Dallas Stars: Five Things To Watch For In Rest Of 2017 Offseason
By Josh Clark
1. Jamie Oleksiak’s New Contract
It’s anyone’s guess as to when this will happen, but it will likely be in the near future.
Jamie Oleksiak is the sole remaining Dallas Stars RFA that has yet to sign a new deal with the team. Esa Lindell, Patrik Nemeth, Brett Ritchie, Radek Faksa and Gemel Smith have all come to terms with the organization on a new contract and abandoned their qualifying offers, leaving Oleksiak as the lone wolf.
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But Oleksiak’s contract negotiation comes at a bit of a difficult time for the Stars. After their jam-packed offseason, the Dallas Stars now find themselves in a bit of a cap crisis. The team has less than $1 million in cap space after a mass of free agent signings and contract acquisitions, leaving them very little breathing room on the cap front.
In addition to that, the Stars also have any overstocking of defenders and will need to alleviate themselves of one or two (likely through trade) before the season begins. Oleksiak’s name is one of the three in the trade mix, so the Stars might try negotiating the contract with the potential of a trade already in mind.
Oleksiak has been in the league for a few years, so he likely won’t be accepting a “bare minimum” contract. Somewhere in the ballpark of $900K (which is similar to the deal that Patrik Nemeth signed) is a reasonable estimate. While Dallas could handle that without too much grief, it would still force them over the line.
He’s currently qualified with the Stars, giving them the exclusive rights to him until December 1. If the Stars cannot re-sign him by then, he will not be able to play for the rest of the season and will have to wait until 2018-19.
It could happen here over the next few days or it may drag into August. It’s all about finding common ground, and there’s no telling how long that may take.
Oleksiak did not file for arbitration, meaning that he fully expects a new deal to be done without any struggle. So he will very likely be re-signed, but it’s all a matter of when.