The free agency frenzy is still rolling with one more big name set to sign Monday. Are the Dallas Stars in on the hunt?
The NHL free agency market is still active, even in the dead of August. Antoine Vermette has yet to sign with a team, and the NHL center is fielding plenty of offers which he will reportedly choose from on Monday.
Antoine Vermette has received 5 offers from NHL teams and will be making a decision on the various offers by Monday.
— Allan Walsh🏒 (@walsha) August 13, 2016
The 34-year-old center may be nearing the end of his career after 12 seasons in the NHL, but he has proven that he is still a valuable presence down the middle.
Over the past three seasons, he’s gone from the Coyotes (2013-14), to the Blackhawks (2014-15), and back to the Coyotes this past season. He scored 17 goals and tallied 38 points with Arizona last year, before they decided to buy out his contract this past offseason.
The fact that five teams are interested and have sent offers Vermette’s way leave one intriguing question to be asked: could the Dallas Stars be in on the Vermette sweepstakes?
Even though there are no rumors or assumptions linked to this question, we thought it would be interesting to see how and if he could fit into the Stars’ scheme.
First off, Vermette plays a respectable two way game. He can play physical in the defensive zone, block shots, and get the puck out of the zone. His Corsi is not exceptional, but he can be trusted when the team gets hemmed in their own zone.
He can still produce at a consistent rate on the offensive side of the puck. His numbers have remained pretty consistent throughout his career, spanning between 30-50 in most years. Vermette can also work on special teams. He scored six goals and tallied ten assists on the power play last year, along with one shorthanded goal.
One of Vermette’s strongest attributes is his face-off win percentage. Last season, he finished with a 55.8 win percentage in the dot. He has not tallied a win percentage below 50 percent since before 2007. His win percentage this past season was higher than any Dallas Stars center who took face-offs regularly this year.
All in all, Vermette could be a good addition to the Dallas Stars’ roster. He could play a bottom-six role and help lead the offensive production in the bottom forward ranks. He could contribute on both the power play and penalty kill units and win face-offs in defensive zone breakdowns.
But it’s just not in the Stars wheelhouse. Not only would Dallas be willing to spend the money on Vermette just to use him as a bottom-six center, but their lineup is already stacked on the offensive side.
While it would be nice to have Vermette in the dot and on special teams in victory green, the Dallas Stars have a plethora of NHL-ready centers that can and are playing effective roles for the team. Tyler Seguin, Jason Spezza, Cody Eakin, and Radek Faksa are currently representing down the middle for Dallas.
The Stars also have Mattias Janmark, who can play in the dot and on the wings, on their roster. Then you have Devin Shore and Jason Dickinson on the doorstep in the AHL. There are plenty of centers ready to go for Dallas, so Vermette would just be an unnecessary overstocking.
In the end, Antoine Vermette is probably bound for a team in a rebuilding stage that needs a prominent center to fit potentially in the top six. He could also go to the Chicago Blackhawks, who could use help in their bottom six after losing Andrew Shaw and Teuvo Teravainen this offseason.
Next: Which Central Division Foes Will Challenge Dallas This Year?
Whichever of the five teams he is heading to, he won’t be bound for Dallas, even though no one probably had this suspicion in the first place. But it’s the dead part of the offseason, so why not live a little and go out on a limb?