Dallas Stars Are In For Immense Upgrade With Martin Hanzal

After losing defensive center Cody Eakin in the Expansion Draft, the Dallas Stars replaced him with Martin Hanzal. Hanzal is projected to be a huge upgrade.

After a season that featured sixty games played, a good amount of power play time, and extended minutes alongside former Art Ross Trophy winner Jamie Benn that culminated into just 12 points, the Dallas Stars left defensive center Cody Eakin unprotected and eventually lost the 26-year-old to the Vegas Golden Knights.

In choosing to keep hefty wingers Brett Ritchie and Antoine Roussel over Eakin, the Stars needed to fill a void for a faceoff-winning, relatively skilled center like Eakin, when at 100% health, was. June 21st’s expansion draft left every team rearranging their depth chart, but in Dallas’s case, it was harder having lost a key sparkplug from the past few seasons.

That replacement came in the form of Czech center Martin Hanzal, who the Stars inked to a three-year deal on July 1st. Hanzal has spent the majority of his career with the Arizona Coyotes, and was sent to the Dallas Stars’ Central Division rivals in St. Paul, the Minnesota Wild, for a rather hefty ransom at the trade deadline last season.

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Hanzal posted a career high of 20 goals, adding 19 assists as well, for 39 points combined between the Coyotes and Wild. The 6-foot-6 centerman went on a torrid stretch to end the 2016-17 hockey year with Minnesota, netting 13 points over a 20-game stint.

Fans and pundits are generally concerned in regards to Hanzal’s ability to replace Eakin in the Stars’ lineup. Eakin, despite an awful season in 2016-17, is a speedy penalty killing center who has previously reached 40 points. Hanzal can hit the same marks, play the same effective defensive game, and fit into the system well just like Eakin, right?

To a large degree, Hanzal is actually an upgrade. While Cody Eakin had a stellar run with the Dallas Stars (146 points in 349 games), Hanzal’s past success while playing with lesser squads and in lesser roles speaks to the former Coyote’s likelihood to improve the role of defensive center for Dallas in comparison to Eakin. Let’s compare the two centers.

CONTRACT AND SALARY CAP

Hanzal, 30, was signed in free agency to a three-year deal with an average annual value of $4,750,000. Given his past presence as a legitimately elite defensive center (Hanzal has thrice received Selke Trophy votes), and his probable deployment as a second-line center, that’s an extremely affordable contract.

It’s a jump up of $900,000 from the contract Eakin was given by the Stars two seasons back, but with the National Hockey League’s salary cap increasing, the amount of cap space Hanzal’s contract occupies (6.3%) is just 1.1% more than Eakin’s. When you counter in the size and smarts Hanzal brings, as well as his versatility, a $900k pay raise shouldn’t raise an eyebrow.

FACE-OFF IMPORTANCE AND IMPROVEMENT

Hanzal is far more effective in the face-off circle than Eakin was with Dallas. This isn’t meant to discredit Eakin, who tallied a career-best 52.3 winning percentage in the dots last year, but there aren’t many players in the NHL who can say they possess the face-off prowess Hanzal does.

Hanzal has ranked inside of the top 20 amongst forwards with at least 600 draws in face-off percentage each of the past four seasons. His consistent dominance inside of the circle, combined with his usual usage in the defensive zone (Hanzal started nearly 60% of his shifts last season in his own zone) will thrive in a Ken Hitchcock system.

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Not only will his face-off winning percentage (career high 57% last season) prove to be invaluable for five-on-five possession time, but the League’s worst penalty kill unit will surely improve with Hanzal manning the fort this way.

ABILITY TO CARRY OTHER PLAYERS

Relative Corsi is a pretty neat advanced metric – the statistic measures how a team improves or regresses in shot production for versus shot production against while a specific player is on the ice by creating an average Corsi For Percentage rate for their team, then calculating the difference between the average and a specific player. The players that are most proficient at both alleviating pressure and producing offense for their clubs will be at the top of this ranking.

Dallas Stars

Martin Hanzal posted a 3.2 Relative Corsi (CF% rel) last season for Arizona and Minnesota, meaning his teams were better with Hanzal on the ice than without. Given Hanzal’s assumed use at second-line center, most likely with offensively-minded Jason Spezza at right wing, his ability to both drive the puck up the ice and and keep it out of the dangerous areas in the defensive zone is crucial.

Cody Eakin failed mightily in that role last season. It was noted that head coach Lindy Ruff wanted Eakin to play alongside Jamie Benn in order for Benn to shoot more and play in the offensive zone more often. However, Eakin has never had a full season with a CF% rel at even or better in his whole career, with last year having a -1.7% CF% rel score.

Hanzal, especially with Spezza perhaps playing on his wing and a more defense-oriented coaching system, could be in line for a career year. Hanzal will elevate the play of the Dallas Stars players around him and excel in his own right.

OVERALL

All in all, Dallas Stars fans should be jumping for joy with Jim Nill’s signing of Hanzal. The Czech center has long been one of the most underrated and underappreciated centermen in the NHL and will have a chance to flourish under perhaps the most talented team Martin Hanzal has been a part of for all of his career.

If we had to make a projection for Hanzal’s first Dallas Stars season, look for 45 points and a face-off win percentage of 55%. If Hanzal does that, and improve the Stars’ penalty kill (which he will certainly do), Jim Nill will look like the genius he is.

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We often overlook defensive centers like Hanzal, but in terms of two-way forwards, not many are better than the former first-round selection. Cody Eakin was a valiant warrior for the Dallas Stars, but color me surprised if Hanzal isn’t the better player as the years go on.