Dallas Stars: Ranking Each Offseason Of Jim Nill Era

5. The 2016 Offseason

Notable additions: D Dan Hamhuis, LW Lauri Korpikoski, LW Riley Tufte, RW Adam Cracknell, RW Jiri Hudler

Notable subtractions: D Alex Goligoski, D Jason Demers, D Kris Russell, C Vernon Fiddler, RW Colton Sceviour

It’s no secret that the Dallas Stars’ worst offseason in recent memory came last year. After all, just look at the season that followed it. The Stars sank from Central Division champions in 2015-16 to the fourth worst team in the Western Conference in 2016-17.

Dallas Stars

And a large reason for that was because of the implosion of the 15-16 team during the 2016 offseason.

At the beginning of the 2015 season, it seemed as though Dallas had finally found a fix (though it was a short-term one) for both their defense and goaltending. They added veteran names like Antti Niemi, Johnny Oduya, and Kris Russell over the course of the year, giving Dallas a steady group in the back end.

And then in 2016, it all dissolved. Goligoski was traded, Russell and Demers signed elsewhere, and   half of the starters on the blue line practically vanished overnight. They added Dan Hamhuis in free agency, and while the veteran defender played a consistent role, he couldn’t pick up the slack for the other missing pieces.

Losing Fiddler and Sceviour were two shots to the Stars’ offensive depth, but Cracknell helped fill that void. Korpikoski and Hudler made minor contributions but didn’t make any noteworthy steps in the right direction.

The young defense was extremely inconsistent and lackluster for a good majority of the season and could never seem to get it going. Mix that with the ugly duo of Kari Lehtonen and Antti Niemi that Nill was unable to upgrade during the offseason, a couple of injuries, and a recession on offense and you get a 34-37-11 record with 79 points.

The best move of the 2016 offseason ended up signing Jamie Benn to an eight-year extension. While that was definitely a strong move for Dallas, it wasn’t enough. Moving on.