Dallas Stars: Three Reasons They Are Cup Bound In 2017

The 2015-2016 NHL season is officially in the books, and the Pittsburgh Penguins are holding the Stanley Cup. With a new season ahead, the Dallas Stars look to be in prime position to make a run at the Cup as early as next year.

Last night, Dallas Stars fans and all NHL fans alike watched as the Pittsburgh Penguins picked up a 3-1 victory to log the fourth and final victory needed to become the 2016 Stanley Cup champions.

Congratulations go out to their club, and especially to longtime Dallas Star Trevor Daley, who finally lifted the Cup for the first time in his 12-year career.

As the Sharks fans watched their team skate off for the final time this year as second place and the Penguins parade the Cup around, the 2015-2016 NHL season officially came to a close.

With that, there comes the clean slate. The season is over. Everything is now in the rearview mirror. For the Dallas Stars, that’s a rather good thing.

After an ugly exit in game seven of the second round of the Stanley Cup Playoffs, the Stars needed a reset. The season overall was a great success, but the last memory of play that Dallas has is being trounced 6-1 by their division rival the St. Louis Blues.

That’s a sour taste to comprehend over an entire offseason, and sadly the Dallas Stars will endure just that.

The Stars finished the 15-16 regular season on an extremely high note as Central Division champions and first place overall in the Western Conference. They waltzed into the Stanley Cup Playoffs for just the second time in eight years and advanced to the West semifinals where they narrowly fell.

But all that is in the past now, and each team is back on the ground level (except of course the Penguins who are soaring through the clouds), awaiting the new season.

From the way it is looking right now, the Stars look set up for a strong run to the Stanley Cup as early as next season. Of course, every team can more or less make the same argument, but with the combination of this past season and the Stars’ strong core remaining relatively stable this offseason, they have a strong chance come next season. Here are three reasons why.

1. No prime pieces being lost

This coming offseason is no doubt proving to be the most interesting one for the Dallas Stars in the last couple of years. Over the past few years, the Stars have spent their offseason making a blockbuster trade, signing a big name free agent, and negotiating new contracts with two or three pending free agents that were on their roster from the season before.

As of right now, Dallas will be forced to deal with 10 free agents on their roster, and 16 total in the system altogether. The crazy thing is, none of the 10 players (eight UFA, two RFA) are “guaranteed” a new contract, or even a negotiation. Unlike if this were to happen to someone like Jamie Benn, the Stars have ten free agents that all have a case to stay and a case against them.

Among these FA’s are names like Alex Goliogski, Vernon Fiddler, Jason Demers, and Colton Sceviour. The Stars will more than likely spend an extensive amount of time over the next two weeks or so talking about each one of these players and coming up with a final verdict. Something tells me general manager Jim Nill already has a blueprint that he plans on following.

But out of all of these names, there is not one that was crucial to the Stars’ success in this most recent season. While each did their own part to benefit the team, the absence of any of these players next year would be nowhere near the end of the world. Losing certain groups of them could cause some discomfort, but none would be detrimental to the Dallas Stars’ chances at success next year. So they’ve got that going for them.

2. The team that gels together eventually succeeds together

This past season, the Dallas Stars welcomed a decent number of new faces to their roster that were not present at the end of the 2014-2015 season. Among those were Antti Niemi, Johnny Oduya, Patrick Sharp, Mattias Janmark, and a couple of others.

It’s never easy to go into a new season with a new lineup. The new players are trying to learn a new system, new teammates, and new playing styles. The veterans of the club are trying to figure out the new member and piece together a new relationship both on and off the ice.

Luckily for the Dallas Stars organization, they have been known for having one of the most hospitable and welcoming locker rooms. The handful of new players from this past season were able to mold in and make an impact relatively quick.

Antti Niemi and Kari Lehtonen had to learn how to share a crease for the first time in their careers. The defensive core had to figure out who played what role, and which players would thrive in which situations. And the special teams had to learn how to run with some new leaders.

You can label this past year as a season of gelling. Nothing is perfect right out of the gate, and the Stars definitely showed some weaknesses as a unit this past season. By learning from those mistakes and having a stronger bond within a lineup that will more than likely remain very similar, the Stars will be ahead of most teams in terms of togetherness.

3. The playoffs are no longer big and scary

When the Dallas Stars entered the Stanley Cup Playoffs as the number one seed this past season, they only had a mere handful of players who had never played in a Stanley Cup playoff game. But in terms of how many of their players had ever made it past the first round? That’s a different story altogether. When even the captain has never been to the second round, there is bound to be hardships.

The Stars struggled along in the second round, but still found a way to turn it into an entertaining seven-game series. Still, it was clear that they hit a funk once the second round began. The offense cooled off, the defense was in shambles, and the goaltending was sketchy at best.

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It’s a process that every team sadly has to go through. Luckily, the Stars got through it this past season. Each of the younger players picked up plenty of valuable experience and now truly understands what it takes to play in a high intensity game such as the playoffs.

Given that the Stars keep the majority of their team together from this past year, they should have no trouble going in with confidence and getting the deal done.

The Dallas Stars were a dangerous team this past season, and did a lot more than most expected them to. This coming year, they have a chance to pick up where they left off and do even more damage to the point of where they walk away with some hardware.

Next: Stars' Stanley Cup Window Not Closing Anytime Soon

So rest easy for now, Stars fans. The NHL offseason is finally here and it is shaping up to be quite the action-packed summer. Is it October yet?