Dallas Stars: Looking Ahead At 2019 NHL Trade Deadline

With exactly one month to go before the 2019 NHL Trade Deadline hits, it’s time for rumors, talks, and theories to begin heating up. It’s also time for the Dallas Stars to begin planning for their deadline activity. What could that look like?

There are a lot of questions surrounding the 2018-19 Dallas Stars that will be answered in the next two months. A handful of those are player-specific, while a handful of them also deal with the team’s legitimacy as a playoff contender.

But wedged between those two areas of questioning is one usually critical element to every good hockey team’s season: the trade deadline.

And for the next month leading up to the Feb. 25 deadline, trading will be the primary center of focus for most teams.

Which clubs are in a good position and are looking to add one or two pieces for a playoff run? Which teams are on the playoff brink and will have to decide one way or another? And which teams are already looking forward to next year that might be inclined to sell a handful of their talented players to contenders?

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Those questions end up making for an interesting and exciting month of speculation and hopefulness as hockey fans everywhere prepare for the deadline to take effect. Sometimes, the deadline can push one or two teams ahead of the rest. Sometimes, it can even drastically alter the playoff landscape. That’s how important it can be for teams.

For the Stars, however, this year’s deadline brings a certain sense of requirement with it.

When the Dallas Stars approached the 2018 Trade Deadline, they were in an odd spot. Sure, they had sat in a playoff spot for a handful of months and had even moved into third place in the Central division just a few days prior. But, there were still holes in their team, including a lack of depth scoring, that they needed to fix to get them over the hump and into the “serious contender” category.

Instead of going out and trading for a handful of big pieces, however, GM Jim Nill decided to stick to his hand and let his current lineup play the season out.

That plan ended up crumbling onto itself as Ben Bishop went down with an injury, Kari Lehtonen couldn’t carry the load in the crease, the offense continued to struggle with getting scoring outside of the top line, and the Stars slumped into a horrifying 0-6-2 skid down the stretch that removed them from the playoff picture.

While there were a handful of factors that kept Dallas from the postseason, it seemed as though a good majority of them could have been solved by a deadline acquisition.

And so, the Stars went back to the drawing board in their extended offseason, planning out how to avoid that same pitfall in 2018-19. That included a new head coach, a handful of offseason acquisitions for the starting lineup, and a new scheme.

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But through 49 games this season, the Dallas Stars are in an eerily similar position to last season.

They are 24-21-4 with 52 points on the year, sit in the first wild card spot at the All-Star Break, and are just three points out of third in the Central division with a game in hand. They are the very definition of a “potential playoff challenger” at the moment.

There have been some highs, including combating a strand of injuries to key players through the first two months of the season and keeping themselves alive and kicking in a tight Western Conference race.

But there have been some lows as well. Before their impressive and complete victory over the Winnipeg Jets last Saturday night, the Stars were stuck in a plague of inconsistency. They had lost four in a row, were approaching the .500 mark, and were slipping close to the playoff wall.

That inconsistency can be blamed on a variety of things, but it primarily has to do with a lack of consistent pressure and effort in the offensive zone.

The Stars are currently one of the worst scoring offenses in the NHL, averaging 2.57 goals per game. Only four forwards have hit the 20-point mark this year and Jamie Benn, Tyler Seguin, and Alexander Radulov are the only Stars with at least 10 goals on the season.

It’s once again becoming prevalent that Dallas needs help on offense. Their scoring attack is somewhat one-dimensional and lacks consistent speed, possession, and explosiveness.

That’s where the deadline comes into play. There are players from selling teams on the block and Dallas has an opportunity to make a deal. Those deals could help with more speed, playmaking skills, rounding out the second line, or all of the above.

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So, the Stars cannot let this chance slip through their fingers again. And so far, they haven’t.

Two weeks ago, Nill made a deal with the Anaheim Ducks to acquire Andrew Cogliano in exchange for Devin Shore. The move was intended to help the Dallas Stars become more explosive in their offensive attack and to boost depth scoring.

So far, it’s helped out. The Stars have looked quicker (especially on Saturday night) in their attack and, while he hasn’t tallied a point with the team yet, Cogliano has aided the second and third lines in terms of execution and generating chances.

But, there is more work to be done. And that’s what this next month is for.

Nill has shown that he is taking in the next month with an aggressive mindset. Dallas Stars scouts have been sent out to observe opposing NHL teams, watching certain players and taking notes. There’s already been rumors swirling that the Stars have their eye on Washington Capitals forward Andre Burakovsky. As a result, there have been Stars scouts at Capitals games and Capitals scouts at Stars games. That’s just one example.

It’s all a work in progress at the moment, but Nill is doing the necessary homework. He’s looking around the league, inquiring about players, and figuring out if they could affect his own lineup in a positive way.

But, while the “take” aspect of the deadline is fun to think about, there’s also a “give” aspect that has to be configured.

As of Saturday morning, the Dallas Stars have around $1,035,619 in cap space (according to CapFriendly.com). But after Roope Hintz and Denis Gurianov are likely recalled before the Stars start play back up on Wednesday, that number will go down. As a result, Dallas is treading near the cap wall.

So, a significant acquisition for the Stars will likely require a return piece. Is that Brett Ritchie or Valeri Nichushkin, who have struggled in putting the puck in the net this year? Or is it Julius Honka, the former first-round pick who cannot seem to establish himself in the top-six on defense, regardless of who is on the coaching staff? That’s to be decided in time. But after trading away a homegrown and developing depth forward like Shore, you can be assured that Nill is looking at any and all possibilities.

This will be an interesting next 30 days for the Dallas Stars. It’s clear that the Stars are a good team that can contend for a playoff spot, but they’ve leaned heavily on defense and goaltending through the first half of the year. The need for an additional push is prevalent. Nill knows that and he’s putting in the work to try and make it a reality. All that’s left to do is wait and see what pans out.

Only one month separates us from one of the craziest times of the NHL regular season. What do the Dallas Stars have planned this time around?