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2014 NHL Offseason: Should Dallas Stars Trade Trevor Daley?

Trevor Daley is a valuable hockey player again. Under Glen Gulutzan he had some ups and downs. The most tenured Dallas Star continued to improve all season, ultimately raising his game in the playoffs. He isn’t going anywhere after this season Elliotte Friedman had this quote from Jim Nill about Daley and Alex Goligoski:

“They took a lot of the heat early in the season,” Nill said. Will they start next season in Dallas? “Yes, they will be back.

I had been in favor of seeing what they could get for him before this season. Not anymore.

Buying a car is one of the most masochistic things you can do in your life time. You know you are signing four to five years of your life away to a necessary piece of equipment that isn’t going to be worth nearly as much at the end of the contract as it is on day one

Yet, we do it willingly because, well, we have to. Everyone knows the deals are bad; this isn’t a revolutionary idea in any sense of the phrase. That’s why most of us spend so much time researching what we’re going to buy.

There is no way to 100% predict the future of the car, but we get as reasonably sure as we can that we are buying a solid product at terms we can justify paying. We know there will be ups and downs in the life of the car. As long as it provides us enough positive value throughout the course of the deal we end up doing ok.

Daley’s contract is a really good value. The average NHL salary is going to continue to go up. The salary cap is going to continue to sky rocket. He is locked in at a cap hit of $3.3 million per year for three more years.

That isn’t a remarkable salary for a good second pairing defender. The Stars and Daley made a large commitment to each other and, while it hasn’t always been perfect, the Stars are going to end up getting some surplus value out of the deal if Daley can maintain this level of play for another couple of years.

Every year I go through the same routine.

My clothes, they rarely change. It drives my wife insane. I have six dress shirts, six ties, six pairs of pants for the five days of the week. I have numerous t-shirts. Several pairs of shorts. I have plenty of polo shirts to fill in the gaps. and I have plenty of extra hangers.

And every year I go through the same routine of trying to find new clothes because I am a masochist.

I once lost weight. I gained some of it back because I like barbeque so I found a happy midpoint. Now all of my clothes fit perfectly. Yet, I’m going to try to find some clothes that fit just a little bit better. Clothes with slightly less faded colors; maybe even some with intentionally faded colors.

I’m still not throwing away my old clothes though. Why throw away my old clothes when i have plenty of hangers and closet space?

One of the arguments for dealing Daley is as part of a series of moves that sees the Stars acquiring another defenseman.

But, why?

Daley and Goligoski are here. Jordie Benn, Patrick Nemeth, and Brenden Dillon are here. That’s only five the Stars can count on for the 2015 roster.

Aaron Rome seems destined to be gone. They don’t seem to think that highly of Kevin Connauton. Sergei Gonchar is likely to be sealed in the Phantom Zone then fired into deep space. Jamie Oleksiak? Who knows? They pretty obviously think less of him than Nemeth so one way or the other he has moved down the depth chart.

By my count that is five NHL roster spots accounted for. The Stars have plenty of roster room with which they can acquire an upgrade. They have no need to move Daley or anyone just to make space.

When I was in high school and college I watched day time talk shows when I got home. Jenny Jones, Jerry Springer, Ricki Lake, Maury, all of them. I filled my head with hours and hours of pointless babble about makeovers, Klansmen marrying traffic cones, paternity tests, and love triangles with zesty twists.

The love triangle and paternity test episodes always felt weird to me. My mind would get too analytical. I would try to put myself in the position of the trick, slut, womanizer etc.

“If I were a lonely drunk in a club with my bits hanging out how easily would I become this person?”

“If I had a brother and I hated him, would I sleep with his wife? Would I think so lowly of him that I would assume he married a horrible person so low on the dignity totem pole that she would even consider the proposition?”

“If I were the traffic cone, would I really have picked that Klansman? Would I have sampled many, or just aimed higher?”

These questions would come to mind because I never understood the parameters necessary for a successful committed relationship to end up at a rotten dead end like that. How did this man get so fed up that he slept with his wife’s ugly younger sister?

If she did nothing for him and he was spiteful I could see it. If she worked with him, adjusted to his needs, and they were satisfied with each other though? Why mess things up needlessly?

The most important thing to consider when considering a deal of Daley is can they get better? He and Goligoski were very reliable. Should the Stars make a change for the sake of making a change?

Lindy Ruff asked him to adjust. He did.

The Stars needed him to take on more of an attacking role in the playoffs. He did, wonderfully.

He is a big part of this team. Moving him is going to open up another hole for no real reason. Prior to this season the Stars could justify making a move. Daley took away the justifications for making it happen with his strong 2014 campaign.

There really is no reason to discuss trading Daley. Nill made it known that he isn’t going anywhere. The Stars will be better off for it.


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