Dallas Stars Should Take A Look At Cory Schneider Deal

The Dallas Stars will have a new number one goaltender next season, but who that goaltender is remains a mystery. Should they try and swing a deal with the New Jersey Devils?

Youthful exuberance is (almost) never a bad thing. When things have gone dry or stale in a certain operation, some fresh and new blood can be exactly what is needed to right the ship.

The same goes for hockey teams. Young players can be all that is necessary in the revival of a franchise. Just look at Connor McDavid.

For the Dallas Stars, they are no different. The only difference is that their problem is not team-wide; it lies solely in the crease.

Every hockey team is broken down into three parts: the offense, the defense, and the goaltending. The Stars have plenty of youth on offense in captain Jamie Benn, center Tyler Seguin, and other younglings like Antoine Roussel, Radek Faksa, and Devin Shore. Their defense is almost solely made up of youth, with Dan Hamhuis being the only defender over the age of 26.

Dallas Stars /

Dallas Stars

But when you get to the crease, everything goes south in terms of both age and capability. Kari Lehtonen, 33, and Antti Niemi, 33, currently cohabit the Dallas Stars’ crease. They have been a two-headed goaltending duo since the beginning of the 2015-16 season.

The results have been average to say the least. Over the past two years, Niemi has averaged a .900 save percentage and 2.92 GAA while Lehtonen has averaged a .904 and 2.81 GAA.

All of those averages are less than spectacular, and that has caused many to label the goaltending as the Stars’ biggest weakness over the past two seasons. Ever since the Western Conference semifinals against the St. Louis Blues, it’s been one of their weakest links.

So, after a horrendous 34-37-11 season, it’s obviously at the top of their list to fix.

Over the last few months, plenty of names have arisen as potential targets. Philipp Grubauer, Antti Raanta, Darcy Kuemper, Scott Darling, Joonas Korpisalo, and a couple of others.

But last Friday, Darling was scratched off the list when the Blackhawks traded him to the Hurricanes for a third-round pick. That makes the need for Jim Nill to act even more dire.

Out of the goalie list above, only two are still currently in the playoff race, being Grubauer (though he could potentially be eliminated tomorrow night) and Raanta. With the expansion draft coming up, each of these goalie’s current teams will be inclined to trade them away in hopes of at least getting something in return instead of losing them to Vegas for nothing.

That’s where Dallas can step in. But what if the Stars avoid the youth route and go another direction? What if, perhaps, they go after another veteran?

Three days ago, Matt Larkin of The Hockey News wrote an article suggesting that the Dallas Stars offer the third overall pick in the 2017 NHL Draft to the New Jersey Devils in exchange for Cory Schneider. The Dallas Stars Twitterverse erupted shortly thereafter.

The suggestion came with plenty of questions. First, would the Stars truly win a trade like that? Is Schneider still a legitimate no. 1 goaltender who can make a championship run? Is that price too high on the Stars’ part?

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Here’s the lowdown on Schneider: he’s still an extremely talented goaltender that is definitely capable of winning a Stanley Cup. For the past four seasons, he has backstopped a Devils team that has never amounted to even so much as a playoff berth. They lack both in scoring prowess and a lockdown defensive presence.

Schneider has really been the only thing keeping them somewhat afloat. In four years, he has a .919 save percentage and 2.32 GAA, both of which are impressive statistics. If you factor out this most recent season (one in which the Devils finished dead last in the Eastern Conference with 70 points), his numbers shift to a .923 save percentage and 2.13 GAA during his tenure in NJ.

So his legitimacy as a no. 1 goaltender does not need to be questioned. He’s a confident and capable starting goalie who would be a massive upgrade for the Stars.

But the only other question is in regards to the price. Do the Dallas Stars really want to spend the no. 3 pick on a goalie who is already halfway through his career as a legitimate starter?

Well, that’s up to Jim Nill. But it’s a steep price to pay. The third overall pick is probably one of the most valuable tokens you can have in any trade negotiation, even if it’s in a draft class that isn’t as “stocked” as the ones in the recent past. The Stars may be inclined to trade the third pick at some point over the next month, but it would likely only be on a younger asset that is just as talented as Schneider. If the Stars keep the pick, they will receive a strong prospect who will be close to being NHL-ready.