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Dallas Stars Signing Jamie Oleksiak May Mean Trade Coming

By Josh Clark

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Yesterday, the Dallas Stars officially capped off negotiations with their 2015 free agent class as they re-signed defenseman Jamie Oleksiak to a one-year deal worth $875,000, which is just slightly above his qualifying offer.

So the Stars went into the offseason with eight free agents that spent a majority of their year in the NHL. Four were unrestricted, while the other four were restricted. The Stars ended up bringing back all four RFA’s (Jyrki Jokipakka, Patrik Nemeth, Curtis McKenzie, Jamie Oleksiak), while Patrick Eaves was the only UFA that was extended a renewal offer in the UFA category.

Now that the Dallas Stars have all their ducks in a row, it’s getting to be that time where they need to begin looking at their lineup for next year. After last season, it seems that whichever way the Stars go on offense, they’ll find a way to be heartily successful. Their goaltending has slacked off since the 2009-2010 season, but it seems as though Jim Nill may finally have found a plausible strategy to fix the crease. The Stars will go into the 2015-2016 season with two veteran, starter-quality goaltenders to pick from on any given night.

With two-thirds of the on-ice attack seemingly squared away, there remains one spot that holds a multitude of questions. This is the Dallas Stars defense.

While the 2014-2015 season was a difficult one for the young blue line to manage, they only improved as the season wore on. Sadly, it was too late by mid-March to try and finish a miraculous run.

But the Stars currently have eight “NHL-ready” defensemen under contract. At first glance this looks like a fantastic situation, but once you dig deeper it’s easily understood that this is more of a problem.

Let’s take a look at each defenseman’s career in the NHL and how they compare to each other:

Alex Goligoski: 480 GP, 240 PTS, +47

Trevor Daley: 756 GP, 231 PTS, +6

John Klingberg: 65 GP, 40 PTS, +5

Jyrki Jokipakka: 51 GP, 10 PTS, -2

Jason Demers: 361 GP, 120 PTS, +23

Patrik Nemeth: 30 GP, 3 PTS, -3

Jordie Benn: 180 GP, 44 PTS, +8

Jamie Oleksiak: 59 GP, 10 PTS, -8

With these eight defensemen running on the assumption that they will be playing full time in the NHL this coming year, the Stars are in a bit of a bind. Only six starting spots are available, so two will end up being severely disappointed.

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Jim Nill will need to have this defense figured out by the season opener, before waivers go into effect. If Nill tried to move any one of these eight to the minor leagues once the season had started, they would need to clear waivers. It’s almost a surefire guarantee that anyone of these players would be snatched up by a team looking for a capable defenseman on the waiver wire.

So something clearly must be done. There are no guarantees on what Jim Nill is planning on doing, but it may end up being bigger than expected. Mike Heika of the Dallas Morning News has thrown out the idea that Nill could end up dealing two defensemen in a trade for one, top four veteran defenseman (Brent Seabrook, anyone?). But this could potentially crack the market wide open. The Stars could go fishing with multiple teams looking for a deal.

On top of that, there are no guarantees that the younglings will be the first ones dealt. Trevor Daley is coming off one of his worst seasons defensively and has been rumored to be a trade chip. Alex Goligoski has only one year remaining on his contract, the same amount that most big names being traded have. There is no certainty of who will be staying and going if Nill decides to make a move.

But having eight defenseman on your NHL roster is not the smartest idea. Once the Stars find their perfect chemistry with six players, two others spend the rest of their season in the press box, losing out on valuable development and contribution time. Seven is an improvement, and is usually the target number.

Whatever happens, Nill needs to start thinking about it. More than likely, he has already started mapping his plan out.

Next: Dallas Stars Defense Is Fine Where It Is

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