Dallas Stars 2015-2016

[Mr Misty]

Haven't the Flyers been looking for a quality starting goaltender since Washington crossed the Delaware? How long has he been their goalie coach?

Mason is a solid starter now, and while he didn't dip as low as Dubnyk did, he was lost for a while but got his confidence back under Reese.

 

[txomisc]

Its weird to think that 2 or 3 years ago the general consensus among Stars fans was that Valley was one of the best in the business.

 

[________]

More and more teams are doing this “double setup,†with someone at the NHL and another person moving throughout the organization. Dallas is the latest to adopt, as Jeff Reese, formerly of Philadelphia, is expected to be hired. Mike Valley slides to the roving position. Reese will try to resurrect Kari Lehtonen as he did Steve Mason. It doesn’t sound like there’s a ton of interest in the Stars’ No. 1.

Friedman

 

[________]

USA Today 10 NHL players who could be traded this offseason

G Kari Lehtonen, Dallas Stars: The Stars have potential, and Lehtonen didn't play well last season (.903 save percentage). It's unknown whether there is a market for Lehtonen. But the Stars have to be considering a change in net.

 

[LT]

Who was it that said there's not much of a market for Lehtonen?

 

[BigG44]

Who was it that said there's not much of a market for Lehtonen?

One post above ... Freidman.

Reading between the lines, Dallas isn't willing to retain salary or take a bad contract back. If they were, you can trade just about anyone.

I'm OK with taking that stand assuming you don't sign another backup goalie. Give Kari every opportunity to bounce back, but you've got either sign (will be tough) or trade for a guy that can truly push Kari.

I say it will be tough to sign a guy because where would you rather sign between Dallas, Calgary, San Jose, and Edmonton? If I'm the player and agent, I feel like I get a better opportunity to prove myself in Calgary (if Ramo walks), San Jose, or Edmonton. With Dubnyk not signed yet, you might be able to add Minnesota to that list as well.

The only real negative at this point is that Kari will scare off many starters or borderline starters from signing in Dallas. Even with a poor season, it's just natural to view his presence as a risk compared to a wide open team like San Jose, Edmonton, or Minnesota, and Hiller doesn't have nearly the firm grip in Calgary that Kari has had in the past. I do believe the team will be less willing to let Lehtonen play out of a slump, but they're going to have to prove that this season for people to take them seriously IMO.

That's why a trade may be the easiest option.

 

[LT]

Oh duh

Agree on all parts. Lack is my ideal target.

I'm not sure where some of these absurd values for Talbot are coming from.

 

[BigG44]

Oh duh

Agree on all parts. Lack is my ideal target.

I'm not sure where some of these absurd values for Talbot are coming from.

One of the Edmonton writers had a great article that illustrated why Lack is probably the best trade target, but I was surprised to see that Reimer might be a smart option as well for a back up plan.

The ultimate would be Karri Ramo, but I just can't see him picking Dallas over a much easier path to starter.

 

[________]

Good article on Reese

One of my biggest enjoyments of covering Flyers practices and game-day morning skates prior to Reese's departure was watching him work daily with the goaltenders before the skaters and other assistant coaches took to the ice. He never just went through the motions or wasted valuable time. Everything he did was highly focused and detail oriented. He was clearly someone who loved his work and poured his heart and soul into it.

On a personal level, Reese is approachable. While positive-outcome focused, he is also a straight shooter who would not sugar coat the truth. If there's an area where someone needed improvement, such as tracking the puck or competing in scrambles around the net, he is be honest about it. Overall, he is protective of the goalies and focused on putting them in position to succeed.

An example of his detail-oriented nature: A couple of years ago, Reese told me about a young goalie he was working with who had been using the wrong size stick with his previous team. Getting him to use a proper stick was an early corrective step.

 

[LT]

Glennie and Horcoff won't be returning.

Good riddance to Glennie; will miss Horcoff, but he's not really a loss IMO. Probably wants more money than he's worth.

 

[Magic Mittens]

Horcoff was good, but I'm sure someone younger or someone from FA/trade can replace him. Hey who knows maybe we might end up with legwand and Lehner lol

As for Glennie I could care less

 

[Satan]

Bon Voyage, Shawn ... Sayonara, Scott.

More on OTWinner

We all know why they're going. Although I'm quite surprised that Horcoff won't be back.

 

[Satan]

So that leaves us with the following guys as RFAs: Curtis McKenzie, Jamie Oleksiak and Ludwig Karlsson.

Pending UFAs: Patrick Eaves, Jhonas Enroth & Rich Peverley

 

[________]

Stars make contract offer to Eaves

“I’ve talked to Enroth and told him we are going to look at the market,†Nill said. “He wanted to look at the market. We are going to keep in touch.â€

“We’ve talked to both, made contract offers and it’s just negotiations,†Nill said of Oleksiak and McKenzie. “It’s pretty straight forward. We’ll make qualifying offers and go from thre.â€

 

[steiner]

Nill also said the Stars will not extend a qualifying offer to minor league forward Ludwig Karlsson, making him an unrestricted free agent.

 

[ItsTheCracken*]

Okposo is apparently on the trade block.
I think he would fit in very well here. Will be interesting to see how that plays out.

 

[LowSodium]

Okposo is apparently on the trade block.
I think he would fit in very well here. Will be interesting to see how that plays out.

I actually do too. Dallas has a serious problem at wing, and Okposo's contract would only be 2.8m this year I believe. What options are there at LW?

 

[LT]

What serious problem at wing...? 4 RWs and 2 LWs in the top 6?

Move one over or sign a stop-gap for the #2 LW spot.

Hardly a "serious problem".

 

[LowSodium]

What serious problem at wing...? 4 RWs and 2 LWs in the top 6?

Move one over or sign a stop-gap for the #2 LW spot.

Hardly a "serious problem".

Going to have to call you out on this one. What wingers are you talking about? We clearly are watching a different team because no one on this roster is a proven top-6 winger besides Benn.

Left:

The only left winger I could think of that you're referring to would be Roussel.. While he's a good character, his season high is 25 points. Hardly a top-6 player. We have 1 top-6 LW and some 3rd/4th liners.

Right:

Hemsky - Hemsky is really the only proven top-6 RW on our roster, and he had a horrible year last year. Idk if his career will trend back up at this point.

Val - Even with all of his hype, he is still unproven. You can't bet on the horse who hasn't ran yet. He had one secondary assist in 8 games last year, the only point coming in a game with 12 goals.

Ritchie - 9 points in the NHL so far. I would certainly not classify him as a top-6 winger. He looks like he has the potential to become one, but when he wasn't scoring last year he really wasn't doing much.

Eaves - Career 4th liner. Not sure if you're expecting to keep his .5 PPG pace up, but that likely won't happen.

 

[BeaverSports]

I would say the Stars could use one or two proven top-six wingers.

 

[Mr Misty]

Who are we replacing Eaves, Horcoff, and Cole with? We need another NHL center IMO, and an infusion of defensive know how on the wings as well. The forward group needs to commit to defending, and that means bringing in some serious competition if we can.

 

[LT]

Going to have to call you out on this one. What wingers are you talking about? We clearly are watching a different team because no one on this roster is a proven top-6 winger besides Benn.

Left:

The only left winger I could think of that you're referring to would be Roussel.. While he's a good character, his season high is 25 points. Hardly a top-6 player. We have 1 top-6 LW and some 3rd/4th liners.

Right:

Hemsky - Hemsky is really the only proven top-6 RW on our roster, and he had a horrible year last year. Idk if his career will trend back up at this point.

Val - Even with all of his hype, he is still unproven. You can't bet on the horse who hasn't ran yet. He had one secondary assist in 8 games last year, the only point coming in a game with 12 goals.

Ritchie - 9 points in the NHL so far. I would certainly not classify him as a top-6 winger. He looks like he has the potential to become one, but when he wasn't scoring last year he really wasn't doing much.

Eaves - Career 4th liner. Not sure if you're expecting to keep his .5 PPG pace up, but that likely won't happen.

I meant top 9, my bad.

Benn and Roussel on LW. Nichushkin, Ritchie, Hemsky, and Garbutt on the right.

May not be ideal, but its better than a lot of other situations we could be in.

 

[Timani]

Going to have to call you out on this one. What wingers are you talking about? We clearly are watching a different team because no one on this roster is a proven top-6 winger besides Benn.

Left:

The only left winger I could think of that you're referring to would be Roussel.. While he's a good character, his season high is 25 points. Hardly a top-6 player. We have 1 top-6 LW and some 3rd/4th liners.

Right:

Hemsky - Hemsky is really the only proven top-6 RW on our roster, and he had a horrible year last year. Idk if his career will trend back up at this point.

Val - Even with all of his hype, he is still unproven. You can't bet on the horse who hasn't ran yet. He had one secondary assist in 8 games last year, the only point coming in a game with 12 goals.

Ritchie - 9 points in the NHL so far. I would certainly not classify him as a top-6 winger. He looks like he has the potential to become one, but when he wasn't scoring last year he really wasn't doing much.

Eaves - Career 4th liner. Not sure if you're expecting to keep his .5 PPG pace up, but that likely won't happen.

If you don't think Val and Ritchie are ready to play, then what do you do with them? You go out and sign "proven" wingers for a good amount of money, then sit Val and Ritchie or send them down to the minors or trade them? I guess that's my problem with your argument. You need to let young players grow into positions a little bit.

 

[Mr Misty]

If you don't think Val and Ritchie are ready to play, then what do you do with them? You go out and sign "proven" wingers for a good amount of money, then sit Val and Ritchie or send them down to the minors or trade them? I guess that's my problem with your argument. You need to let young players grow into positions a little bit.

If you have a young player like Ritchie, Val is a different case IMO, you go out and sign proven wingers and then you tell him to earn a spot. I'd rather have some solid players ahead of him that he can learn from than give him a top 6 spot by default and have no contingency if he can't keep up yet.

 

[Timani]

If you have a young player like Ritchie, Val is a different case IMO, you go out and sign proven wingers and then you tell him to earn a spot. I'd rather have some solid players ahead of him that he can learn from than give him a top 6 spot by default and have no contingency if he can't keep up yet.

I can understand that. I wonder if they feel that way though, or if they think of Ritchie as more like Val...a future core piece that they want to put in a better position to succeed? We should find out shortly after FA begins because Nill seems like a guy that has a plan and executes it quickly.

So you would go out and sign one winger then, (preferably a LW for Spezza I'm guessing), and then make Ritchie earn time in the bottom 6? I don't mind that.



Benn-Seguin-Val
FA---Spezza-Hemsky
Roussel-Eakin-Garbutt
McKenzie-Fiddler-Ritchie

Eaves, Moen and the Cedar Park call ups to battle for the lineup. I say Eaves because it sounds like they want him back.