How will the Stars utilize their cap space with Tyler Seguin out long-term?
A quick look at the NHL standings these days reveals a stark reality: there’s two teams at the top, and then there’s everybody else. The Colorado Avalanche, sitting at 49 points, and the Dallas Stars, sitting at 47 points, have seperated themselves as the cream of the NHL’s crop. The Stars are eight points clear of the league’s third-placed team.
On December 6th, Dallas put veteran forward Tyler Seguin on long-term injured reserve with an ACL injury. While certainly a blow to the Stars’ lineup (Seguin had 17 points through 27 games), his placement on LTIR opens up a significant amount of cap space for the remainder of the season, given his hefty $9.85 million annual salary. It figures that a cup-contending team like Dallas would take full advantage of their new-found spending money to maximize their roster.
On Thursday’s episode of Daily Faceoff LIVE, Tyler Yaremchuk and former NHL goaltender Carter Hutton were joined by The Fourth Period‘s David Pagnotta to discuss how the Stars could put their cap space to use.
Carter Hutton: Dallas, losing Tyler Seguin, they found some money in the LTIR. What is the plan for Dallas moving forward to try to fill that gap?
David Pagnotta: This is a team that’s not afraid to be aggressive. Jim Nill is not afraid to make moves early, as we saw last season bringing in (Mikael) Granlund and (Cody) Ceci on February 1st. He’s not afraid to make those types of moves well in advance of the trade deadline. We’ve got quasi two deadlines with pre-Olympics and the actual trade deadline itself on March 6th. But looking at this club and the depth of this team, their not afraid to utilize the money in order to make them that much deeper. They’ve got full range from ownership to spend what they need.
Right now they just need to determine whether or not Tyler Seguin will realistically be available in the playoffs. If he’s not, then they can utilize his full $9.85 million cap hit, in addition to the $3-plus million they’ve got now in order to fill spots as they feel necessary. We know this is a team that wants and has interest in Rasmus Andersson. I believe there’s interest in Blake Coleman, I’ve mentioned this before, as well as Nazem Kadri, although that’s much more complicated of a move with his contract and the fact that the Flames aren’t really eager to move him. I think addressing two areas of this club is something Jim Nill is going to look to do.
You can watch the full segment and the rest of the episode here…