Building the Stars - 2016 Edition

[FirstRowUpperDeck]

Have told the story a few times here about sitting next to then GM Bob Gainey on a plane to MN (he to attend the Goldsworthy funeral, me on business) in April 1996. He was very open in conversation about the then non playoff team, and optimistic because in his words, it really only took 4-5 players changed out to make the difference.

Of course, Nil had already brought in Seguin, Hemsky, Spezza, Klingberg and Demers over the last few years, so he had started a large transformation, just as Gainey did in 1997, before hitting playoffs in 1997-8. It was enough for an 8th and 10th place finish.

It struck me last night that this year’s 4 to 5 change outs made the difference from 10th to first:

Sharp for Garbutt (or with injury, maybe Nuke in his lost season)
Oduya for Daley
Niemi for any number of back ups
Faksa for any number of rotating 4th line forwards (Garbutt, maybe Pevs, but that is a bit unfair)
Johns for Nemeth/Oleksiak/Benn

Individually, none seems like that remarkable an upgrade, but each replaced a struggling player with one who was truly better. And, it was just the five players types of players needed most.

And, he may very well continue to improve the team this off season. Not a perfect comparison to the 1999 Stars, but still, a similar, methodical build up of good players replacing average ones. It took Gainey three years, and one shortened (due to injury) playoff run) Here we are in year 3, a bit behind that schedule, maybe, but on a similar path.

Looking back, I wonder how the Stars turnover compares to some other non playoff teams, like EDM, who struggle year after year......

Click to read more...

 

[LT]

Why does there need to be a comparison to the '99 team?

 

[serp]

I was just looking through the roster of 2 years ago and what we iced in the regular season/playoffs that year.

Jesus it was Seguin, Benn and a monster drop-off that year for forwards. Ray Whitney fell apart that year and after Pevs went down it was a desaster. Chris Mueller played in 4 playoff games for a whopping 6:28 minutes a game. Horcoff was our second best player maybe even best in the playoffs.

On defense it was even worse Goose and Dailey had to play really heavy minutes because the rest was not very good. Dillon started to regress , Gonchar was terrible and who can forget about the awfulness that was Aaron Rome ... . Jordie might have been the third best defenseman on the team that year.

Man the roster has changed so much for the better in 2 years.

Part of it is emergence of young guys but also the vets this time aren't over the hill unlike two years ago.

 

[LT]

I've looked at those older rosters a few times and it never ceases to amaze me what Nill's done with it. I'm not sure there's a better GM in the league.

 

[FirstRowUpperDeck]

Why does there need to be a comparison to the '99 team?

So I could tell my "I sat next to Bob Gainey" story......of course!

 

[FirstRowUpperDeck]

Nil became GM in April 2013, just three years ago. Here was the roster he inherited, except it has all who played for the Stars that year, and we know Cole was obtained for Ryder by Joe N.

14 Jamie Benn LW 23 12 G, 21 A, 33 P
72 Erik Cole LW 34 6 G, 1 A, 7 P
21 Loui Eriksson LW 12 G, 17 A, 29 P
25 Matt Fraser LW 1 G, 2 A, 3 P
10 Brenden Morrow 6 G, 5 A, 11 P
24 Eric Nystrom LW 7 G, 4 A, 11 P
48 Francis Wathier LW 0 G, 0 A, 0 P
13 Ray Whitney LW 11 G, 18 A, 29 P
20 Cody Eakin C 7 G, 17 A, 24 P
38 Vernon Fiddler C 4 G, 13 A, 17 P
40 Ryan Garbutt C 3 G, 7 A, 10 P
17 Toby Petersen C 0 G, 0 A, 0 P
60 Antoine Roussel C 7 G, 7 A, 14 P
11 Derek Roy C 4 G, 18 A, 22 P
22 Colton Sceviour C 0 G, 1 A, 1 P
81 Tomas Vincour C 2 G, 1 A, 3 P
23 Tom Wandell C 1 G, 0 A, 1 P
12 Alex Chiasson RW 6 G, 1 A, 7 P
68 Jaromir Jagr RW 14 G, 12 A, 26 P
73 Michael Ryder RW 6 G, 8 A, 14 P
18 Reilly Smith RW 3 G, 6 A, 9 P

58 Jordie Benn D 1 G, 5 A, 6 P
6 Trevor Daley D 4 G, 9 A, 13 P
4 Brenden Dillon D 3 G, 5 A, 8 P
33 Alex Goligoski D 3 G, 24 A, 27 P
36 Philip Larsen D 2 G, 3 A, 5 P
28 Lane MacDermid D 2 G, 0 A, 2 P
43 Jamie Oleksiak D 0 G, 2 A, 2 P
3 Stephane Robidas D 1 G, 12 A, 13 P
27 Aaron Rome D 0 G, 5 A, 5 P

31 Richard Bachman G 6-5-0, 3.25 GAA
32 Kari Lehtonen G 15-14-3, 2.66 GAA
41 Cristopher Nilstorp G 1-3-1, 3.09 GAA

Too young, too old, too slow, etc. A real mish mash of players. My point ()from Gainey) was it needs to be 4 or 5 of absolutely the right moves. Sure, there will be misfires (Gonchar, maybe Hemsky) but not many trade outs are necessary to really improve a team. The real trick for Nil was obtaining quality players for basic trash.....kind of like all the proposals made on these boards, but he did them for real! (Okay, not all were trash, and some, like the sell off of Roy, Jagr, Morrow at the direction of T Galardi) came before his regime, as did the drafting of Klingberg, and a few others.

So he did have a head start, but man, his talent evaluation is spot on in most cases.

15 forwards gone from that team, 2 goalies, and 6 D, almost all for better players (or more mature versions of themselves)

 

[LT]

Morrow wasn't on that team either at that point. Nieuwendyk traded him and a 3rd for Joe Morrow and a 5th.

The defense is the most astounding part to me, as there really was so little there.

 

[serp]

I'm also pretty sure Roy and Jagr had been sold of by Nieuwy too during the lockout shortened year. Roy got us Kevin Connauton and the pick that became Phillippe Desrosiers.
Jagr became Lane MacDermid ,Cody Payne and the pick that enabled Nill to pick Dickinson.

 

[Troy McClure]

So I could tell my "I sat next to Bob Gainey" story......of course!

I sat next to Bob Gainey's daughter once. This was before she was lost at sea.