Dallas Stars Future: Stars Have Interesting UFA Scenario

The Dallas Stars are publicly known for a lot of things. Their firepower and elite play on offense, their relatively high number of attractive forwards, their awkward but lovable mascot. But the thing they may be best known for is their general manager Jim Nill, specifically his ability to consistently produce productive offseason moves.

In the past two years since joining the team, Nill has taken the reins in every offseason, adding top-tier talent to the Dallas Stars roster with each chance he gets. As a result, the Stars are setting up for a 2015-2016 season with a good majority of their roster being considered “superstar” caliber. They have a lot of expectations to meet, and it will be interesting to see if they reach them.

But once the season ends, whether in triumph or despair, the Stars will be staring down another offseason. This 2016 offseason may require more changes or it may require simply keeping pieces attached.

Nonetheless, the Dallas Stars have a substantial list of free agents to deal with next offseason, both unrestricted and restricted. Here is a quick look at the list:

RFA’s:

Valeri Nichushkin, F

Jamie Oleksiak, D

Brett Ritchie, F

UFA’s:

Alex Goligoski, D

Jason Demers, D

Travis Moen, F

Vernon Fiddler, F

Patrick Eaves, F

Jordie Benn, D

Colton Sceviour, F

The Stars took a big chunk of potential worry off of their radar when they signed 2016 free-agent-to-be Cody Eakin to a four-year extension at the end of August.

When taking a look at the RFAs, it’s clear that each one has more than one viable reason to be offered a new contract. Each player is currently one of the thriving new Stars and, while still growing, will be a prime piece of their team in the years to come.

But when you take a look at at the UFAs, there seems to be a bit of a different pattern than in prior years. There are a lot of names on the list, but how many of them are considered “must-have superstars?”

Not to diminish any of their contributions, considering each one helps the team out in their own certain way. But while every one of these players has a specific role they are currently filling, is there someone else who is waiting to step into it? Perhaps a younger player in the minors or on the scratch list?

The NHL is a business, let’s not forget. While it is nice to keep players that are liked around, different factors arise that may make it difficult to continue bringing them back.

For example, the Dallas Stars defense is still growing. At the beginning of this coming season, the main leaders of the blue line will be Alex Goligoski and Jason Demers, both of whom are in the final years of their contracts.

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While newcomer Johnny Oduya settles into a new team and learns his role, Goligoski and Demers will be helping carry the load and marching things right along. Goligoski is a solid two-way veteran d-man who loves to eat up minutes on the ice. Demers is a primary shut-down defender, one who continually attempts to harass any foreign forward in his zone.

Both of these players are valuable assets to the Stars defense. But when you look at the Stars defensive corp and the youth that it entails, you notice that there are multiple players just a year or two from reaching NHL potential and not enough spots on the blue line.

Go to the offense. Travis Moen, Vernon Fiddler, Patrick Eaves, and Colton Sceviour all contributed in their own way on offense in 2014-2015, whether it was through physicality, sharing the puck, effectively working on special teams, or downright scoring big goals in big moments. But none of these players saw any time on the top two lines this season except Eaves. Moen and Fiddler are moving towards retirement, and Eaves just passed 30. Sceviour is still growing, but this will be his third straight year in the league. All of them are excellent pieces of the Stars overall offensive scheme, but once again the younger players are just itching for a chance.

This article is very presupposed and a lot could happen between now and the 2016 offseason. One or multiple players from this list could have breakout years that put them at top priority to re-sign. But it all depends. It’s just good to know that the Stars farm system is up-and-coming and they are waiting for their chance to shine.

But each one of these players has the potential to put in a big 2015-2016 year. They have proved over their time with Dallas that they are of value for one reason or the next. So the Stars could end up re-signing all of them. It’s just too far out to tell.

So don’t get furious down in the comments because I’ve said that the Stars are going to get rid of someone. There is still a lot of hockey to be played, and a lot of things can happen between now and July. It just makes sense to look at the possibilities and evaluate what each player’s role currently is with the team. The Stars won’t be having any big-money players to re-sign in the 2016 offseason, but will definitely need to be looking ahead for when the need to re-sign Jamie Benn and potentially Patrick Sharp come along, among others.

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