The Dallas Stars could approach the 2018 NHL Trade Deadline in a few different ways. But one thing that they will have to keep an eye on is their cap space.
The 2017 offseason brought a lot of change to the Dallas Stars organization. Most of it was great while some of it was iffy, but it all combined together to be one of the Stars’ biggest summers in recent memory.
And now, it’s clear that those big moves are paying off. In one offseason, Stars GM Jim Nill reshaped his team in a significant way, thus turning them into potential contenders. This success comes just one year after Dallas finished near the bottom of the Western Conference with a humbling 79 points.
But, as it always does in the hockey world, success comes at a price. The Chicago Blackhawks can attest to this fact. After boasting a consistent contender for almost a decade, the Hawks are now in danger of missing the playoffs for the first time in 10 seasons. This demise has come from an inability to keep their roster consistent due to cap reasons along with other issues.
For the Dallas Stars, their price is in regards to cap space.
Dallas Stars
Though the majority of the Stars’ moves this past offseason significantly contributed to the rebirth of their team, they cost the team a large chunk of change. The Stars entered the summer of 2017 with around $20 million in cap space and exited with less than $1 million. That’s largely due to the fact that they signed Alexander Radulov, Ben Bishop, and Martin Hanzal to hefty contracts. They also traded for Marc Methot, who brought along his large salary.
In addition to that, Dallas also bought out Antti Niemi and re-signed Esa Lindell, Radek Faksa, Brett Ritchie, and a few other RFAs. It was a costly venture, but such is the price of success.
As a result, the Stars have been forced to readjust at times during the regular season. They made a move at the beginning of the year by waiving defenseman Patrik Nemeth, who was claimed by the Colorado Avalanche. Dallas also traded defenseman Jamie Oleksiak to the Pittsburgh Penguins in December.
These two moves cleared up almost $2 million in cap space and gave the Stars some more breathing room. But there are still strides that need to be made, and that could affect how the team approaches the 2018 trade deadline.
Considering each NHL team’s cap space is calculated daily, the Dallas Stars are projected to have around $4.1 million in space at the deadline, according to CapFriendly.
At first glance, this seems like plenty of space to work with. Considering even the priciest potential targets at the deadline would only cost the Stars somewhere between $1.5 million and $2.0 million for the rest of the year, why not splurge and pick up one or two solid assets to help with a postseason push?
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Well, because the cap is tricky and teams should always leave themselves breathing room. The projected cap space of a team fluctuates and changes with each passing day depending on moves and calculations. Just the other day, the Stars only had $1.8 million in space. Things change as moves are made and the season rolls along.
And because of that, Dallas would be smart to plan ahead and give themselves a safety net. If the Stars break the bank (or come close to it) at the deadline, what happens when a player goes out with an injury in mid-March and the Stars have no cap space to call up a replacement? Issues can arise and that’s not what a team needs in the middle of a playoff push. It puts them in a bind and gives the team no option but to struggle in trying to find a solution.
The cap can be deceiving at times and see great changes in a matter of a day. If you are like the Arizona Coyotes and have over $74 million in projected deadline space, there is definitely potential for significant movement. But the significant space could also be a factor as to why the Coyotes are in last place in the Western Conference.
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It takes money and proper management to win hockey games. Jim Nill and the Dallas Stars know that and they are doing a good job of it at the moment. But there are certain pitfalls that they must avoid, and one of those involves getting too close to the cap wall.
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It would be in the Stars’ best interest to step back and make sure that they assess all of the potential moving pieces in the franchise before striking a deadline deal. If there’s a deal out there that is a good one and fits in the constraints, why not go for it? But it has to work. That’s the key.
After all, it’s better to have space and not need it than need space and not have it.