2024 NHL GM Report Cards - Dallas Stars Off-Season Review

today we continue on with our NHL GM report card series we are almost done this is team 31 out of 32 today we look at the Dallas Stars and general manager Jim nil we'll look at their trades their signings and how the team has changed and grade to work of the GM coming up next so welcome back to another video here at topshelf hockey as I mentioned today we are one step closer to completing our NHL GM report cards for their offseason work today we are continuing our way through the Central Division and we look at one of the stronger teams from last year and I suspect we'll be one of the ones in the top of the division again the Dallas Stars and general manager Jim nil so first we're going to take a look at some trades that they made take a look at all their signings and then we'll explore how the team has changed and grade the work of Jim nil but but first one of the uh things I want to touch on is a major unfinished business here for for Dallas and Jim nil and that's Thomas Harley as I record this video Thomas Harley is not signed now of course I'm recording this video on Sunday September the 8th perhaps the signing will take place before this makes it to YouTube I believe this is likely going to be posted on uh tomorrow on Monday uh if not Tuesday for sure um so either Monday or Tuesday depending on when you're watching this uh I hope the Harley signing is done but it's not as of right now I suspect a long-term basis um Harley's probably looking for somewhere around a 7 time 7 uh suspicion is it could could end up being a shorter term maybe 3 to four year deal in that you know four to five range uh but either way he is not signed and you know he's a big piece of that team he's come a long way in the past year or two um and he's certainly uh somebody who I think will be heavily relied upon on that back end I mean we've seen you know probably we're we're probably looking at three out of their top six defenseman uh being different this year so I think having some consistency with you know guys like endell and huskin is important um and they really need to get him signed hopefully he does not miss time or Miss camp or Miss games but right now not done and that certainly will impact a grade A little bit for Jim nil but at the end of the day um you know it's he's not the only one there's lots of these long drawn out RFA negotiations going around the NHL so first let's take a look at some of the trades we saw from Dallas this off season there was really only three and the first one really wasn't anything major but they traded uh the signing rights for Chris TANF uh to Toronto and they get back a seventh rounder in Prospect Max Ellis So Tan was acquired by Dallas at the deadline last year he was interested maybe staying with Dallas um I know they really wanted to keep him as well but it wasn't working out based on the contract that Toronto gave tanv I don't think anybody else was going to give him that contract I mean to do such a long term for somebody of his age and the injuries he's been through is pretty well you know not something anybody expected so unfortunately Dallas come to the realization we can't compete with that he's not coming back might as well get what we can for the signing rights they trade tan to the lease from Ellis in a seventh nothing too major there signing rights don't typically return a whole lot of a return they also made a few other moves to free up roster spots and some Camp space they radic faxa um he's been somebody that's been in the rumor M for being moved for the better part of a year or more uh traded him to St Louis for for nothing basically was a cap dump I traded him for future considerations and they also traded former firstr ER in youngster tied delandria he gets moved to the San Jose Sharks for a 2025 fourth round pick now Dandrea uh was in a situation as well were uh you know coming to the end of his rookie contract needed a new deal and the problem here is that he hasn't really turned out to be I don't think the offensive player that they were hoping for um and some of the younger guys on the team have kind of surpassed him and based on this you know new lineup we're looking at this year moving go like Faxon to laundry is just going to allow them to give more of a full-time role to go to a god like Maverick Bor and to even give more of a ro to Logan Stan koven we saw Stan koven get into some games last year uh he's going to be a bigger part of this team coming forward so it really creates full-time spots for them by moving up these two guys it's as simple as that and it gives them some some space with the uh faxa contract especially uh looking at the signings they've made uh a lot of these were internal a few of them were new guys coming in uh they resigned Alex petravic two years league minimum two-way deal uh Sam steel comes back on a one-year deal 1.2 million likely going to be their 4C again uh depth defenseman Kyle Capal be Yono two years a league minimum uh Coley another player who's a you know at one point back when he was with Vancouver a lot of people thought he would become a full-tim it hasn't worked out for him but he's still grinding away in the miners trying to get NHL games when he can uh coin signs onee league minimum Brendan Smith comes over he last played with the Devils he's bounced around a lot but a veteran defenseman who can give you a little bit of grit uh block some shots play in the PK um not afraid to drop the gloves one year 1 million Casey the Smith replaces Scott Wedgewood and he gets a three-year deal at a million bucks per season now Wedgewood ended up signing for I think it was 1.5 um when he left so we knew that Wedgewood was looking for more money uh they found um you know in Smith somebody that they were able to get cheaper in longer term now desmith is a little bit older as well um but comes with a lot of valuable experience and could be somebody that maybe Jake CER could learn from too as well you know spent a lot of time with the Penguins had lots of uh you know action in the playoffs uh got to be in Vancouver last year so you know he's he's seen a lot could be somebody that can offer more um you know toage so to speak to to AER than a guy like Wedgwood could so I understand the fact that they they kind of saw an upgrade from a cap perspective at the very least um so I think that's a really good deal lfus comes back on a one-year deal at 1.25 million Again difficult to say if if Nels is going to be in their top six defense this year or he's going to kind of be like that number seven guy uh again somebody that I Wonder Could Be Moved Matt du Shane resigns on another one-year Deal 3 million bucks that's really good value for what he gave them last year obviously being bought out in Nashville has allowed him to sign cheaper um but duchan great value at 3 million bucks El la one of their more prominent signings of the offseason signs a three-year deal at 3.25 uh of course you know they get him who is finished the year with Toronto after losing tanv to Toronto so kind of a bit of a swap there Matt Dumba comes over as well as a UFA 2 years at 375 I do not like that contract uh I think Matt Dumba is grossly overpaid in that sense uh there was a point in early in dumba's career when he was looking like he was going to be a real you know potential prominent offens of Puck moving d uh but to me his game is really tailed off um I think he's overpaid by anywhere from $750,000 to a million do I think his contract instead of 375 should have been closer to 275 maybe three if you look at their depth chart he's likely going to play Third pair minutes and that's just too much money for that kind of role and it's too much for what he's going to provide I and B like I said I've said on numerous videos uh the contract projections that I Rely Upon for a lot of the data I use and reference in these videos is AFP analytics and they are very very accurate with a lot of these contracts and that's the number one is way too high according to them and I agree based on what his role is going to be and what I think he can give them I don't like that one that's probably the only really UFA deal that they did that I don't like uh they also signed Colin Blackville Blackwell one year league minimum uh Emil Henning signs his three-year ELC and they sign Magnus hellberg a depth gold Thunder likely can be their number three and can come up and play games if need be but he'll have to clear waivers uh one year at league minimum as well so all in all you know most of the signings are pretty pretty good A lot of them are depth moves nothing too crazy uh I don't mind a lushin contract um but yeah that number one not a fan so analyzing their additions and sub action so who's in who's out coming in you've got Casey Des Smith Brendan Smith Matt Dumba El leushin Colin Blackwell Magnus hellberg so a couple of gunders and three defenseman their forward groups going to be largely the same with one uh addition Aon Blackwell who likely plays on their fourth line going out they have the retiring Joe pavelski Ryan suder who they bought out who's now out two biot for suor um Craig Smith Ric faxa yanny Haw andpa Scott Wedgewood and Ty DeAndre are all out as well so when you look at things that way you for the most part Haw andpa obviously is clearly rumored to have a lot of issues with his knee he might be in Toronto as well um it was believ they were signing but it's never been finalized so uh Dallas apparently was skeptical of bringing him back because of knee issues so again we'll see there um yeah and sud and pavelski you know certainly getting up there rski was still playing well but certainly had his uh lack of production in the playoffs which was surprising as well so you're probably looking at a lineup for Dallas you're looking at a top six probably rupe hints with Robertson and Johnston uh Matt duain perhaps with San and marchment maybe a new version of the cuz Jamie Ben played a lot with guys like uh Johnson before and he really helped get him going I can see Ben being on the third line now with Bor and stankoven and this is the way that daily face off has it lined up on their line combos on their website as well with Sam steel being on the fourth line Center roll with dadn and Blackwell overall pretty good group uh on the back end if he gets signed you expect Harley and Hein to be your top pair Lindell lbushkin probably your second pair with Smith and Dumba probably making your third pair with uh Nils longfist kind of fighting for that number seven roll so all in all uh big changes on the back end three of their top 6D are going to be different uh changed with one of their goal tenders the forward group like said largely the same with one small addition on the on the fourth line uh it well because it creates an opportunity for uh Maverick Bor and Logan stankoven to kind of solidify roles and that's obviously because of guys like faxa the laundry out pavelski retires doesn't come back um so I mean that's kind of created from that but obviously internally they're going to feel most of that and I I really like their forward group the back end's pretty good as well I do have some minor concerns on that third pair and I think dba's overpaid but overall uh this is a very good hockey team very good hocky so I'm going to give Jim nil grade of a b in this case um the fact that Harley's not signed you know obviously would like to see that done and he overpaid Dumba but everybody else I think the contracts that they were given out were of good value the trades they made were decent um obviously you know like said fax was just the cap dump they get out of the contract without attaching a uh a sweetener which is good um you know it's unfortunate they couldn't retain TANF and of course it was time for Dandrea to get a fresh start so all in all I think it's a pretty good offseason for Dallas I expect them to be near the top or in the top three for sure in the Central Division again this year um barring some you know weird changes that we don't foresee coming but I think that that nil had a good offseason for the most part be curious to see where this Harley contract lands when it's finally done let me know what you think on the Dallas Stars off season and how would you grade the work of Jim nil let me know know any comments we'll discuss further if you're new to the channel make sure you subscribe and stick around we'll keep you up to date with all the news rumors and Analysis of all 32 NHL teams thanks for watching I'll catch you next time [Music]