The Dallas Stars continued their offseason upgrades, this time via trade as they acquired defenseman Marc Methot from the Las Vegas Golden Knights for a 2020 second-round pick and goalie Dylan Ferguson, the seventh-round pick from this year’s draft.
Methot played alongside defensive wunderkind Erik Karlsson with the Ottawa Senators before being selected by Las Vegas in the expansion draft, and the pairing was a boon to both of them. Karlsson is one of the most dangerous offensive defensemen in the NHL, and Methot was a steady presence beside him.
It seems like a recipe made in heaven to take over the first pairing partnership with John Klingberg, who struggled with his most common partner this year relative to other pairings.
At 32 years old, Methot is on the older side, but he’s also large (6-foot-3, 228 pounds), a left shot and on a reasonable contract for a $4.9 million cap hit each of the next two seasons.
The return makes sense from a value perspective, but it does beg the question how the Stars are going to manage a stable of now nine NHL-experienced defenseman besides totally flipping the NHL on its ear and playing three D with two forwards every shift.
So even with this move, the Stars clearly aren’t done. We’ll see what else they have in store for us.