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Dallas Stars Daily Links: How Will The Stars Handle The Trade Deadline?

Posted on by Kathleen Tibbetts

The Dallas Stars are in the thick of a Stanley Cup playoffs push – even now, after everything.  And as the NHL trade deadline looms, the big question for fans is whether they intend to buy, sell or hold on April 12.

With Ben Bishop and Tyler Seguin expected to return from injury this month, the Stars will effectively get two elite players as deadline acquisitions. But will the front office make additional moves to buoy their drive for another Cup run?

Saad Yousuf has his ear to the ground, and he details what he’s heard in his latest article for The Athletic. For starters, he examines how Anton Khudobin’s rollercoaster season may have affected his trade value, and how risking his loss to the expansion draft may be more sensible for the Stars than it sounds:

The Stars will have to make a determination about Khudobin’s value and when would be the best time to trade him, while also weighing the pros and cons of not having Khudobin available to Seattle. (If the Kraken select Khudobin, it would preserve an unprotected forward for the Stars.) Another consideration might be to distribute starts between three capable NHL goaltenders for the last month or so of this season. With [Jake] Oettinger, playing games is key to his development and he’s proven that he’s overqualified for the AHL.

But if you’re expecting to see Jamie Oleksiak packaged up and shipped off sooner rather than later, Yousuf gives you something else to think about:

The Stars really like Jamie Oleksiak. That doesn’t mean he’s untouchable but there’s a balancing act between not losing him for the remainder of a season in which the Stars are still competing for a playoff spot and also maintaining a relationship for negotiations in the summer, when Oleksiak becomes an unrestricted free agent. This Stars regime already sent Oleksiak packing in a trade once, before bringing him back. At that point, he looked more like a lost draft pick. Now, he’s potentially part of the future.

It’s interesting but not especially surprising to note that the Stars’ organizational view of when and whether to go all-in – and trade youth for experience – differs substantially from that of even informed outside observers:

Many outside of the organization (including yours truly) have viewed the Stars’ “championship window” as running through next season. It seems like a logical conclusion given that in the summer of 2022, significant changes could be made as the contracts of John Klingberg, Joe Pavelski and Alexander Radulov all come off the books and head coach Rick Bowness’ contract extension also expiries. However, this is not a view held inside the Stars’ front office. There’s no “championship window,” and that’s an important consideration pertaining to the trade deadline because it indicates what kind of moves the team may be willing to make, or maybe more importantly, not make.

One thing sounds certain – the Stars’ go-to move of trading picks for players is a no-go this season:

The Stars have had a quick trigger involving draft picks, even if they’re conditional picks, in past seasons, whether it be a high pick (think the Mats Zuccarello trade) or a low pick (think the Taylor Fedun trade). Dallas has its full stable of draft picks this year and is not looking to change that.

There’s much more behind the paywall. [The Athletic DFW]

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