Dallas Stars Not Buying Any Goalies Out This Offseason

Dallas Stars general manager Jim Nill made it clear that he would not be buying out Kari Lehtonen in a recent interview. That being said, it looks as though the Stars may stick with the same goaltending duo to start next season.

Game seven of the Western Conference semifinals between the Dallas Stars and St. Louis Blues this past season will forever live as a painful memory in the hearts of Stars fans.

Going into what would be the final game of a thrilling playoff run, the Stars had shifted the series back home after narrowly escaping with a victory in game six in St. Louis. Hopes were high, and the fans were out in full support. The night ended on an extremely low note as the Stars floundered in a final effort to save their season, losing badly in a lopsided 6-1 game.

With sorrow comes anger, and with anger comes the blame factor. Stars fans required something to point fingers at in order to hopefully ease their pain, and on this particular occasion, that scapegoat was not difficult to find.

The goaltending. Why is it that when things go wrong for the Dallas Stars, the goalies always take the blunt end of the accusations? Sure there are times where they deserve their share of the blame, but the fault has never entirely rested in the crease. Specifically in game seven, where was the high-flying offense that averaged 3+ goals a game all season? And let’s not start with defense.

But the NHL analysts were quick to criticize the goaltending as they had done throughout the Stars’ postseason run, and the fans quickly hopped on board with that theory. Meanwhile, Kari Lehtonen and Antti Niemi endured a verbal barrage.

The 32-year old Finnish goaltenders had just tested something in the 2015-2016 season that many had never seen before: a two-headed starting goalie technique.

There were definitely times where it was spotty, if not aggravating. But for the most part, these two goalies helped the Dallas Stars climb to the top of both the Central Division and Western Conference and claim the title of champion for both.

By the end of the year, both Lehtonen and Niemi had accumulated 25 wins for Dallas to help them get to the 50-23-9 mark. Though their save percentages (Lehtonen with .906 and Niemi with .905) and goals against averages (Lehtonen with 2.76 and Niemi with 2.67) were not of high regard, they were viewed as enough to help the Stars make a 17 point jump from the season prior and enter the Stanley Cup Playoffs as the top seed.

The playoffs, however, were a bit of a different story. While Lehtonen picked up six wins and Niemi scooped one, they could not hold each other up in times of struggle. Once the second round came around, it seemed as though it was a broken effort every night, pulling goalies for their partner because of poor performance.

Game seven happened to be the final nail in the coffin on multiple things. Not only did it end the Stars’ season, but it also seems to have ended any faith that Dallas Stars fans have in the two-goalie system.

Rumors of trading and buyouts began churning immediately, and had a large number of people fooled. Until yesterday.

As a part of Elliotte Friedman’s “30 Thoughts” column about a variety of subjects floating around the NHL, he addressed the goaltending situation. Here is an excerpt from that article.

I asked Dallas GM Jim Nill about Kari Lehtonen and he came back at me with a question: “How many games did he lose last season, including playoffs?” Uh, 15? “Thirteen,” he answered. So that means you’re not buying him out?

“No, we’re not buying him out. That last game is not a full reflection of the season. Nobody remembers the game before where he stood on his head. He’s disappointed, and the team is disappointed. We finished second overall, and everybody is focussed on the playoffs. Something went right too, you’ve got to be careful.”

Well said, Jim. The fact of the matter is, Kari Lehtonen had a pretty impressive season and playoff run, potentially one of his most successful regular season campaigns and definitely his most successful playoff endeavor.

Buying him out and dealing him $1,888,889 over the next six seasons for a total of $11,333,333 and dealing with the cap mess that would ensue just to get him off the team seems very ill-advised.

Same goes for Niemi. A buyout of $1,500,000 over the next six years is no simple and ideal task either. And if Nill isn’t going to bother messing with Lehtonen’s significantly similar buyout procedure, I wouldn’t be counting on a Niemi buyout anytime soon.

Both goalies were forced to learn how to play reduced minutes this season after bearing the majority of the load for their respective teams over the past few years. For the most part, they both succeeded. For all of you doubters, did you forget that these two goalies helped carry the Stars’ to first place in their first year under a vastly different system?

And then come all of the doubters that believe the two-goalie system will never work past the regular season and that Kari Lehtonen will never be able to lead any NHL team to a Stanley Cup.

Did it not work this year? The Dallas Stars advanced to the second round of the Stanley Cup Playoffs for the first time since 2008. They won the toughest division in hockey, and took a more-than-ready Stanley Cup team to seven games.

And this was all in the first season of testing a new theory. Who knows where these two could take this team as they slowly roll down to the final years of their careers? It’s an open book. Dallas Stars fans need to learn from Nill’s quote above and quit calling for Lehtonen’s (or Niemi’s for that matter) head.

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It seems as though they’ve been calling for Lehtonen to go each offseason for the past few years. It’s very unlikely that a team goes from the bottom half of the league to the tippy top in one mere season. This is a learning process, and if the goaltending situation continues to see changes, it will simply force the adaptation process to start all over again for whoever the new players are.

Kari Lehtonen and Antti Niemi are perfectly capable of carrying the Dallas Stars to a Stanley Cup Final, and even winning it. Sure they are getting up in the age column, but each one had to learn a rather difficult lesson that they weren’t used to this past year. Next year, they will be used to it.

And if they flounder out of the gate, Jim Nill will have plenty of time to strike up trade talks in order to bring the next test subject to the Stars’ crease.

But that remains to be seen. Until then, this two-headed Finnish monster may be the best option the Stars have. They have an opportunity in front of them to go very far, even to the top, as early as next season. What they first must figure out is their free agent situation and their starting defensive core for next year. In other words, they’ve got bigger fish to fry than with the goalies.

Next: Top Three Things To Watch For In Stars' Offseason

So if it ain’t completely broken down in despair, why try and fix it when you could make it altogether worse? Think about it.