Possible Brad Richards trade scenario that wouldn't kill the Stars

It’s been largely talked about why we’ve won our first four games and the chant has been largely the same. It’s been “Kaaarrriii!! Kaaarrriii!! Kaaarrriii!!” and rightly so. However, if you take a close look back at those games there’s one other person that has been practically carrying the team on his shoulders and that guy is Brad Richards. Not just his goal production, but look at the guys assists. So many of those chances scored by other guys came off of Richards’ stick. Not to mention some of the brilliant plays he’s made defensively when many of our forwards have struggled going the other way. Without Brad we’d be 0-5. Let’s put it this way, IMHO, there just is no rose colored scenario that consists of him not being in a Stars uniform at the end of this year. It doesn’t mean we won’t recover if that winds up being the case. However, If we lose him then our team will simply not be as good as we were when we had him no matter who we get in return. We’ve got a lot of great forward talent but you have to have play-makers to have a competitive team and anyone we get as a bargain in a trade would be a question mark at best. He is one of the best guys in the league. Period. We need to do everything and anything we can to keep him. I know you mean well and are trying to help but I just don’t want to think about finding the silver lining, until the cloud is actually gray. I don’t want to make Lemonade, until I’m sure that all life has handed me are lemons. I don’t want to think about how, “it could be worse,” until it’s actually that horrible.

for Spezza but I think getting a guy like Matt Carkner on their defense would be great.

He has been an even player /- wise in 81 games on a team that has had suspect goaltending at best and only 1 other Dman who finished on the "" side. He had 190 PIMs last year and chipped in offensively for a guy who is mostly called on to be a “tough guy” dman. You might could say his +/- is decent because he is off the ice so much due to fighting majors.

 Dmen fighters are the best “enforcers” because most of the fights are caused by having that Alpha Male presence around your net ala Derrian Hatcher. They aren’t gonna chase a forward around the neutral zone to mix it up. It’s going to usually be right around the net. “Oh you wanna spray my goalie with snow or take extra whacks at him fishing for rebounds? Ok how about I turn your face inside out? And your little partner in crime linemate is next!”

I don’t see how it would be that difficult to trade for a guy like that. and not have to give up much in return.

Jason Spezza. For starters his salary is 8million for the next 4 seasons million which would put them in an even worse salary position than they currently in. So if the Stars are not capable of talking contract with Richards right now I doubt they are allowed to talk trade involving a player with a higher salary, who is locked up long term.

I want nothing to do with a dirty Sen. Ew.

B-Rad>Spezza.

B-Rad wouldn’t waive his no trade clause to go to the go nowhere Sens.

I’ve never really been a big Spezza guy, I don’t know why but I just don’t like him. I hope if the Stars have to trade Brad, they get something better than Spezza.

Coming from a fan of both teams, I might like this trade with 2 exceptions: 1) the trade is straight up Spezza for Richards and 2) Richards has a contract. I love both players, but from the sens fan perspective, there’s just no way they’re trading Jason for another player who’s potentially a free agent, and adding another player on top of that is, well, out of the question. No matter how good Richards is, Spezza is younger and has more potential. With better linemates, Spezza could put up 100 points, Richards could as well, but Spezza has a long term contract (a little over-priced but not too unreasonable) and that is the deal breaker. You don’t find number 1 center’s everyday in the NHL, and to trade one for another one of matched skills would be fine if they need a change of scenery (Spezza could sure use it) but they both would have to have a lenghty contract or both be pending free agents at the same time. Again, I love both these players, but I just don’t see this trade happening, even if it’s a swap with my 2 favorite teams.