Dallas Stars: Rising Salary Cap Coming At Perfect Time For Stars

After another successful year, the NHL is expected to raise the salary cap once again in time for the 2019-20 regular season. And after negotiating a handful of big contracts that are about to set in, it’s a raise that bodes remarkably well for the Dallas Stars.

The 2019 offseason will be yet another important one for the Dallas Stars.

After turning a slow and uncertain start in the 2018-19 regular season into an impressive stride to the finish line, the Stars qualified for the 2019 Stanley Cup Playoffs and broke a postseason drought that had been growing since May 2016.

But they didn’t stop there. Dallas burst into the postseason on a hot streak and took it to their first round opponent, the Nashville Predators. They were arguably the better team in all but one of the six games as they cruised to a 4-2 win in the opening round against the 2019 Central division champions.

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From there, they moved into the Western Conference semifinals and were pitted against a St. Louis Blues team that had put on an even more surprising revival in the second half of the regular season. And at a certain point in the series, it looked as though the Stars had the upper hand.

After a narrow win in Game 5, the Stars owned a 3-2 series lead and were heading back to home ice for Game 6. A win would punch their ticket to the Western Conference Final, which would mark their most successful season since 2008 and put them four wins away from the Stanley Cup Final.

That didn’t end up happening, though. The Blues dominated in Game 6, forced the series to a deciding Game 7 back in Missouri, and defeated the Stars in double overtime to claim the series.

And so, the Dallas Stars hosted their exit interview day, cleaned out the locker room, and departed for another summer break. But while the players all went in different directions, GM Jim Nill and his front office staff dug in to prepare for the offseason ahead.

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It’s an offseason that could greatly help in determining not only how successful the Stars are next year, but in the years to come. Then again, that’s how it always seems to be.

And for Nill, he’s off to a strong start. Just one week after exit interview day, he inked defenseman Esa Lindell to a six-year contract extension. After a career year on the blue line, the 25-year-old looks to be a prime cornerstone of the team’s future both on defense and special teams.

While the term looks terrific and solidifies the Dallas defensive group, the salary was brought into question by a handful of fans. And while Lindell has more than earned a long-term cap hit above $5 million per year, the debate is an intriguing one.

That’s primarily because of how his increase in salary will affect the Dallas Stars’ total cap hit.

The thing is that Lindell’s contract extension is coming on the heels of an extension signed by Tyler Seguin at the beginning of the 2018-19 season. The extension is set to keep Seguin in Dallas for the next eight years with an annual cap hit of $9.85 million and it will kick in at the beginning of the 2019-20 season. That’s a $4.1 million increase from the cap hit in his previous contract.

If you add in the $3.6 million increase for Lindell’s cap hit, that’s an extra $7.7 million against the cap.

Then you have to factor in all of the restricted free agents that will either receive qualifying offers or sign longer, “bridge deal” contracts. And if you try to tack on an extension for Mats Zuccarello after his stellar showing with the Stars towards the end of the season and in the playoffs (that will likely cost another $2 million or so), it may seem like their cap management is getting out of control.

In reality, however, the Dallas Stars will be just fine and should even have some space to make a credible move this summer if they feel it necessary.

That’s because the NHL is raising the salary cap once again.

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After boosting the limit to $79.5 million during the 2018 summer, NHL commissioner Gary Bettman announced in December 2018 that the league plans to raise the cap yet again this summer. This time around, the limit is expected to even out around $83 million. That’s a $3.5 million increase. And while it may not sound like much, think about it like this: the raise would almost pay off Lindell’s extension in its entirety. That’s helpful.

This added space comes at an opportune time for the Stars. Not only do they have extensions that will cash in at the beginning of next year and extensions that need to be worked on, but they also have some question marks in their lineup with Stephen Johns (cap hit of $2.3 million) and Martin Hanzal ($4.75 million). Hanzal missed a majority of the 2018-19 season while Johns missed the year in its entirety. Both of their future playing careers have been put into question and it’s uncertain whether they will return. If they do, the Stars will need the space to fit the two cap hits (unless long-term IR comes into play).

On top of that, the Dallas Stars will be clearing plenty of space out when it comes to expiring contracts. Names like Jason Spezza, Marc Methot, Ben Lovejoy, Roman Polak, and Taylor Fedun will all be coming off of the books this summer. That clearance alone will give the Stars around $17 million in space to work with. The space could be used to re-sign some of them, extend Zuccarello, satisfy all of the pending RFAs, or even go out and take a swing in the free agency market. The opportunities are endless.

Even so, that $3.5 million jump made by the NHL should help the Stars considerably in the negotiation period as well as once the offseason gets underway.

We’ll see how they use it in the months ahead.