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Dallas Stars’ Prepare for Upcoming Expansion Draft with Recent Decisions

By Allison Scott

Dec 29, 2016; Dallas, TX, USA; Dallas Stars defenseman Jordie Benn (24) defends against Colorado Avalanche center Mikhail Grigorenko (25) during the third period at the American Airlines Center. The Stars defeat the Avalanche 4-2. Mandatory Credit: Jerome Miron-USA TODAY Sports
Dec 29, 2016; Dallas, TX, USA; Dallas Stars defenseman Jordie Benn (24) defends against Colorado Avalanche center Mikhail Grigorenko (25) during the third period at the American Airlines Center. The Stars defeat the Avalanche 4-2. Mandatory Credit: Jerome Miron-USA TODAY Sports /
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The upcoming expansion draft is going to put every NHL team in a bind one way or another. For the Dallas Stars, they are trying to get out of the bind early by way of the trade deadline.

The Dallas Stars are a team in an interesting position. They are still full of talent but have shifted their focus to the upcoming expansion draft and away from their very, very slim playoff hopes.

While it is not the situation anyone wanted to see Dallas in, it is just how this season has gone. Thankfully, the changes that have already happened and will happen in the future are with success in mind.

Trading Patrick Eaves

Bad teams are sellers come trade deadline, that is what is expected. The Stars have just been overachieving and begun selling off their players before all is said and done tomorrow at 3PM.

It is not fun to see players like Patrick Eaves and Jordie Benn depart from the organization, but it was exactly what needed to be done. Eaves is having a career-best season and will be entering free agency having that accomplishment under his belt. Translation: his price just went up exponentially.

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Dallas is a team with a lot of money tied down to players like Jamie Benn and Tyler Seguin, both of whom are almost guaranteed to remain in Victory Green for the foreseeable future. With that valuable cap space taken up, though, it is challenging to re-sign players like Eaves to the deals they desire. That makes getting a second or possibly first round draft pick for him all the more valuable.

The Stars are not a team that is willing to sacrifice other positional strengths for a player who had one incredible season. It just is not going to happen, so trading him makes perfect sense. Otherwise they would have risked losing him to free agency for nothing.

Trading Jordie Benn

Benn’s trade is another one that is hard to swallow, but it too makes perfect sense. There are limitations on how many players of each position a team can protect for the expansion draft. Unless that number was five or six defenseman there was no way Jordie Benn was falling into that category for the Stars.

Although he is a versatile player with the ability to play on nearly any pair, Benn is not of the same caliber as John Klingberg. He is not as young or promising as Esa Lindell or Stephen Johns or Jamie Oleksiak. Granted, pointing out those players by no means dictates that they will be protected either, but the point is that with them on the team protecting Benn seems impossible.

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    • So the Stars were in a bind. They could sit back and let the trade deadline come and go without making moves. They could avoid the inevitable and be criticized for passively sitting back, or take advantage of the options they have available.

    Jim Nill took the latter and made tough decisions. He was not happy about moving players because their trades were a direct result of Dallas’ poor season. However, it was what is best for the team. Now as a result the Stars have Greg Pateryn, who may or may not be around after the expansion draft, and forth-round pick.

    However, if they had lost him in the expansion draft, they would have received nothing in return. With those as the two feasible options, it makes sense that Nill chose to make the trade instead of sit back and possibly be empty-handed.

    What’s Next?

    Nill’s job is not easy by any means. He had to ship off his best offensive player this season and the brother of his team’s captain in light of the year Dallas has had. That is certainly not the position he nor the Stars themselves though they would be in come this point in the season. Unfortunately, though, that is how it has gone.

    What is to come, however, is entirely unknown. Considering the deals Nill has accomplished in the last few days, it is fair to say that he has been making a lot of phone calls around the league. Although he will be particular in the trades he follows through with, it is telling that he has been able to do so much and likely means more is to come.

    Next: Three Players the Stars Might Deal Before the Deadline

    The trade deadline officially locks in all rosters and will go into effect tomorrow, March 1, at 3pm. Until the very last minute, though, everything is up in the air. We will just have to wait and see who comes out on the other side still wearing Victory Green.

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