It’s the offseason here at Defending Big D, which means it’s the time for Player Grades!
We’ll be going through each player on the Dallas Stars roster and giving a general breakdown of how their season went in Victory Green. At the end, I’ll assign my personal grade for their 2022-23 performance, and y’all can can offer up your own grades and analysis in the comments below.
Before we get started, a couple of notes:
- We’ll only be looking at Stars currently on the roster who played at least 20 games (regular season + playoffs) for the team.
- Grades will be based on both a player’s regular season and postseason performances for Dallas specifically. Since the team had a deep playoff run, that will factor a bit more into the ratings, but we’ll try not to overreact to a single games/series.
- These grades are my sole opinion, and are not reflective of the Defending Big D staff as a whole. Except for the ones you disagree with – those aren’t mine.
Evgenii Dadonov (No. 63)
Regular: 23 GP, 3 G, 12 A, 15 P, +2, 2 PIM, 15:08 ATOI All-Situations; 51.8 CF%, 50.5 FF%, 102.0 PDO Even-Strength
Playoffs: 16 GP, 4 G, 6 A, 10 P, +5, 2 PIM, , 15:29 ATOI All-Situations; 52.4 CF%, 51.5 FF%, 104.6 PDO Even-Strength
Contract Status: UFA
The Dallas Stars’ other trade deadline acquisition, Evgenii Dadonov was traded to Dallas on February 26 at half salary retained in exchange for Denis Gurianov, whose time in Dallas came to an unceremonious end after yet another season of decline.
Although he had been a four-time 20+ goal scorer, most recently in the 2020-21 season with the Vegas Golden Knights under then-head coach Pete DeBoer, Dadonov was available for such a low price due to having a down season with the Montreal Canadiens, where he had only 4 goals and 14 assists (18 points) across 50 games.
In trading for Dadonov, the Stars were hoping he could reclaim the scoring touch he had in Vegas by reuniting him with DeBoer. It was a no-risk gamble (Gurianov was not producing, and cost more cap space than Dadonov did with retained salary) with the potential for a high reward.
Well sure enough, the Stars hit a home run. Unlike Max Domi, Dadonov was a consistent producer for Dallas, with his longest scoring “drought” lasting just three games. That carried on into the postseason, where he only went two games without scoring once, up until he was unfortunately injured early in Game 3 against Vegas.
Now, to be fair, he did have something Domi did not: consistent linemates. Specifically, Dadonov was slotted next to Jamie Benn, who finished the year second on the team in scoring (third in points per game), and wunderkind Wyatt Johnston, who scored 41 points in 82 games as a nineteen-year-old. One would expect a scoring forward to produce with those two as linemates.
Thing was, no one had up to that point, at least not consistently. Sure, Ty Dellandrea looked solid on that line, but Dadonov appeared to be a missing piece of the puzzle, creating a line overflowing with chemistry. It’s telling that for the remainder of the year, the third line was rarely, if ever, messed with, much like how the Stars’ top line is almost always kept together.
Dadonov’s natural fit and high performance brings an interesting dilemma to the Stars this offseason. At age 33, his next contract won’t bring too much term, and he wouldn’t necessarily be blocking the development of any younger prospects. His secondary scoring is also good insurance if/when Benn regresses, or for other production declines from the Stars’ veteran forwards.
On the other hand, it’s a weak UFA class, and Dadonov’s strong showing late in the season and especially the postseason might make him a hefty chunk of change. Perhaps he feels comfortable with DeBoer, who’s been his head coach in three different stints now, and feels his best chance for a Stanley Cup is to stay in Dallas. But does that necessarily mean taking a discount? Even if so, what does that final figure look like?
Of course, “armchair GMing” is not the point of this exercise. Evaluation is, and the results were great. If there’s any knock on Dadonov, it’s that he wasn’t some world-ending, “can’t miss him when he’s on the ice” performer for the Stars. Though given expectations and the role he filled in Stars, that wouldn’t be a reasonable expectation either. So maybe he doesn’t earn the highest grade possible, but he’s pretty darn close.