Dallas Stars: Last Year’s Grade, Next Year’s Guess: Gemel Smith

In today’s continuing series of Dallas Stars player grades, we’ll be taking a look at Gemel Smith fresh off of his arbitration ruling.

After being the first Dallas Stars player to get an arbitration ruling in over a decade, Smith has his work cut out for him next fall.

Last Season

Gemel Smith’s 2017-18 Grade: B-

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With Smith going all the way to a final decision in arbitration, his season from last year has been well analyzed. He finished the year with 11 points after playing in 46 games and he felt he deserved a one-way contract for the fall after his performance. The team disagreed but the arbitrator sided with Smith and gave him a one-way deal.

Smith’s season was good, but not great. He had high possession numbers over the season and he had more defensive zone starts. His ice time was low, but he still had a solid positive impact on the team in his limited opportunities. He even had one of the highest shooting percentages on the team at 14.3%, only behind Jamie Benn and Radek Faksa, though his is a much smaller sample size to work with.

Next Season

Next year is the real question for Smith. His contract is only for one year and there’s a lot happening with the Stars’ contracts and cap space next year between Jason Spezza and Marc Methot coming off the books while players like Tyler Seguin, Mattias Janmark, and Esa Lindell will need bigger extensions. If Smith can make a solid impact this year, he can insert himself into the discussion for a better deal, but if not, he’s going to be left in the dust while everyone else is cashing in on their raises.

Smith likely won’t sustain his shooting percentage and Corsi percentage over a full season, but if he can get into more games and get extra ice time, he’ll have a chance to try. He certainly doesn’t need to shoot over 14% to earn a nice deal and favor with the fans, but a good offensive season will do it.

Tomorrow, we’ll be looking at Ben Bishop in his first year as the starter here in Dallas, so stay tuned.