Elliotte Friedman is about as connected as any other hockey analyst in the business. Today, he did an AMA with reddit (read the whole thing here, it’s fascinating) and dropped this tidbit about the Dallas Stars:
smithgg63 (2 hours ago)
Hello Elliotte, enjoy your work very much. Do you hear Dallas attached to any specific players? Any rumblings on what they would do on 02/29?
Thank you.
Elliotte_Friedman (an hour ago)
Hamhuis.
But Jim Nill looks at Chicago and knows he has to keep building. Wont mortgage the future.
Hamhuis has middling possession marks (49.3% Corsi at even strength, per War-On-Ice.com) and more offensive zone starts (53.8% ZSO%) at even strength. He’s one of Vancouver’s top penalty killers, averaging just over 2 1/2 minutes of shorthanded time on ice per game. The Canucks are 15th in penalty killing so far this season at 81.3% (compared to the 25th ranked Dallas Stars at 78.8%).
It’s possible that this is the skill set that makes him an attractive trade deadline pickup. His $4.5 million cap hit would come off the books at the end of the season, making him a pure rental. With a logjam already on defense, you’d have to assume someone from the Dallas blueline would be going back the other way to make the roster numbers work.
A move like acquiring a veteran such as Hamhuis would be made for depth and experience. It’s not a big, sexy move, but all teams that hope to make noise in the playoffs will make similar types of moves to shore up weaknesses on the roster.
What do you think — is Hamhuis the kind of player you could see fitting in Dallas down the stretch?