What 5 things must happen for Stars to be contenders next year?

[NeoCanuck]

Quick question Stars fans:

How badly do the Stars have/want to move Spezza? Would they add a pick/prospect to take his contract on for next year?

 

[Satan]

Quick question Stars fans:

How badly do the Stars have/want to move Spezza? Would they add a pick/prospect to take his contract on for next year?

We have like 18M in cap space with Spezza.

do the maths

 

[ZeHockeyFan]

Guess we could always put Ritchie back there right? Because it's been 2 seasons now and he is often times playing on our top line with top PP time. How much worse could Nichushkin really be than that? I mean seriously think about it for a second. And also, what do you suggest? We play him on the 4th line and dont give him another chance? He is still young and could still turn things around whether it looks like a longshot or not. Id be happy having a top 6 right winger that could actually possibly put up more than 30 points.

Not putting Nichushkin on line 1 is not the same as putting Ritchie there instead (false dichotomy). Both have shitty shooting skills and neither belong there.

And yes, I do suggest playing Nichushkin at one of 3rd and 4th lines where his shitty shooting skills are not a requisite and he can use his body to press the forecheck...you know, low IQ, donkey labor stuff. Let him show that he can do (a lot) more than that low bar that has been set for him, and then maybe one can consider a top six role.

Best case scenario: He stays the f*** back in Russia and doesn't come back here so the team doesn't have to worry about pleasing his fragile ego and holding their collective breaths on when he's going to chuck toys out of the pram and run back home again when he's confronted with a challenge.

 

[FirstRowUpperDeck]

25 better than 18. 21 if some retainage okay, too. Apparently, Hitch was determined from the beginning to not use him. He is probably ready for a trade unless a new coach comes in.

 

[Satan]

25 better than 18. 21 if some retainage okay, too. Apparently, Hitch was determined from the beginning to not use him. He is probably ready for a trade unless a new coach comes in.

Paying assets to move Spezza (after a career worst shooting percentage this year) is just plain stupid.

Expect a bounceback next year. I'm not ready to write him off yet.

 

[Kcb12345]

Paying assets to move Spezza (after a career worst shooting percentage this year) is just plain stupid.

Expect a bounceback next year. I'm not ready to write him off yet.

My thoughts exactly.

 

[Smelling Salt]

Nichushkin is a weird one for me.

I'd like to see what he can do just because of his draft pedigree and the flashes we saw in his rookie season. But I don't want whoever the coach is to play him on the first line over and over when it's clearly not working ala Ritchie.

I don't think we should be cheering for him to fail because if the team goes anywhere in the next decade we need picks like him to hit. We desperately need him to be part of the second wave of Dallas Stars unless Nill pulls a rabbit out of his hat.

 

[Smelling Salt]

Anyone with a sub to The Athletic read Shapiro's Q and A with Nill?

Q&A: Jim Nill on what went wrong, plans for the offseason,...

 

[Troy McClure]

Anyone with a sub to The Athletic read Shapiro's Q and A with Nill?

Q&A: Jim Nill on what went wrong, plans for the offseason,...

I’m a subscriber. I like their NHL and NFL work. Here’s a summary of some of the things I got out of it. Not much revealed because that’s how Nill is.

-Nill is going to do exit interviews with the players to get their perspective about why things fell apart at the end.
-Didn’t give an especially ringing endorsement of Hitch, but also wasn’t overtly critical.
-Said he talks to Gaglardi daily, but interestingly, Nill uses “they” when talking about ownership. Don’t know who all he means by they.
-Calls Heiskanen a franchise-changing player.
-Doesn’t sound like he has any sort of commitment from Nichushkin.
-Thinks Honka will be a better player thanks to not playing all season.

 

[Smelling Salt]

Thanks.

lol @ the Honka claim. Well he barely played this year so yeah he will no doubt look better

 

[ZeHockeyFan]

I’m a subscriber. I like their NHL and NFL work. Here’s a summary of some of the things I got out of it. Not much revealed because that’s how Nill is.

-Nill is going to do exit interviews with the players to get their perspective about why things fell apart at the end.
-Didn’t give an especially ringing endorsement of Hitch, but also wasn’t overtly critical.
-Said he talks to Gaglardi daily, but interestingly, Nill uses “they” when talking about ownership. Don’t know who all he means by they.
-Calls Heiskanen a franchise-changing player.
-Doesn’t sound like he has any sort of commitment from Nichushkin.
-Thinks Honka will be a better player thanks to not playing all season.

What a load of crap. Hopefully he's at least honest with himself, if not with the media, about how his inability to draft a game-breaker in the last 4 drafts leading up to Heiskanen ended up in painting himself into a corner with all his ill-advised and hasty signings, which negated his leverage to make a sorely needed deadline improvement.

 

[BfantZ]

1. Fire hitch
2.aquire a second line centre or hire a coach who isn’t afraid to use benn or seguin as the second line center
3. Aquire a second or first line winger who can score (jvr, Kane , Grabner , kovalchuk)
4. Call up miro
5. Aquire a goalie who will push bishop for minutes and can carry the load when he’s injured .(Aaron dell)
6. Give Dickinson , gury , hintz full time top 6 and pp with Texas .
7. Dump spezza , hanzal , Ritchie , rousell , hamhuis , pateryn and lehtonen .

Xxx-seguin -rads
Benn - xxx- shore
Janmark-faksa - nichushkin
Elie smith pitlick

Lindell klingberg
Heiskanen honka
Methot johns
Heatherington

Bishop
Dell

 

[ZeHockeyFan]

1. Fire hitch
2.aquire a second line centre or hire a coach who isn’t afraid to use benn or seguin as the second line center
3. Aquire a second or first line winger who can score (jvr, Kane , Grabner , kovalchuk)
4. Call up miro
5. Aquire a goalie who will push bishop for minutes and can carry the load when he’s injured .(Aaron dell)
6. Give Dickinson , gury , hintz full time top 6 and pp with Texas .
7. Dump spezza , hanzal , Ritchie , rousell , hamhuis , pateryn and lehtonen .

Xxx-seguin -rads
Benn - xxx- shore
Janmark-faksa - nichushkin
Elie smith pitlick

Lindell klingberg
Heiskanen honka
Methot johns
Heatherington

Bishop
Dell

Yeah, no. I'd rather someone more deserving and with better skills to score more than 30+ points gets that spot. Shore's numbers are 3rd line caliber and he can fit in with Faksa and Pitlick.

Kovalchuk has supposedly expressed an affinity for NYR, but not sure if they are in any position to sign him. That said, I don't want a 35 y.o. on this squad playing a vital role of secondary scoring. I like Grabner as would be the most affordable signing unless there's a major bidding war. It'd be interesting to see how much of a buzz he generates after his surprising season, but I'd assume that it'd pale in comparison to the kind of buzz JvR and Kane would generate. The price we may have to fork out for them may be a tad higher than market value. Personally, I'd rather we deal for Hoffman in the off-season who is signed at a very reasonable rate of $5.18M for the next two seasons.

 

[MrHeiskanen]

Draft Larkin instead of Honka

Draft Connor/Barzal/DeBrusk instead of Gurianov

There we made the playoffs!

THANKS JOE MCDONELL YOU IDIOT!

 

[Smelling Salt]

Harsh, but fair.

 

[Satan]

Larkin was such a Nill pick at the time too. I called him vanilla leading up to the draft. So funny how he quietly put up 63 points this year.

 

[AveryStar4Eva]

Go back in time and make the correct draft picks

Benn - Seguin - Radulov
Janmark - Larkin - Barzal
Nichushkin - Faksa - DeBrincat
Dickinson - Spezza - ?

Lindell - Klingberg
Heiskanen - Johns
Methot - ?

Bishop
?

Yeah I'm still bitter

 

[BfantZ]

Yeah, no. I'd rather someone more deserving and with better skills to score more than 30+ points gets that spot. Shore's numbers are 3rd line caliber and he can fit in with Faksa and Pitlick.

Kovalchuk has supposedly expressed an affinity for NYR, but not sure if they are in any position to sign him. That said, I don't want a 35 y.o. on this squad playing a vital role of secondary scoring. I like Grabner as would be the most affordable signing unless there's a major bidding war. It'd be interesting to see how much of a buzz he generates after his surprising season, but I'd assume that it'd pale in comparison to the kind of buzz JvR and Kane would generate. The price we may have to fork out for them may be a tad higher than market value. Personally, I'd rather we deal for Hoffman in the off-season who is signed at a very reasonable rate of $5.18M for the next two seasons.

I would be happy with kovalchuk if it’s short term but yea would rather jvr or Kane . I would like Hoffman too but I left trade targets out because we have no idea what the prices are or what other teams are going to make trades . I’d imagine Hoffman will be hard to get . No reason Ottawa would trade him unless there getting a lot in return . Jvr , Kane or even David Perron would probably be a better option as we know we are going to free up some cap space .

 

[ZeHockeyFan]

I would be happy with kovalchuk if it’s short term but yea would rather jvr or Kane . I would like Hoffman too but I left trade targets out because we have no idea what the prices are or what other teams are going to make trades . I’d imagine Hoffman will be hard to get . No reason Ottawa would trade him unless there getting a lot in return . Jvr , Kane or even David Perron would probably be a better option as we know we are going to free up some cap space .

I see Hoffman as an opportunity to offload the likes of Dickinson, who may deserve a better opportunity, or Shore or Nichushkin or Ritchie (can we? Pleeeaaaase??!!) whom, IMO, may never really progress beyond what they've achieved thus far.

 

[BfantZ]

I see Hoffman as an opportunity to offload the likes of Dickinson, who may deserve a better opportunity, or Shore or Nichushkin or Ritchie (can we? Pleeeaaaase??!!) whom, IMO, may never really progress beyond what they've achieved thus far.

If we could get Hoffman for Dickinson , nichushkin , Or Ritchie even all of them we should take it in a heartbeat .

 

[FirstRowUpperDeck]

Hoffman seems like a Hitch type player. Will Hitch be here?

Everyone here seems to want to dump all our young players. No need, you need those guys on lines 3 and 4 in the salary cap era. D first guys who can score. We just need to add second line players or top line players.

I think Shore, Nuke and Ritchie would have some value, and I think if they went somewhere else, they would blossom a bit, sort of like Nemeth and to a lesser degree, Jamie O. Then we would sit here wondering why we spent those assets on some aging winger, which would be okay, if we actually won something in Jamie's prime. That certainly doesn't seem assured.

 

[WhoahNow]

By no means do I think Nichushkin is THE top 6 solution, he's a definite improvement over a player like Ritchie who was used in that role this year. If there is enough depth and talent to push him down then that's awesome, but this existing roster needs an upgrade in talent across the board.

JVR, Kane, Neal, Vanek, Nash, Maroon, Perron, Tavares, Stastny (no particular order) are all UFA and I could see any one of them slot into our top 6 immediately.

The first question in my mind on who Nill goes for is how much faith he has in Spezza bounce back and if he can step up and lead a 2nd unit. If Hanzal is out long term than Faksa will need to eat his defensive minutes so can he provide a high level offence as well? Janmark getting 34 points after missing a full year is great to know he can still play but what is his ceiling as a 2nd line player LW/C?

If you want to go the trade route then who gets moved out that actually has value to return something considering the prospect pool is bleak?

 

[________]

JVR, Kane, Neal, Vanek, Nash, Maroon, Perron, Tavares, Stastny (no particular order) are all UFA and I could see any one of them slot into our top 6 immediately.

Kane would be the best option, since Tavares isn't realistic. Vanek would be fine if he's going to be used correctly, which isn't a top six role, but giving him a large amount of offensive zone shifts and lots of powerplay time. Pass on all the other options.
They need to focus on speed and skill, puck possession. Starts on the defense hopefully both Hamhuis and Pateryn are gone, with both Honka and Heiskanen as regulars.
That improves the team's transition game, so they can attack off the rush more. Enter the team's zone with the puck more (instead of dumping the puck in) will also help out produce more offense, same with stop playing on the perimeter of the rink.

 

[Ragernschnapple]

If Dallas signs a veteran D-man, or trades for one, Honka won’t play much again next season. Hitchcock doesn’t like small players. He doesn’t like young players. If you’re small and young, you have no chance at regular playing time. Gemel Smith understands. I actually think Heatherington will play more games than Honka next season just because he’s bigger. f*** YOU HITCHCOCK!

 

[Hull Fan]

1 Find a 2C. Buyout Spezza.
2 Do not re-sign Pateryn or Hamhuis. Free Honka. Play Heiskanen.
3 Trade Shore and Ritchie for picks.
4 Find a good backup goaltender.
5 Re-sign Nichushkin and bring up all of Hintz/Gury/Dickinson.