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Dallas Stars Daily Links: Dan Hamhuis, Pending Free Agent

Will the Stars defensive corps be too crowded to bring Hamhuis back? Plus, playoffs galore, Lady Byng candidates, and more.

Happy Saturday everyone! Dallas Stars content was a bit light yesterday, hence the light links.

For a long while this season, Dam Hamhuis and Greg Pateryn were a great defensive duo.  Then, all of the sudden, they weren’t. After successfully locking down the opponents’ top lines for several months, Hamhuis and Pateryn consistently got beat down the stretch and their play definitely had an impact on the Stars’ collapse:

Hamhuis wore down as the season went on, and he either was caught up in the negative momentum of the team’s collapse or he showed his age down the stretch.

That being said, he still is a generally talented defender who could definitely add value to a team. He’s also 35 years old. Stars fans have been complaining for years that the team has not properly developed young defensemen, and bringing Hamhuis back could exacerbate that trend:

It seems ridiculous to bring back Hamhuis (UFA), Marc Methot (one year on contract) and Greg Pateryn (UFA) if you want to get minutes next season for young defensemen Miro Heiskanen and Julius Honka. Methot has a year remaining on his contract, so he might serve as your only veteran defenseman.

It will be interesting to see what Jim Nill does about the defense this offseason. See more at Mike’s place. [SportsDayDFW]

Stars Stuff

Mike Heika wonders whether Brett Ritchie’s window of opportunity in Dallas might be closing after his 14-point season. [SportsDayDFW]

Tim Cowlishaw ponders how the Stars (and Mavs) can look to postseason teams for inspiration. [SportsDayDFW]

Sean Shapiro did a deeeep dive into Jason Dickinson’s season and what his future holds:

Around the League

Playoff updates:

  • The Philadelphia Flyers held on for dear life and were able to stave off elimination against the Pittsburgh Penguins by winning 4-2 in Pittsburgh. [NHL]
  • The Minnesota Wild did the opposite of holding on for dear life and got smoked 5-0 by the Winnipeg Jets to end their season. [NHL]
  • Andrew Hammond stopped 44 of 45 shots and the Colorado Avalanche scored two goals in the final five minutes to come back and beat the Nashville Predators 2-1, extending the series to a sixth game. The Predators goal was slightly controversial as it was originally ruled “no goal” due to it being kicked in, but the call was reversed on replay review. It seems like Avalanche fans thought it was the most obvious kicking motion of all time and Predators fans thought it was clearly a deflection (I thought it was a good goal). [NHL]/

Brian Dumoulin was quite peeved at his leg for deflecting in the go-ahead goal:

Here are your Lady Byng finalists for the season:

IMPORTANT NEWS:

Looks like Bill Peters will not be the Stars coach next season:

I think there are a few teams in the East that aren’t scared:

Speaking of Patrice Bergeron:

I may be dense, but I still don’t fully understand how these determinations are made:

Team USA’s Junior team has a new coach:

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