This past Thursday was a busy day for the Dallas Stars as they re-signed two members of their 2019 free agent class. And while they continue to delve through the negotiation process with their other free agents, getting it done before the end of the month should pay off in a sizable way.
Only one more game separates the Dallas Stars and the rest of the NHL from the beginning of the 2019 offseason. And as soon as the Boston Bruins and St. Louis Blues determine the winner of the 2019 Stanley Cup, the real fun will begin.
That’s how it is with every summer in the NHL. Once a champion is crowned, all 31 teams fall back to level ground as they begin making preparations for the season ahead. And within those preparations, any number of things can happen.
A team that went deep into the Stanley Cup Playoffs may lose a few core pieces of their lineup and regress heavily next season. A team that missed the postseason cut this past year might add the one or two needed pieces and put together an incredible surge next year. Some teams will go from long shots to favorites, while others will watch their odds drop sizably.
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When you look at it in its plainest sense, the offseason carries a sincere weight in determining the potential fate of each of the 31 NHL clubs. A lot can happen in a span of 4-6 weeks, leaving a steady spotlight on each team’s front office as they dive into negotiations and transactions and make both additions and subtractions from their lineup.
It can be a trying process that can be accompanied by a fair amount of stress, especially when you consider the limited window of time that offseason action actually takes place. While the high point of the offseason arguably only lasts about three weeks, it involves non-stop action.
That brings certain challenges with it for every organization, regardless of how long they have been in “offseason mode” leading up to the conclusion of the Stanley Cup Final. A large part of those challenges center around each team making final decisions on each member of their pending free agent class before diving into offseason acquisitions.
But as the thick of the 2019 offseason approaches, Dallas Stars GM Jim Nill seems to be doing everything he can to stay ahead in the race. That all begins with his quick assessment of the team’s pending free agent class.
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Upon being ousted from the Stanley Cup Playoffs on May 7, 2019, the Stars shifted their focus to the offseason ahead. It provides another chance to get better and take the next step after a considerable leap forward in the 2018-19 season.
But before Nill can get into targeting free agents and potential trades on the market in an effort to boost his lineup, he must first sort through the players that are already on the roster and in need of a new contract.
And so far, he’s taking care of much of it in a timely manner.
Just one week after concluding exit interviews, the Dallas Stars made their first big move of the offseason by signing defenseman Esa Lindell to a six-year extension. Lindell was a pending restricted free agent at the time but had further built on his skills with an impressive 2018-19 campaign and demonstrated his immense value to the organization. He’s viewed as a top-pairing cornerstone for the Dallas blue line for the foreseeable future (considering he’s just 25 years old), which left Nill with the task of re-signing him to a long-term deal.
On June 1, Nill made another tough decision by parting ways with four unsigned draft prospects (being Brett Davis, Liam Hawel, Jermaine Loewen, and Markus Ruusu).
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He made another big splash on Thursday by re-signing defenseman Roman Polak to a one-year extension and extending Mattias Janmark for another year. Polak was set to be a UFA, while Janmark was a pending RFA, and both were coming off of one-year deals. The signings were both low-risk and only cost the Stars an extra $450K when adding up their deals from last season. Both are depth signings that should fill specific voids in the Dallas scheme while still giving them breathing room to make more moves.
On top of that, reports have already arisen that Nill has informed Jason Spezza and Marc Methot (both pending UFAs) that neither will be re-signed by the team. On the other hand, players like Mats Zuccarello, Ben Lovejoy, and Taylor Fedun are still in the fold for potential negotiations.
As a result, Nill is getting some tough decisions and negotiations out of the way early in an effort to make July 1 and the days leading up to it more about looking outwards instead of inwards. Last summer, Nill qualified seven pending RFAs at the qualifying deadline. Three of them eventually filed for arbitration, leaving Nill with a lot of negotiating to do in the first few weeks of July.
This time around, he already has two RFAs secured on new contracts and is working through the rest. Only three RFAs remain on the Dallas roster (Jason Dickinson, Brett Ritchie, and Julius Honka), with six others waiting in the system. Meanwhile, it seems as though only three pending UFAs still have a realistic chance at returning. And while the assumption is that the negotiations with Zuccarello are the top priority, Lovejoy and Fedun could end up being decent returners as well.
It’s all a part of the balancing act that Jim Nill has to put on every summer. There’s decisions to be made, and each one could play an integral part in determining the Stars’ ultimate fate in the 2019-20 season.
And so far, he’s getting an early jump on the negotiations that he can control at the moment. That should only pay off as the heat of the offseason gets underway.
What’s next for the Dallas Stars? That’s anyone’s guess at this point. What we can be sure of, however, is that Nill is making sure he gets an early jump on the offseason craziness.