The best defense is a good offense, right?
The Dallas Stars seem to be big believers in that philosophy as they added yet another high-end scoring threat to the forward group on the first day of free agency by signing Ales Hemsky to a three year deal with a cap hit of $4 million per season.
Hemsky, 30, had played his entire career with the Edmonton Oilers before being traded to the Ottawa Senators at last season’s trade deadline. His numbers over the past few years haven’t been other worldly – he scored 13 goals and 43 points with the Oilers and Sens last season and had nine goals and 20 points in 38 games the season before that, but he has elite level speed.
And notably, once he got away from the Oilers last seaons, he had 17 points (four goals) in 20 games with Ottawa. He played alongside Spezza in many of those games and had six points in his first three games there, indicating a chemistry that could spill over to next season. And one of Hemsky’s greatest assets is his speed, which means he’ll fit in just fine in the Stars current group.
The deal leaves the Stars with about $9 million in cap space and three key restricted free agents in Brenden Dillon, Antoine Roussel and Cody Eakin. We’ll see if that means more moves are in the future.