carolina Hurricanes with an undisclosed illness, the team announced before puck drop. It’s his second missed game of the season after missing a game earlier this month, also with an illness. He revealed weeks ago that he had been battling an illness for a stretch of games; whether or not this is a related illness is unclear.
- Toronto Maple Leafs goalie Ilya Samsonov says he’s pain-free after his knee injury and is “ready to play,” according to TSN’s Mark Masters. Head coach Sheldon Keefe pumped the brakes on his status, however, saying the team would check on him tomorrow to determine his return to play. The young netminder, who had a strong start to the season, has missed nearly a month.
Extension Talks Up To Pavelski
Over the last few months, the Dallas Stars have signed two-thirds of their top line to multi-year contracts, handing Jason Robertson a four-year bridge and today extending Roope Hintz for another eight seasons. Joe Pavelski, the elder statesman in the dynamic trio, is scheduled for unrestricted free agency at the end of the year. When asked today about Pavelski’s future with the club, general manager Jim Nill told Matthew DeFranks of the Dallas Morning News that it will be up to the veteran forward:
Dallas Stars Extend Roope Hintz
The Dallas Stars have locked up another piece of their core, signing Roope Hintz to an eight-year extension. The deal keeps him under contract through 2030-31 and includes an average annual value of $8.45MM. Hintz was scheduled for restricted free agency next summer when his current three-year, $9.45MM ($3.15MM AAV) contract expired. PuckPedia reports the full breakdown:
- 2023-24: $7.5MM salary + $4.0MM signing bonus
- 2024-25: $8.25MM salary + $3.0MM signing bonus
- 2025-26: $7.0MM salary + $3.0MM signing bonus
- 2026-27: $5.25MM salary + $2.0MM signing bonus
- 2027-28: $6.9MM salary
- 2028-29: $6.9MM salary
- 2029-30: $6.9MM salary
- 2030-31: $6.9MM salary
Hintz, 26, will now match Miro Heiskanen in terms of cap hit, coming in just ahead of the four-year deal that Jason Robertson signed this fall and behind the two big-ticket veterans in Tyler Seguin ($9.85MM) and Jamie Benn ($9.5MM).
If you haven’t been paying attention to the Stars, you might have missed the development of Hintz into one of the league’s premier two-way players. Last season he scored 37 goals and 72 points as the anchor between Robertson and Joe Pavelski, earning Selke Trophy votes along the way as one of the league’s best defensive forwards. This year things have gone even better, with eight goals and 24 points in 22 games.
Even with Robertson’s dynamic offense and Heiskanen’s brilliant defending, there have been some that argue Hintz is actually the team’s best – or at least most valuable – player, because of all the things he does through the middle of the ice. You can practically hear the excitement in general manager Jim Nill‘s statement about the deal:
Roope is a dynamic two-way centerman who has proven to be one of the best at his position in the NHL. He’s developed into one of our most versatile players, making an impact on special teams and at even strength, and can be counted on by our coaching staff in every situation. We are fortunate to have him in Victory Green for an additional eight years and look forward to his continued growth as a player.
Big, versatile centers are one of the most difficult things in the league to come by, and the Stars have avoided what could have been a tricky negotiation in a few months. While an $8.45MM cap hit is certainly not a small number, there’s reason to believe he could have demanded more, had he been coming off another near-40-goal season. Because of his age, this deal is only buying out a single RFA year, meaning Dallas is locking up basically all of Hintz’ productive UFA seasons in one shot.
There is certainly some risk here though, given the breakout that happened once Robertson and Pavelski were put in place. Hintz was good but not great in his first two seasons, and a return to that level would mean another underperforming big contract on the books. Dallas is willing to make that bet, though, and it appears like a good one given how consistent Hintz has been for more than two years now.
It also simplifies the Stars’ offseason considerably, leaving only Denis Gurianov and Ty Dellandrea as RFAs among the regular group. Pavelski’s future is unclear, given his UFA status and age (he’ll turn 39 just after free agency kicks off next summer), but the team now has some understanding of what they have to work with.
Photo courtesy of USA Today Sports Images
Fredrik Karlstrom Returned To AHL
It was a rather unspectacular recall for Fredrik Karlstrom, who failed to get into a single game with the Dallas Stars since being brought up a week ago. Today, he’s been sent back to the Texas Stars, where he’ll have to wait for his next opportunity.
The 24-year-old forward made his NHL debut last season, playing in three games for the Stars during his first year in North America. The 2016 third-round pick signed an entry-level deal in 2020 that expired in the summer, but inked a new two-way contract to keep him in the organization. While he doesn’t have much offensive upside, there is a real consistency to Karlstrom’s defensive efforts, and he could work his way into an NHL lineup down the road.
It won’t be just yet, though, as the Stars won’t change what’s working. The club is in first place in the Central Division and has the best goal differential in the entire Western Conference. After defeating the St. Louis Blues last night, they now have a couple of days off before starting a five-game homestand. There’s no need to carry extra bodies at home, so unless a regular is injured, it’s unlikely that Karlstrom (or Matej Blumel, another recent call-up) gets into the mix.
Through 15 games with Texas, Karlstrom has four goals and five points.
West Notes: Predators, Pietrangelo, Oettinger
The Nashville Predators home game tomorrow against the Anaheim Ducks will go on as scheduled after a water main break in the arena forced the team to postpone their Friday and Saturday night games. While team president Sean Henry said that “most fan-facing amenities will be functional,” he noted that the complete extent of repairs and restorations to Bridgestone will take months.
The league has yet to reschedule Nashville’s missed games against Colorado and Columbus, but Bridgestone will get a bit of a break on the hockey side soon. While there are occasional concerts there, Nashville’s home game against Anaheim is their last until December 9.
- According to the team, Vegas Golden Knights defenseman Alex Pietrangelo didn’t suit up for tonight’s game against Columbus for personal reasons. Pietrangelo is having an electric start to his third season in Vegas with 21 points through 23 games. Hopefully, everything is well with Pietrangelo and his family.
- Jake Oettinger was expected to start tonight for the Dallas Stars, but he’ll be relegated to a backup role as he deals with an illness, according to the team. He’s run into a bit of a cold streak his past few games, with his season totals dropping to a still very respectable .917 save percentage and 2.52 goals-against average. He’ll likely start in Dallas’ next matchup against Anaheim on December 1.
What Your Team Is Thankful For: Dallas Stars
As American Thanksgiving and the holiday season are upon us, PHR is taking a look at what teams are thankful for in 2022-23. There also might be a few things your team would like down the road. We’ll examine what’s gone well in the early going and what could improve as the season rolls on for the Dallas Stars.
Who are the Stars thankful for?
Dallas Stars GM Jim Nill has taken his fair share of criticism in his nearly 10-year tenure as GM of the Dallas Stars, with a good deal of that criticism coming lately. He signed the injury-prone Tyler Seguin to along-term, big money deal, as well as the (formerly) struggling Jamie Benn to the same. He established what was supposed to be a lockdown goaltending due of Ben Bishop and Anton Khudobin, neither of whom worked out for the most part. And, he failed to re-sign or trade defenseman John Klingberg, who left in free agency. All fair criticisms, however the veteran executive is getting rebound performances from both of those forwards, managed to replace that goaltending duo with young superstar Jake Oettinger and capable backup Scott Wedgewood, and sure Klingberg is gone, but that has allowed Miro Heiskanen to flourish.
Looking back on recent Stars history, the team has missed the playoffs just once since the start of the 2018-19 season, which came in the shortened 2020-21 season, made it to the Stanley Cup Finals, and have transitioned an already terrific core of Benn, Seguin, and Klingberg into a core of Oettinger, Heiskanen, and Hart Trophy contender Jason Robertson, featuring those other names, all of this coming under Nill’s watch. Not only does the team now have a young, controllable core leading the way, but they boast some of the best prospects in the league with rookie Wyatt Johnston leading the way along with Logan Stankoven, Mavrik Bourque and others.
Finally, Nill hired head coach Jim Montgomery, who was let go after off-ice issues. Still, Montgomery was considered to be among the best coaches in the league, and losing him put Dallas in a tough situation. Nill was able to replace him with Rick Bowness, who helped bring the team to the Stanley Cup Finals. With the awareness that Bowness may not be the right fit anymore, Nill moved on and hired Peter DeBoer this offseason, who as of this afternoon, has Dallas fifth in the NHL in points.
The ultimate goal for any executive is to get the team at least one Stanley Cup, and Nill has yet to deliver. However, he’s been able to create long-term stability already, with apparently much more to come considering the strong veteran contribution, the talented young core, and the top notch prospects waiting to make their mark.
What are the Stars thankful for?
Rebounds from Seguin and Benn
$19, 350,00.00. That’s the combined cap-hit between both Tyler Seguin and Jamie Benn. It’s a hefty number, but certainly worthwhile for a pair of superstar players any day. But, if one or both of those players is hurt, or struggles, that number doesn’t look so rosy.
For Seguin, he played in just three games in the 2020-21 season, and tallied 50 points and 49 points respectively in the 2019-20 and 2021-22 seasons. A 50 point season is far from poor, but for a player like Seguin, who had been a regular point-per-game player or close in his career, commanding a $9.85MM cap hit, that may not cut it. This season however, Seguin has begun to turn things around, playing in all 20 of the Stars’ games this season, recording 16 points. That’s not necessarily the prime Seguin point-production Dallas had signed up for, but is a strong tick up from the prior three seasons.
Seguin’s rebound is promising, especially given his injury issues in the past, but the new-found superstardom from Benn has served to propel the team up the standings this year. Once an Art Ross winner, Benn was a consistent point-per-game, physical forward for Dallas. The team signed Benn to an eight-year, $76MM deal starting in the 2017-18 season. The veteran turned in a 79 point campaign that year, but hasn’t repeated that production since. This season, however, Benn’s return to his previous ways, scoring nine goals to go with 13 assists in just 20 games thus far.
The season is still early and whether either player’s production is sustainable over 82 games, or the remainder of their contracts, is difficult to predict. But, coming into this season, it appeared the Stars were resolved to appreciate whatever they could get from the pair, while relying on players like Robertson, Heiskanen, Joe Pavelski, and Roope Hintz for the bulk of their offense. Getting the value back from the two players is not only important, but the simple boost in production from both has appeared to turn the Stars from a solid team to an elite one.
What would the Stars be even more thankful for?
A breakout performance from Denis Gurianov
This year, Gurianov has been, in a word, streaky. The forward began the year without a point in his first nine games, but has since turned in four points in his last five games. The twelfth overall pick in the 2015 NHL draft, Gurianov has not lived up the ceiling that Stars hoped for when they drafted him.
Supposed to be an elite point-producer, Gurianov’s best season came in the shortened 2020-21 season, where he had 30 points in 55 games. Now 25, Gurianov’s play has certainly not been terrible, but his production has been frustratingly light given his potential, and at times non-existent. It could very well be time for the Stars to move on from him, but one recent event may have left them feeling burned. That recent event was the breakout of Valeri Nichushkin.
Dallas took Nichushkin 10th overall in 2013, and much like Gurianov, the winger was just about fine, just not what the Stars had hoped for. After three seasons, Nichushkin returned to Russia, but came back to Dallas for the 2018-19 campaign, where he had just 10 points, all assists, in 57 games. After that, Dallas opted to move on, and Nichushkin settled with the Colorado Avalanche, where he had much of the same solid, but not great, production. Last year, however, Nichushkin broke out with 52 points in 62 games, receiving Selke votes en route to a Stanley Cup Championship, one he played a major role in.
Given their experience with Nichushkin, it’s understandable why the Stars might not want to move on from Gurianov just yet. Still, the team has plenty of young talent and only so many roster spots to go around. With the large cap hits being held by players like Benn and Seguin, and the need for long-term contracts for Robertson and Oettinger in a couple years, they’ll also need every dollar of cap space they can get. If Gurianov proves he’s replaceable at a lower cost, Dallas may just have to go down that road.
What should be on the Stars holiday wishlist?
A trade partner for Anton Khudobin
At the moment, with no imminent needs or holes in their lineup, the Stars can be patient with finding a suitor for veteran goaltender Anton Khudobin, who is currently buried in the AHL. The goaltender was once one of the more important players on the Stars roster, leading the team in net during the run to the Cup Finals back in the bubble season. That performance earned him a three-year, $10MM contract. However, after injury and poor performance, and the team needing to save as much as they can on their cap hit, the team chose to bury him in the AHL. There, his $3.333MM cap hit is reduced by $1.125MM, reflecting a $2.208MM figure.
Khudobin has been good enough with the Texas Stars, Dallas’ AHL affiliate, posting a .905 save-percentage and 2.96 goals-against average in nine games, but any trade with the goaltender included will presumably be billed as a cap-dump in nature. The goaltender’s cap hit isn’t so bad that there won’t be a suitor to take it for the remainder of this season for the right price, but just what the market for this sort of trade is, especially during the season, is tricky.
The Stars don’t necessarily need to make this trade to be compliant, however the team will likely need to move Khudobin if they wish to be players at this year’s trade deadline. Given their place in the standings, should it hold steady, Dallas will most likely wish to be active at the deadline. The more Dallas seems handcuffed, however, the price may rise. It could be its highest if cap compliance is at play, but needing to add a player or two with Cup aspirations on the mind and an open Cup window that can only last so long, does seem to tie Dallas’ hands a good deal.
Dallas Stars Recall Fredrik Karlstrom
After returning forward Matej Blumel to the AHL earlier today, the Dallas Stars have found the player who will take his place on their roster. The team has announced the recall of forward Fredrik Karlstrom from their AHL affiliate, the Texas Stars.
Karlstrom, 24, made his NHL debut last season after spending his entire career developing in his native Sweden. The six-foot-three forward had 16 goals and 29 points in 65 AHL games last season and had 25 points in 51 games in his final season in the SHL.
This year, the 2016 third-round pick has been in the AHL, and has four goals and one assist in 15 games. With Blumel now in the minors, it’s possible that the left-handed forward takes Blumel’s spot as the left winger Wyatt Johnston line.
Karlstrom brings a more defensive flavor to that line than the offensively-focused Blumel and should be able to offer more value along the boards as well, at the cost of some skill and some flash.
Karlstrom is making $750k against the cap this season and will be an arbitration-eligible restricted free agent at the end of the year.