Dallas Stars: Looking At Their Picks In 2019 NHL Entry Draft

The 2019 NHL Draft is less than three weeks away. And, as it stands right now, the Dallas Stars will have a relatively quiet draft weekend due to a lack of picks. Here is where they are slotted to select so far.

The Dallas Stars are less than three weeks away from packing up and heading north of the border to Vancouver for the 2019 NHL Entry Draft. And before we know it, the draft will be here.

The offseason has a funny way of seemingly dragging on and on before hitting fans in droves. That’s partially due to the fact that the majority of the high-intensity action in each offseason is clumped together in a three-week window and partially due to the fact that the fan bases of all but two teams have been without hockey action from their favorite team for two or more weeks now.

But before we know it, the Stanley Cup will be awarded to either the Boston Bruins or St. Louis Blues, every team will be in full offseason mode, and the draft will be front and center on every team’s mind.

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And so, with the hype quickly setting in, what does the 2019 NHL Draft setup look like for the Dallas Stars? Well, as crazy as it may seem, the Stars are currently in line for a relatively quiet 2019 Draft weekend.

Wait, what?

For a team that has become so well-known for being frequent players in the NHL Draft over the past few seasons, this one might end up being quite different in terms of the Stars’ activity. And regardless of how you may feel about their recent draft history, it’s definitely a significant change from the status quo.

In the 2018 NHL Entry Draft, the Dallas Stars made a total of eight selections across the seven rounds. In the 2017 Draft, they had an even seven picks in seven rounds. The 2016 Draft offered them six selections. They only picked five players in the 2015 Draft. And in the 2012, 2013, and 2014 Drafts, the Stars had a total of nine selections in each class.

Needless to say, they’ve become well-accustomed to picking regularly during a given draft. That’s due in part to the team picking up extra picks during each year, whether it be in an offseason trade or a deal made at the Trade Deadline.

But in this year’s class, the Stars may be picking few and far between.

At the moment, the Dallas Stars have a total of four picks in the 2019 NHL Entry Draft. They currently do not own a pick in three of the seven rounds and may have a long wait after making their first selection in round one on Friday, June 21.

Here’s a look at where each one falls on the draft board.

Round 1: Pick 18

Round 4: Pick 111

Round 5: Pick 142

Round 6: Pick 173

So, why the shortage of picks in this year’s class? It all has to do with trades.

If you happened to forget, Dallas Stars GM Jim Nill was rather busy in the trade market during the 2018-19 season. As a result of bringing in a handful of players both within the first month of the season as well as near the 2019 Trade Deadline, the Stars packaged a handful of their 2019 draft picks as part of the return price.

Step back to Oct. 1 for a moment. With just three days separating them from opening night, the Stars sent their 2019 seventh-round pick to the Toronto Maple Leafs in exchange for defenseman Connor Carrick. It was seen as a minor move at the time, though Carrick would prove useful to the Dallas blue line throughout the first month of the season before breaking his foot in late October.

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A few weeks after his injury, the Stars also traded away their 2020 seventh-round pick in exchange for defenseman Taylor Fedun.

And as the 2019 Trade Deadline closed in, Dallas dug further into their draft pick reserve by trading for defenseman Ben Lovejoy and forward Mats Zuccarello. They sent Connor Carrick and their 2019 third-round pick to New Jersey in exchange for Lovejoy and dealt their 2019 second-round selection to the New York Rangers for Zuccarello. And had the Dallas Stars made it to the Western Conference Finals, that second-round pick would have turned into a 2019 first-rounder, leaving the Stars without a first-round selection for the first time since the 2008 NHL Entry Draft.

Needless to say, Nill wasn’t afraid to put his draft picks on the trade block this season if it meant acquiring an immediate talent that would help the team win in 2018-19. It ended up working to an extent, as the Stars advanced to Game 7 in the second round of the Stanley Cup Playoffs. They ultimately fell short, though, and will now look towards the draft with a bit of a limited stock of selections.

Now, that doesn’t mean that they won’t reel in another pick or two over the next three weeks or even during the draft weekend. Should the Dallas Stars be looking to trade a player or even move back in the draft in exchange for an extra pick, there may be opportunities to add choices.

For now, however, it looks as though the Stars may be in for an unusually quiet draft in the coming year. And with the talent in this year’s class, it will be up to them to make each pick count.