The Dallas Stars had a fantastic 22-23 season that, unfortunately for them, did not end in a Stanley Cup Championship. Heading into the off-season Dallas did not have as many questions as other teams, as most of their core players are under contract, and having been two wins away from their second Stanley Cup finals appearance in 5 years, they are positioned well to take another run. The biggest holes that Jim Nill needed to fill were in his depth scoring, the puck movement on his backend, and Jake Oettinger playing the worst hockey of his season at the most important moment.

Heading into the 23-24 season, Dallas only had two substantial non-rental subtractions from their roster which was releasing Will Butcher and trading Colin Miller to the New Jersey Devils for a mid-round draft pick. Miller creates a hole on their blue line defensively; however, with Jani Hakanpää staying and the emergence of Nils Lundqvist, it will not be a significant loss for the team. I was surprised that Will Butcher did not blossom under Pete Deboer this past season based on his history of deploying two-way defenders. To address their blue line gaps with those releases, the Stars brought in Joel Hanley, a career 7th-D to fill Miller’s role. Based on how last season went, especially the postseason, I expected Dallas to acquire a veteran offensive-defenseman, since Miro Heiskanen keeps being asked to carry the entire blue line in the offensive zone. I do not blame Jim Nill for standing pat with the expectation that Thomas Harley will fill the role. Last season, Harley had 34 points in 66 AHL appearances and proceeded to post nine points in 19 NHL playoff games, which is reason for optimism that he will be Heiskanen’s support this season. Looking at Harley’s development he is very similar to Kris Russell and Derian Hatcher at this point in their career, which is good news for Stars fans.

Moving to the forward group, Dallas brought in Sam Steel, Craig Smith, and Matt Duchene. Steel and Smith will likely both play similar roles in Dallas’s bottom six and penalty kill this season. Steel has always been a strong defensive player in his runs in both Anaheim and Minnesota; and Smith did not play much for Boston last year, but I still think he is a valuable bottom six penalty-killing player in this league, especially playing on a team that is not as deep as Boston was last season. The acquisition of Matt Duchene for one year at $3 million is the highlight of their free agent class. He is coming off of a “down” season in Nashville where he still had star-level production, and he is only one season removed from superstar-level production. On a team that already has Roope Hintz, Joe Pavelski, Jamie Benn, Wyatt Johnston, and Tyler Seguin, he adds tremendous value. I look forward to seeing if this forward group can get them to the Stanley Cup Final this season. For an more in-depth look at Duchene’s potential impact for the Stars, see Damien’s analysis here.

Moving on to their draft, Dallas only had six selections, and their first pick of the draft was 61st overall. Tristen Bertucci was their selection at 61st, and I am a big fan of that pick for them. In the model at hockeyprospecting, Bertucci shows comparables to long-time stay-at-home defender Hal Gill. Normally, I would not be espousing the values of stay-at-home players in today’s NHL, but to get a potential fifth defenseman that is very difficult to play against is a great value add at the back side of the second round. Also, to further clarify the Hal Gill comparison, who Jaromir Jagr once said was the hardest player to play against, is that Dobber Prospects greatly details Bertucci’s strength on the puck in corners in tandem with his size. The only other interesting player selected this season by Dallas was goaltender Arno Tiefensee who posted a .910 save and a 2.43 GAA playing for Adler Mannheim in the DEL as a 2-year-overager. Normally, overagers do not get a lot of attention, but since goalies take seven years to develop, usually a guy with a year of starting experience in a men’s league is a great value pick-up in the fifth round.

Overall, the Dallas Stars had a very strong off-season where they retooled their roster and got notably better at every position while not regressing at any position. I would give this off season a B, and the reason for that is I still would have liked to see Dallas make a move to get a strong offensive defenseman to complement Heiskanen, especially seeing that the Arizona Coyotes acquired Sean Durtzi for a second round draft pick. However, their D-core is largely unchanged from last season talentwise and their forward group is improved, so if Dallas stays healthy and Oettinger has a great postseason, there is no reason the Stars cannot win the Stanley Cup.

-Christian

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July 32-in-32: Dallas Stars