Dallas Stars Should Use Scott Darling As Example In New Goalie Hunt

If you’re trying to do something right, it’s nice to know how to do it. That is specifically true for the Dallas Stars in their search for a new goaltender. Luckily, they have the Carolina Hurricanes to look at for a firsthand view on how it’s done.

The Carolina Hurricanes are a confusing hockey club.

As I said in an article the other day, there are two possible categories that each NHL team falls into: the “win now” phase and the “rebuild” phase. I also pointed out that no team is constantly in one category or the other and constantly fluctuates between each category.

But the Hurricanes haven’t really followed that theory. After winning the Stanley Cup in 2005-06 for the first time in franchise history, the Canes suffered a sharp drop. They have only been back to the Stanley Cup Playoffs once since their victory, being in 2008-09 when they lost in the Conference Finals.

Dallas Stars

In this past season, it looked as though Carolina might actually break the drought. With around a month left in the season, the Canes were neck-and-neck with a couple of other teams for the final wild card spot in the East. But after losing five of their final six competitions, Carolina finished eight points out of the final spot.

So that obviously sparked the need for more change in the offseason. They started their offseason on a strong note last Friday by trading a third-round pick to the Chicago Blackhawks for backup goaltender Scott Darling.

Darling is no doubt one of the most talented backup goaltenders in the NHL and is fully prepared to take on a starting role. The Canes will likely give him that chance.

Like the Hurricanes, the Stars are currently enjoying a long offseason and have some changes that must be made. One of those is in the crease.

And if you ever want to do something right, isn’t it a great idea to learn from someone else who already did it correctly?

What I mean by that is that the Dallas Stars need to look to the Carolina Hurricanes and how they locked down Scott Darling when attempting to find a new goaltender for themselves.

The Hurricanes definitely got the bright end of the deal. As stated above, Darling’s stats speak for themselves and he was one of the most coveted free agent goalies going into the 2017 offseason. The Canes were simply the first ones to make a push for him.

Timeliness will be GM Jim Nill’s first step in acquiring a new goalie. The Canes jumped on the opportunity and completed the trade within eight days of the Blackhawks being eliminated from the Stanley Cup Playoffs.

If the Stars are going to get a your and formidable goaltender to take over their crease, they will need to waste no time. With the expansion draft looming, multiple teams will be taking the opportunity to find a new goaltender just as Dallas will be. That being said, the Stars don’t want to be one of the last teams to the party. If so, they’ll be left with the scraps.

The second thing that Nill will have to focus on is the trade value. Once he locks in on the goaltender he wants to go after, he will likely have to make a deal. Chances are that all of the “coveted” goaltenders will be dealt before the expansion draft, meaning that their contract status will not matter during the acquisition.

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Nill will need to make sure he gets the right value. Each goalie on the presumed “list” (Philipp Grubauer, Joonas Korpisalo, Antti Raanta, Darcy Kuemper, and Cory Schneider to name a few) is definitely valuable, but that doesn’t mean that the Stars should overspend. There have been talks of Dallas offering up a first-round pick, but is that too much? Depends on the player.

Lastly, Nill will need to focus on the new deal once the goalie is locked in. The majority of goaltenders on their list are pending UFAs or RFAs and will need a new contract. The Stars will likely be trading for negotiating rights (depending on the player, of course) and will have to sign them to a new contract.

That’s where the Darling deal comes in handy yet again. Yesterday, the Hurricanes signed their new goalie to a 4-year, $16.6 million deal. That’s a cap hit of $4.15 million, which is perfectly manageable and reasonable for a goalie of Darling’s caliber.

Next: Stars Should Take A Look At Cory Schneider Deal

Overall, the Carolina Hurricanes might have just committed one of the biggest steals of the offseason. They used the expansion draft to their advantage and potentially locked down a competent starting goaltender for their franchise for the next decade.

If the Dallas Stars can learn from Carolina in this area and use their strategies, they’ll hopefully have the goaltender of their dreams in no time. But until then, we sit and wait in angst.