Mattias Janmark

Salary Cap Deep Dive: Dallas Stars

September 3, 2017 at 8:50 pm CDT | by Holger Stolzenberg 1 Comment

Navigating the Salary Cap is probably one of the more important tasks for any general manager to have. Teams that can avert total cap chaos by walking the tightrope of inking players to deals that match their value (or compensate for future value without breaking the bank) remain successful. Those that don’t see struggles and front office changes.

PHR will look at every NHL team and give a thorough look at their cap situation heading into the 2017-18 season. This will focus more on those players who are integral parts of the roster versus those who may find themselves shuttling between the AHL and NHL. All cap figures are courtesy of CapFriendly.

Dallas Stars

Current Cap Hit: $75,196,355 (over the $75MM Upper Limit)

Entry-Level Contracts

F Devin Shore (One year remaining, $870K)
D Julius Honka (Two years remaining, $863K)

Potential Bonuses

Honka: $500K

Total: $500K

Despite a disappointing season a year ago, the Dallas Stars did have some young players who showed some promise. Shore was one of those players. A second-round pick in 2010, the 23-year-old had a decent first year with the Stars, scoring 13 goals and adding 20 assists and playing in all 82 contests. What Shore did not get much of was ice time, as he averaged just 14:08 on the ice. That may change this year as there are many who believe he could be a top-six forward right now. Honka is another player who got a little bit of time with the Stars last year. The 21-year-old defender, their first-round pick from 2014, has already fared well with the AHL’s Texas Stars. He scored seven goals and added 24 assists in 50 games with them and got 16 games with Dallas at the end of the year and picked up five points. He is a likely candidate to make the team this year.

One Year Remaining, Non-Entry-Level

G Kari Lehtonen ($5.9MM, UFA)
D Dan Hamhuis ($3.75MM, UFA)
F Antoine Roussel ($2MM, UFA)
D Jamie Oleksiak ($965K, RFA)
D Patrik Nemeth ($945K, RFA)
D Greg Pateryn ($800K, UFA)
D Stephen Johns ($725K, RFA)
F Curtis McKenzie ($700K, UFA)
F Brian Flynn ($700K, UFA)
F Mattias Janmark ($700K, RFA)
F Adam Cracknell ($675K, UFA)

That’s a long list, but the team really has few major worries about re-signing free agents next season. Lehtonen was a buyout candidate this offseason after the team had too many goaltenders. Instead, they held onto him to be their backup, but at $5.9MM, that’s an expensive backup who played 59 games and had a save percentage of .902. The team will rejoice at their salary cap savings next season. As for Hamhuis, the 34-year-old blueliner will need to have a big year if he wants another contract.

The 27-year-old Roussel is a different story. Everything depends on how he plays, but Dallas would like to see more offense than 12 goals from him to go with his 115 penalty minutes he picked up last year. The same holds true for Oleksiak, although he will be a restricted free agent, but the 24-year-old defenseman must show he can win a full-time job. He only managed 41 games last year. Johns, however, will likely be retained next year. He managed to get into 61 games last year and currently expected to make the team.

Two Years Remaining

F Jason Spezza ($7.5MM, UFA)
F Tyler Seguin ($5.75MM, UFA)
D Marc Methot ($4.9MM, UFA)
D Esa Lindell ($2.2MM, RFA)
F Brett Ritchie ($1.75MM, RFA)

This will be where the Stars must make some key decisions. Seguin will be their top target as re-signing their star will be essential. The 25-year-old center forced his way out of Boston and landed in Dallas where is career really took off. He has put up 133 goals in four seasons and even though he had a bit of a down year last year (26 goals), everyone did. He should move back to center this year under coach Ken Hitchcock and is expected to have a big year, despite having shoulder surgery. He is expected back for training camp.

Spezza, on the other hand, will be 36 when his contract expires and his numbers have been declining for the last few years. At $7.5MM, there are many better ways to improve this team than his 15 goals and 35 assists. No one is quite sure what Methot will do in Dallas. Acquired from the Vegas Golden Knights after the expansion draft, Methot is a very good defensive player, but injuries have stood in his way – often freak injuries like the finger slash. He has never once in his career played an 82-game season and he’s 32. He played 68 games last year, so the stars are hoping for a big season from him despite his expensive price tag.

Lindell was signed to a two-year extension just this offseason. The 23-year-old got into 73 games in his first full season with the Stars. He had a quiet, but solid season for Dallas and should be part of their long-term future. Ritchie is also a commodity the Stars will want to lock up in two years. His first full season produced 16 goals. Along with his 6-foot-3 size and his speed, he is a candidate for a breakout season this year.

Three Years Remaining

F Martin Hanzal ($4.75MM, UFA)
F Radek Faksa ($2.2MM, RFA)
F Tyler Pitlick ($1MM, RFA)

After the team will be forced to pay up for players like Seguin, Lindell and Ritchie, the team won’t have as much to spend one year later. Hanzal, who just signed a three-year deal with Dallas this offseason, is already 30 years old. Will he be worth bringing back in three years? It will depend on his success over the next three years, but if they can get 20 goals like he put up this last year between Arizona and Minnesota, perhaps they would. Faksa will be a restricted free agent, but like Ritchie, could be in line for a big season this year. The 23-year-old had 12 goals and 33 points this past year and is already praised for his defensive play. Once his offensive skills catch up, he should put up good numbers. Pitlick is more of an unknown. Signed from Edmonton this summer, the 25-year-old had eight goals in 31 games, but has never been able to crack the Oilers’ lineup. He hopes to get that chance this year.

Four Or More Years Remaining

F Jamie Benn ($9.5MM through 2024-25)
F Alexander Radulov ($6.25MM through 2021-22)
G Ben Bishop ($4.92MM through 2022-23)
D John Klingberg ($4.25MM through 2021-22)

The team has only a handful of long-term contracts, starting with Benn, who had a 41-goal season in the 2015-16 season and was rewarded with an eight-year extension at $9.5MM. Unfortunately, he put up only 26 goals last year, the first year in the deal. However, there is the general belief that the 28-year-old will bounce back and put up another big season like he had the three years before. Expect those numbers to also go up with this year’s big free agent acquisition in Radulov. The former Canadiens wing came over from the KHL last year and put up an 18-goal season and is likely to team up with Benn this season. The 31-year-old is expected to put up big numbers, but will he be worth the contract when he is in his mid-thirties?

Bishop is another one of the team’s big acquisitions after the Stars acquired him from the Los Angeles Kings and signed him to a six year deal for 4.92MM per year. He dominated for many years with the Tampa Bay Lightning, but became expendable to the Lightning and later to the Kings who traded for him at the deadline this year. But despite a slightly down year, Bishop should be able to produce with his 2.32 career GAA. Klingberg is also a key piece to the Stars puzzle. The 25-year-old blueliner has been the team’s star on defense, putting up 13 goals and 49 points last season. His deal almost looks like a bargain at $4.25MM.

Buyouts

Antti Niemi ($1.5MM for 2017-18 and $1.5MM for 2018-19)

Retained Salary Transactions

None

Still To Sign

None

Best Value: Klingberg
Worst Value: Radulov

Looking Ahead

After a extremely disappointing season that saw them go from a team that reached the second round of the playoffs to a team that placed sixth in the Central Divison, the Stars went out and spent some money. They picked up Hanzal, Radulov and traded and signed Bishop all for big money. They have quite a bit of youth that are mixed in to their veteran players and if those players emerge, the Stars should be able to easily get back into the playoff mix. Obviously, the need to make sure they retain Seguin, but with an influx of defenseman like Klingberg, Lindell, Honka and 2017 third-overall pick Miro Heiskanen, the team should be ready to move on from some of their veteran defenders. The team also has high hopes they can eventually bring back 2014 first-rounder Valeri Nichushkin, who left the organization a year ago to play in the KHL. All in all, the Stars should be in good shape for the future.

Mattias Janmark Signs One-Year Extension With Dallas Stars

April 27, 2017 at 11:45 am CDT | by Gavin Lee Leave a Comment

The Dallas Stars have come to an agreement with forward Mattias Janmark on a one-year contract extension worth $700K. The 24-year old missed the entire 2016-17 season due to a knee injury, but had returned to practice and should be ready for training camp. He was set to become a restricted free agent for the first time this summer.

Janmark was originally acquired—along with several other pieces—from the Detroit Red Wings in exchange for Erik Cole at the 2015 trade deadline, and made his Dallas debut last season. His 29 points in 73 games as a rookie made quite an impact among the Stars faithful, as he looked like a core piece for many years. The young forward had played well at both ends of the rink, and though was not a physical presence—he registered just four hits over the whole season—did work hard to retrieve pucks and could fit into many spots in a lineup.

He’ll now try to return to that level of play for the Stars next season, after an incredibly difficult season in Dallas. The team went 34-37-11 without him this year, a 30 point fall from their Western Conference-leading 2015-16 record. With a new (old) coach in Ken Hitchcock, it remains to be seen how Janmark will be used. With the degenerative knee injury hopefully behind him, he’ll be a big boost to the club next year.

West Notes: Vegas, Brodzinski, Janmark

March 22, 2017 at 5:03 pm CDT | by Gavin Lee 2 Comments

The Vegas Golden Knights are primed to use every dollar allowed under the salary cap, and they’ll be willing to do so in various different ways. As Dan Marrazza of NHL.com writes, the team will look at examples like last summer’s Pavel Datsyuk deal as ways to use their cap space to gather assets as quickly as possible. Remember, the Arizona Coyotes acquired Datsyuk’s cap-hit that had no salary attached to it, in order to move up in the draft and select Jakob Chychrun 16th overall. Bill Foley, owner of the Golden Knights, explained it this way:

Cap space is valuable, and there will be people willing to give us good assets to take certain contracts, because they have cap issues. There are teams that have cap stress, there re teams that have expansion stress, there are teams that have both. We’re here willing to talk to all these clubs.

Indeed, Vegas would be wise to take a book from the Coyotes asset collection strategies of the past couple of season, but they can go even further. With Foley willing to pay up to the cap, it doesn’t have to be just dead cap-hits that they acquire for assets, but real salary that is hurting teams. That opens up all 30 franchises as potential customers at the Golden Knights cap-space saloon, hoping to clear out some room to go after the big fishes on this year’s market.

Jon Rosen of NHL.com tells us that we shouldn’t be surprised if a Jonny Brodzinski call-up is announced tomorrow. The 23-year old winger has been lighting it up at the AHL level where he has 47 points in 56 games this season. Armed with a shot that can score from anywhere in the offensive zone, Brodzinski has been a pure goal-scoring threat at every level without possessing any other standout skill. His ability to be in the right spot at the right time has always followed him, which will now be tested at the NHL level. With the Kings now eight points back of a playoff spot and still struggling to score goals, there isn’t much risk in seeing what Brodzinski can do.
The Vancouver Canucks will be without Jayson Megna or Joseph Cramarossa for the rest of their current road trip after both missed practice today. Cramarossa is having trouble walking after blocking a shot in last night’s game, while Megna is dealing with an upper-body injury. The Canucks face off against the St. Louis Blues, Minnesota Wild and Winnipeg Jets before heading home at the end of the month.
Mark Stepneski of NHL.com relays that though Mattias Janmark was on the ice at practice today, he won’t play for the rest of the season. The young forward had surgery in September to fix a congenital knee condition that has been affecting him since he was a teenager. After scoring 29 points in his rookie season, the Stars were hoping for a big sophomore performance—one that never even got started. He says he’ll be ready for camp next fall.

Central Division Snapshots: Blackhawks, Avalanche, Korpikoski

January 16, 2017 at 4:00 pm CDT | by Glen Miller Leave a Comment

The Chicago Blackhawks roster still boasts many of the key contributors who have led the team to three Stanley Cup championships since 2010. And as long as Jonathan Toews, Patrick Kane, Duncan Keith and Corey Crawford are healthy, the Hawks will be on the short list of Western Conference contenders even as the front office constantly juggles the rest of the roster to augment that core while remaining compliant with the salary cap.

That doesn’t mean the Blackhawks aren’t in need of reinforcements as the March 1st trade deadline approaches, however. Mark Lazerus of the Chicago Sun Times argues Chicago desperately needs a top left wing in order to help pull Toews out of his season long scoring slump. For his career, Toews has averaged 0.86 points/game but so far this season he is nearly three-tenths-of-a-point behind that rate. Lazerus believes that the acquisition of a proven top-six winger would allow Vinnie Hinostroza to slot into the team’s bottom-six, further bolstering that group. In conjunction with the expected return of Marcus Kruger, the Blackhawks would be able to ice four solid and balanced lines in this scenario.

Lazerus lists Matt Duchene and Gabriel Landeskog, who have both been frequently mentioned in trade rumors of late, as two potential options. Though given the team’s current salary cap situation – $65.7MM in commitments to just 14 players – it’s far more likely that Chicago will stick to shopping in the rental bin as opposed to adding a player with term remaining beyond this season.

James van Riemsdyk was also listed by Lazerus as a possibility though Toronto would likely hold onto the winger as long as they remain in the hunt for a playoff spot. He also has one more year remaining on his deal, representing an additional sticking point in this scenario. Jarome Iginla is undoubtedly available but at 39 and with just five goals through 41 games this season, Chicago would probably exhaust other alternatives before pivoting in this direction.

If Dallas decides to sell at the deadline, former Blackhawk Patrick Sharp could represent an interesting option, though that is just my speculation. Sharp has missed time this season on two separate occasions with concussions and has just two goals on the season but tallied 20 last year for the Stars. He’s in the final year of his contract with a cap hit of $5.9MM and given Chicago will only have roughly $3.3MM of available space at the deadline, the Stars will either have to retain salary or take back a contract to facilitate a trade.

Elsewhere in the Central Division:

The Colorado Avalanche, in the midst of a second straight dismal season, appear to be on the verge of a major shakeup, whether that occurs at the trade deadline or during the summer. Multiple high-profile players could be shipped elsewhere as management attempts to fix what ails the roster. The Denver Post’s Terry Frei compiled a comprehensive listing of the moves the team has made since Joe Sakic took over as the organization’s top decision-maker and the results are as you would expect given the current state of the team. Like many teams, the Avalanche have blundered when it comes to the term offered to unrestricted free agents. Among the players acquired either as a free agent or via trade and then subsequently extended were Brad Stuart, Jarome Iginla, Francois Beachemin, and Carl Soderberg. All were at least 30 when added to the Avalanche roster and only Soderberg was younger than 34. Needless to say, those deals haven’t worked out as the team had anticipated.
A late free agent addition that has panned out far better than expected was the Dallas Stars October signing of forward Lauri Korpikoski, as Mike Heika of the Dallas Morning News writes. The Finnish forward had been bought out of the final year of his deal with Edmonton and was later released from his PTO with Calgary. In need of forward depth following the loss of Ales Hemsky and Mattias Janmark, the team inked Korpikoski to a one-year, $1M deal. While he hasn’t exactly lit up the score sheet, the nine-year veteran has contributed six goals and 15 points in 43 games. That’s solid production for a bottom-six winger and a relative bargain given the minimal investment the Stars undertook. Additionally, Stars head coach Lindy Ruff appreciates Korpikoski’s all-around game, saying: “He’s a solid contributor who is good on both sides of the puck. You’ve got a guy who is pretty diligent and plays the game the right way.” With five of his fellow forwards also set to hit unrestricted free agency this summer, it’s at least possible Dallas considers an extension with Korpikoski.

Western Conference Notes: Stars, Red Wings, Labanc, Toews, Seabrook

December 10, 2016 at 7:00 pm CDT | by Glen Miller Leave a Comment

A year after riding the league’s most prolific offense to a Central Division title, the Dallas Stars have been beset by injuries and currently sit on the outside looking in at a postseason berth. Obviously the absences of key players like Ales Hemsky, Patrick Sharp, Jiri Hudler, Mattias Janmark and Cody Eakin for parts – or in the case of Janmark, all – of the season has played a role. However, Mike Heika addressed another possible factor for the team’s on-ice struggles in a recent mailbag feature.

When asked what trade he would make if he were the GM to improve the Stars, Heika suggested making a relatively minor deal sending blue liner Patrik Nemeth to Detroit for a goalie prospect. While on the surface it’s difficult to envision a trade of this nature having much of an impact on the ice for either team, Heika reasons that moving one of the eight defensemen on the roster would “alleviate the pressure of eight defensemen for the players and the coaching staff and that could immediately make a player such as Jamie Oleksiak better.”

Ordinarily having quality depth is considered a good thing but perhaps not when it comes to the Stars blue line. As Heika suggests, carrying seven blue liners may allow head coach Lindy Ruff to more easily identify consistent defense pairings.

While this does not qualify as an actual trade rumor, Heika’s hypothetical deal does provide a look at what the Stars brass may actually consider at some point. The team does have solid depth on the back end and with neither Antti Niemi nor Kari Lehtonen performing well between the pipes for Dallas, the Stars could certainly find themselves in the market for a young goaltender-of-the-future.

Highly-regarded rookie Kevin Labanc isn’t exactly lighting up the league with just three goals and five points in the first 14 games of his NHL career. But after going scoreless in his first four, the 20-year-old winger – 21 on December 12th – has been more productive of late with all of his points coming in the last 10 contests. As Kevin Kurz of CSN Bay Area writes, the mini outburst from Labanc has already helped the youngster leapfrog veteran forwards Joonas Donskoi, Joe Thornton and Mikkel Boedker in the goal-scoring department. As Kurz notes, Labanc’s contributions have likely earned him a regular role on the Sharks for the balance of 2016-17.
Chris Hine of the Chicago Tribune provides an update on the status of Jonathan Toews and Brent Seabrook. Toews has missed the past eight contests with a back problem while Seabrook missed his first game of the season with an upper-body-injury. Hawks bench boss Joel Quennville has already said that before returning to the lineup, both players will need to skate with the team. To this point, neither player has been able to do so, though Seabrook’s injury is a recent development. The injury to Toews has to be of great concern to the Blackhawks. There is no timetable for a return and back injuries can be problematic, leading to the possibility Chicago’s top pivot could be odd for a while yet.

Snapshots: Uncertainty in Dallas, Hanzal

December 7, 2016 at 8:07 pm CDT | by natebrown 2 Comments

The Dallas Stars are in a precarious position due to a number of factors writes Mike Heika. Besieged by injury, and seemingly in some form of hockey purgatory, Heika begins his column with prose:

The Stars are neither fish nor fowl.

They are not fast, yet they are not slow.

They are not young, yet they are not old.

They are not tough, yet they are not weak.

The Stars have been an enigma this season, expected to build on last year’s successes while bringing along a lot of the young, speedy talent that seemed ready to carry the team. Instead, Heika writes that the injuries to Mattias Janmark and Ales Hemsky altered the plan to include bigger, and albeit slower, forwards. Additionally, a more veteran blue line gave way for youth, which includes a learning curve as it acclimates to NHL talent.

Heika adds that with the uncertainty of the youth delivering, comes the unknowns associated with the 2017 offseason where a number of unrestricted free agents are set to be re-signed or hit the market. Those names include Patrick Sharp, Patrick Eaves, Jiri Hudler, Johnny Oduya, Adam Cracknell and Hemsky. Throw in what many analysts observe as a “shaky” goaltending tandem in Antti Niemi and Kari Lehtonen, and Heika indicates there’s yet another aspect of the team that may see change. Finally, head coach Lindy Ruff is in the final year of his contract.

What does it all mean? The Stars are a team in “no man’s land” according to Heika. Ruff put the team through a tough practice and indicated that the way through the inconsistency was to keep working. Heika is convinced it’s the one way that Dallas can determine what they’re truly made of.

In other Western Conference news:

Montreal needs help up front and Arizona’s Martin Hanzal may be just the the man to solve their problems writes Navin Vaswani. The 29-year-old could be had for a young NHL ready forward and Vaswani believes Phillip Danault could do the trick. But Vaswani adds that Marc Bergevin isn’t forced to make a trade at all. Pierre LeBrun tweets that he isn’t sure if the Habs’ interest in Hanzal has spiked since the injuries to Alex Galchenyuk and David Desharnais. What he does indicate, is that regardless of what decision they make, injuries are part of the game and the Habs–whether they make a deal or not–must find a way to survive the injuries. LeBrun also adds that Arizona may still make a run at re-signing Hanzal.

Stars Place Patrick Sharp On IR

December 3, 2016 at 2:00 pm CDT | by Glen Miller Leave a Comment

The Dallas Stars, who have battled injuries to key contributors throughout the 206-17 campaign, lost Patrick Sharp for the second time this season. The club announced today, via their official Twitter account, that they have placed the 34-year-old winger on IR retroactive to December first.

Mike Heika of the Dallas Morning News adds the Stars head coach Lindy Ruff has said that Sharp is back in the concussion protocol. Sharp missed a month earlier this season with the initial head injury. In 11 games this year, Sharp has tallied just a single goal and two points while averaging better than 16:30 of ice time per game.

Now in his 14th NHL season, Sharp has netted 270 goals and 583 points in 832 NHL games. He is scheduled to be an unrestricted free agent this summer after completing the final season of a five-year deal he originally inked with Chicago. He carries a cap hit of $5.9MM and has a modified NTC which allows Sharp to block trades to 10 teams.

Ruff also said that Curtis McKenzie and Adam Cracknell will draw into the lineup tonight, tweets Heika. Cracknell has three points in 23 appearances on the campaign and hasn’t played since November 28th. He’s been a healthy scratch the last two games for Dallas. McKenzie, himself a healthy scratch for Dallas’ 6 – 2 loss to Pittsburgh on Thursday, has one goal and three points in 16 games this season.

The Stars have also been without forwards Ales Hemsky, Jiri Hudler and Mattias Janmark, among others, for much of the season to date. Veteran defenseman Johnny Oduya has spent the last two weeks on IR as well.

Snapshots: Vegas, Russell, Stars Injury Update

December 2, 2016 at 10:20 am CDT | by Brett Barrett Leave a Comment

In his latest Rumblings, ESPN analyst Pierre LeBrun wonders about retained-salary transactions between the Vegas Golden Knights and the rest of the NHL around the Expansion Draft.

Vegas GM George McPhee recently asked the NHL if other teams would be allowed to retain salary on players exposed in the Expansion Draft.

For example, the Los Angeles Kings are likely going to expose former captain Dustin Brown. Brown signed an eight-year deal back in 2013, when he was coming off a 52-point pace in the lockout shortened season. Brown’s play fell off a cliff the year before the extension took effect, and has not scored more than 28 points in a season since. The now-third-line-forward has five seasons remaining after this one at a whopping $5.875MM per.

McPhee wanted to know if he could offer to take Brown in the Expansion Draft, as long as Kings GM Dean Lombardi retained some of Brown’s salary. This would make Brown a more palatable pick for the Golden Knights, while the Kings would be able to move on from Brown without the high cost of buying him out.

LeBrun reports that Deputy Commissioner Bill Daly told McPhee that retaining salary would not be allowed with expansion picks. He goes on to write that Vegas will be able to make trades shortly after the final expansion fee payment is made on March 1. This gives Vegas an advantage over previous NHL expansion franchises, because they weren’t allowed to make trades until the Expansion Draft to make trades.

NHL fans (and the league head office) will be watching for GMs to start finding loopholes. While teams won’t be allowed to retain salary for exposed players, McPhee could make an arrangement with a fellow GM to select an agreed upon lesser player and then trade a late round pick in the NHL Entry Draft for a high-priced player with salary retained. In theory, the Golden Knights could take Michael Latta from the Kings, instead of a more notable exposed-player, and then trade a 5th round pick to Los Angeles for Brown with salary retained.

With the NHL watching closely to make sure every transaction passes the smell test, it will be interesting to see if this loophole gets taken advantage of, or if it’s closed before McPhee and the Golden Knights take advantage of it.

After the Oilers 6-3 win over the Jets on Thursday night, Postmedia’s Jim Matheson argued that the Oilers should try and make a handshake deal with Kris Russell to sign after the expansion draft, which would likely prevent McPhee and the Golden Knights selecting Russell. While Matheson called Russell the Oilers “third-best defenseman” who “really solidified their back-end,” Russell is a divisive figure between the analytics world and the old hockey mindset. He gets poor results based on most analytics metrics, but he’s a well-liked, shot-blocking defenseman. Sportsnet analytics writer Stephen Burtch took a deeper look at Russell’s advanced stats, and found that only two Oilers actually get better results when Russell is on the ice: Benoit Pouliot and Zack Kassian. Meanwhile, Connor McDavid, perhaps the best player in the NHL and its leading scorer, performs markedly worse when Russell is on the ice. McDavid’s expected goals-for goes down nearly 20% when he plays with Russell. Burtch argued that Russell is not the Oilers third-best defenseman, and his skill-set of lowering his team’s goals-against is decent, but also largely based on luck.
Mike Heika of the Dallas Morning News updated the condition of several injured Dallas Stars on Friday morning. While Ales Hemsky and Mattias Janmark are both out until April with hip surgery and knee surgery respectively, Johnny Oduya (lower body) could be back sometime next week. As we reported on Thursday, the pending UFA Oduya may be on the trade block. Meanwhile Jiri Hudler has been out of the lineup with an unknown virus for a month, and remains out with no timeline for his return. The Stars could use some help, as they have a 9-10-6 record and sit in fifth in the Central Division.

Patrick Sharp Sidelined With Concussion-Like Symptoms

October 21, 2016 at 10:59 am CDT | by Glen Miller Leave a Comment

According to head coach Lindy Ruff – via a tweet from Mike Heika of the Dallas Morning News – winger Patrick Sharp is expected to be out of the Stars lineup “for a while” due to concussion-like symptoms. Sharp was injured on a hard check from Los Angeles defenseman Brayden McNabb along the boards and appeared to hit his head as he fell.

The Stars have been hit particularly hard by injuries so far this season. Patrick Eaves, Ales Hemsky, Mattias Janmark and Cody Eakin have yet to appear in a game for Dallas while free agent addition Jiri Hudler will likely miss the team’s next game with an illness. As Heika notes, the absence of Hudler will likely prompt a call-up from the club’s AHL affiliate.

The loss of Sharp for a significant period of time is a big one for Dallas. The veteran scorer, who is in his 14th NHL season, scored 20 goals and 55 points for the Stars in his first season with the club after being acquired via trade from Chicago. Sharp, 34, is in the final year of a five-year deal with a cap hit of $5.9MM.

Central Snapshots: Avalanche, Gunnarsson, Lehtera, Brodziak, Stars

October 16, 2016 at 2:40 pm CDT | by Glen Miller 1 Comment

After missing the playoffs for the second consecutive season, the Colorado Avalanche perhaps surprisingly kept their roster mostly intact this past summer; though they did make one big change which is expected to impact their on-ice fortunes. Jared Bednar replaces Patrick Roy behind the bench and is being counted on to implement a system better-suited for the talent on hand and one that can compete in the tough Central Division. But as Terry Frei of The Denver Post argues, by sticking with this core group of players, making the playoffs isn’t going to be good enough for the Avalanche.

By virtue of the expensive long-term contracts doled out over the last couple of seasons to Semyon Varlamov, Nathan MacKinnon, Matt Duchene, Erik Johnson, Tyson Barrie and Gabriel Landeskog, Colorado has demonstrated an immense amount of faith that this group can guide the franchise to Stanley Cup contention, opines Frei. Those six players account for nearly half of Colorado’s cap commitments in the 2016-17 campaign and perhaps more importantly, all remain under contract to the Avalanche for at least the next three seasons. If this group underachieves yet again, it could make it that much tougher for GM Joe Sakic to receive fair value for these players in potential trade talks. Consequently, since his ability to spend on free agents will be restricted as well, it might be difficult moving forward to drastically change or augment the Avalanche roster.

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