The Dallas Stars had another exceptional season in 2023-24 that saw them winning the central division and being largely viewed as the deepest team in the Western Conference after producing more than a half dozen 20+ goal scorers. Despite the overwhelming depth at all 18 skater and both goaltending spots, the Star were once again unable to overcome their (if ever so slightly in 2022-23) inferior opponents in the Western Conference Final to reach the Stanley Cup Final. For the second consecutive season, the Stars had a quiet offseason, as the salary cap space available was tight, as it is for most highly competitive cup chasing teams. There isn’t a lot to dive into here, but they did make a handful of moves.

               Effectively, the Stars made two veteran blue line additions in Mathew Dumba and Ilya Lyubushkin. Dumba joins as something of a reclamation project for Deboer’s coaching staff. Dumba was consistently a viable two-way defender and fringe star until the 2021-22 campaign with the Minnesota Wild, but over the past three seasons has posted GAR numbers of -0.4, -5.5, and -8.2 respectively. If the Stars can adjust his game and deployment to return to pre-pandemic level impact, he could be the missing piece to get them to the promised land, and if not, he’ll be a reasonably compensated bottom-pairing defender. Lyubushkin is a big-bodied stay-at-home defender who plays a lot of minutes.  He’s had decent runs with the Coyotes in 2019-20 and the Leafs in 2021-22, but he’s also had disastrous runs during his last two seasons in Buffalo and Anaheim respectively. If deployed and coached correctly, Lyubushkin has upside for Dallas’ overall defensive game and penalty kill. An honorable mention goes out to Casey Desmith who joins Dallas as one of the premier veteran back-up goalies in the league and will give them a strong option behind Jake Oettinger down the stretch this year.

               Jim Nill only had three picks in this year’s draft, and their only notable selection was in the first round with Emil Hemming. Hemming played 40 games in the SM-Liiga in his D-0 year, scoring 11 points. During a brief stint in juniors, he recorded 18 points in 11 games. Overall, Hemming is unlikely to become a star player at the NHL level, but with the way the stars have developed prospects like Roope Hintz, Wyatt Johnston, and Logan Stankoven in recent memory, his upside does shimmer a little bit brighter in the Dallas organization. It’s likely that he’ll become a bottom-six winger in the NHL in a few years based on similar player trajectories through the years.

               I can’t really give the Stars a high grade, because it’s a coin flip if they’ll be better or worse than the year prior. Having said that, I would say their offseason is a C+. The gamble on Dumba’s upside in their coaching system is akin to what the Panthers did with Oliver Ekman-Larson a year ago, and he ended up (among other key pieces) being a factor that elevated Florida to the top of the league. A similar outcome for Dumba, on blue line with Miro Heiskanen and Thomas Harley, could yield equally potent results if he can connect the dots in Dallas.