Dallas Stars Could Use Another Year Of Vernon Fiddler

The Dallas Stars have an extensive number of decisions that must be made in the upcoming offseason, including whether or not they should re-sign veteran center Vernon Fiddler. Here is why the Stars would be smart to bring him back.

It has officially been one week since the Dallas Stars were eliminated from the Stanley Cup Playoffs in a lopsided game seven affair against the St. Louis Blues. One week since professional hockey vacated the glorious state of Texas for the next four months.

While the final four teams left standing in the NHL duke it out to see who deserves the Stanley Cup, the Stars will be focusing on the offseason ahead and finalizing their to-do list. Just by taking a quick glance, it’s clear that Dallas has a lot of work to get done and decisions to be made in the next couple of weeks before the free agency market opens up on July 1st.

What should be done about the Dallas Stars’ goaltenders? Should they trade Kari Lehtonen or Antti Niemi? Or both? Should they buy one of them out? And what about the defense? Does the Stars’ blue line require one more top-four defensive asset if they want to become a Cup-contending team? Or is it fine the way it is?

There is also the extensive list of free agents, both restricted and unrestricted. Names like Alex Goligoski, Jason Demers, and Kris Russell are up for new deals this coming offseason. These and eight others will all wait for an answer of what their future with the organization looks like.

One of the less prominent but definitely interesting names on that list is unrestricted free agent Vernon Fiddler.

Fiddler came to the Dallas Stars as a free agent on July 1, 2011, and has been with the organization ever since. In his 13-year NHL career spanning across three teams, he has posted 102 goals and 257 points in 818 regular season games. 366 of those games have come in a Stars’ jersey, along with 43 of the goals and 112 of the points.

In his most recent season with the Stars, Fiddler played a complete 82-game slate, scoring 12 goals and notching 10 assists for 22 points as well as a +5 on-ice rating. He also fulfilled his duty in the dot for the most part, winning the third highest amount of face-offs on the team this season at 50.7 percent. During the postseason run that followed, he played all 13 games, scoring one goal and tallying two assists.

In other words, he produced what you would expect from a 36-year old fourth-liner skating an average of 11:38 per game during the season and 8:56 in the playoffs.

Vernon Fiddler is now up for contract renewal for the second time in his tenure in Dallas, and the first renewal took some time. After he declined an initial offer from the Stars, he signed on the day following the free agent market opening.

In an interview following, he stated that he had received one or two offers from other teams, but in the end he wanted to stay in Dallas and help revive the hockey culture while competing for a Cup.

Fiddler’s most recent contract with the Dallas Stars was a two-year, $2.5 million deal with a cap hit of $1,250,000 signed on July 2, 2014. Two years have passed, and Fiddler is once again on the brink of being an unrestricted free agent.

“This organization, they’re in very good hands with the coaches,” Fiddler told the Dallas media. “There’s lots of good young kids coming up that they drafted and stuff like that, so this organization’s in great hands with ownership, management, coaches and prospects and the core group in our dressing room, so it was pleasure to be a part of and we’ll see what happens here.”

From this quote, it almost sounds as though Fiddler is planning to not be offered a new deal from the Stars organization and be forced to test the waters of the free agency pool. It is true that the Stars have plenty of promising young forwards, especially centers, moving up in the system and looking for NHL time.

But that does not mean that re-signing him is out of the question. In fact, offering Fiddler a new deal could be one of the best moves the Stars make this offseason.

It’s no secret that the Dallas Stars have an up-and-coming group in the dot. With players like Tyler Seguin, Jason Spezza, Radek Faksa, Cody Eakin, and Mattias Janmark already making an impact at the NHL level and Jason Dickinson knocking on the door in the AHL, the Stars are almost overstocked at the center position. So why re-sign Fiddler?

The fact of the matter is, the Dallas Stars need Vernon Fiddler to continue playing the role he spent the last few years filling. Fiddler is what people like to call a fourth-line grinder. Sure he may not get a ton of points, but he skates with a certain passion that is hard to find in players.

While so many players nowadays are focused on their skill and finessing it, Fiddler hits the ice and puts all he has on the line. If he sets up or is set up for a goal, great. But the physicality and drive that he brings to the team and the locker room is hard to replace. He wasn’t given the alternate captain “A” for no reason, after all.

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In a poll that Mike Heika ran regarding all of the Stars’ upcoming free agents, 71.74 percent of voters believed that Dallas should negotiate a new deal with Fiddler.

The Dallas Stars could probably rope him in rather easily. With the team on the rise and just one or two players away from competing for a Cup, they are obviously offering a beneficial situation for a player that has yet to win the Stanley Cup and is only three or four years from retirement. A one-year, $1.3 million deal would not cause any drastic shift for the Stars, and is probably something that Fiddler would accept.

Keep in mind that this is a two-way street. If Fiddler is already dead set on finding another club, it would be difficult to bring him back. Or he may not like the deal the Stars offer, if they even decide to offer one. But then the question arises of how much interest an aging center will bring on the market.

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But the bottom line is that Vernon Fiddler fulfilled his role with the Dallas Stars this year. Amidst all of the high-flying and overpowered young talent in front of him, Fiddler dug deep when on the ice and worked to produce a consistent offensive attack mixed with physical confrontation. If the Stars could secure him for another year, it could end up working out for both sides.